password authentication failed for user "postgres" on mac

Question

I have problem creating new psql user because I cannot log in psql as "postgres", I have tried

1. sudo -u postgres psql

2. sudo -u postgres createuser img_site -P -s -e

and they are all ask for password of "postgres" which I don't know. I have tried to change unix password of user "postgres"(I know it's dangerous) and it still tells me: password authentication failed for user "postgres". I also have tried GUI pgAdmin but it's the same error.

I don't know if it's related: I have created a symbolic link

sudo ln -s /private/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432 /var/pgsql_socket/

in order to get rid of error

createuser: could not connect to database postgres: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

Answer 1

Check pg_hba.conf . it should have a line like this at the top (before all other entries):

local   all             postgres                                peer

this allows local unix socket access by postgres db user to all databases with no password required.

Also clear and redefine password for postgres system user:

sudo passwd -d postrges
sudo su postgres -c passwd

then run:

su postgres -c psql template1
psql> ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD '<password>';

type \\q to quit psql and you are done with resetting password for postgres user.

Answer 2

sudo doesn't want the password of the account you're switching to, it wants the password of the account you're switching from . It also requires that you be an admin (or otherwise listead in /etc/sudoers). su , on the other hand, requires the password for the account you're switching to .

Answer 3

I was trying to setup postgres for Ruby on Rails and I was getting the the password authentication failed for user error. Check if the server is actually running:

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres status

If you get

pg_ctl: no server running

Run

pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres -l /usr/local/var/postgres/server.log start

Also you must include localhost in psql.

psql -U postgres -h localhost

Answer 4

This worked for me:

ALTER USER my_user WITH PASSWORD 'my_password';

Answer 5

I tried a lot of different tricks on my Macbook. And here is the one which helped me.On the screen, right click PostgreSQL14 for 'properties', then in 'connection' tab try to change port number from 5432 to 5433(or vise versa) -> save. And try to open again, for password use "postgres". Should work