How can I restore admin capabilities?

Question

So yeah, I'm a genius. I managed delete all my admin capabilities (thank you very much Membership plugin). I could restore them, ...if I had admin access, lol.

Anywhoo, how can I give all my capabilities back to admin? I have access to the database via PHPMyAdmin but have no idea where or what to add back to the DB.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

It's the wp_capabilities in the usermeta table. Mine says:

a:1:{s:13:"administrator";s:1:"1";}

Answer 2

Ok, sorry for asking. I figured it out. But for future people, here's a suggestion.

Step 1 (BACKUP!!!!) - backup your database, if the next step screws you over and you don't have a backup it's your own fault.

Step 2 - Use PHPMyAdmin or similar tool to access your DB, find the wp_usermeta table and then sort by user_id. User #1 is your admin. Next find your wp_capabilities field and click edit (this is the part that got screwed up).

I replaced what I had that was screwed up. This:

a:3:{s:15:"membershipadmin";s:1:"1";s:10:"M_add_ping";s:1:"1";s:10:"subscriber";s:1:"1";}

with this (which I copied from another WP database):

a:4:{s:13:"administrator";s:1:"1";s:15:"membershipadmin";s:1:"1";s:11:"M_add_level";s:1:"1";s:10:"M_add_ping";s:1:"1";}

Before I check my own answer, can anyone confirm my answer, or explain the contents of this field and how it should properly be listed? You may take my answer and rewrite it as your own, and if it's proper I'll check your answer.

Answer 3

The string below actually represents an array in serialized form.

a:1:{s:13:"administrator";s:1:"1";}

Here:
a:1 means an array with a single element
s:13 means string and the length of the string followed by

Array 
{
     "administrator" => "1"
}

Once that is in the table, you can use the unserialize() function to return it to an array for use in your code.

Many thanks.