I have downloaded and unzipped a tomcat 9 bundle of Liferay (PORTAL 7.3 CE GA6). I have only configured it to connect to a local PostgreSQL DB and then launched it. Everything OK, but not the login - even though the user does exist in user_ table, the login fails.
I have also tried to update the password directly in DB with:
update user_ set password_='<my_plain_password>', passwordencrypted=false where contactid=<user_id>;
Very strange is that if I check after update, the row looks as expected - the password is the one I set and the encryption is set to false - but after I login with the new password and then check again, the password goes again to the previous value.
The question: How can I login with an already existing user ?
After some trial & error and some digging on internet I have figured it out: I had to stop the liferay server (the Tomcat), then make the DB update, restart the server and then login.
So, somehow, it doesn't let you update the password while the server is running.