# Neo.ClientError.Security.AuthenticationRateLimit: The client has provided incorrect authentication details too many times in a row

**URL:** <https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo-clienterror-security-authenticationratelimit-the-client-has-provided-incorrect-authentication-details-too-many-times-in-a-row/28844>\
**Category:** Neo4j Graph Platform\
**Tags:** browser, cypher, knowledge-base, neo4j-desktop\
**Created:** [November 11, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo-clienterror-security-authenticationratelimit-the-client-has-provided-incorrect-authentication-details-too-many-times-in-a-row/28844 "2020-11-11T18:03:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![beginner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://community.neo4j.com/u/beginner)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2020, 6:03pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo-clienterror-security-authenticationratelimit-the-client-has-provided-incorrect-authentication-details-too-many-times-in-a-row/28844/1 "2020-11-11T18:03:25Z")

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Hi, I have installed neo4j, it was working fine.

But few hours back, I have done re-installation, from that moment, it is not working, I am not able to login and getting the below error.

I am using **Community Edition** , Neo4j version is **Neo4j 4.1.3**

`Neo.ClientError.Security.AuthenticationRateLimit: The client has provided incorrect authentication details too many times in a row.`

tried `:server change-password` and the response as  
**Password change  
Please connect to a database to change the password**  
what should I do now?  
tried `service neo4j status` in terminal and the output is

```auto
neo4j.service - Neo4j Graph Database
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/neo4j.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-11-11 23:04:21 IST; 7min ago
   Main PID: 9454 (java)
      Tasks: 59 (limit: 9363)
     Memory: 387.2M
     CGroup: /system.slice/neo4j.service
             └─9454 /usr/bin/java -cp /var/lib/neo4j/plugins:/etc/neo4j:/usr/share/neo4j/lib/*:/var/lib/neo4j/plugins/* -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:-OmitStackTraceInFastThrow -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMO>

Nov 11 23:04:21 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9518]: run: /var/run/neo4j
Nov 11 23:04:21 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: Starting Neo4j.
Nov 11 23:04:22 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:22.049+0000 INFO Starting...
Nov 11 23:04:23 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:23.805+0000 INFO ======== Neo4j 4.1.3 ========
Nov 11 23:04:25 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:25.357+0000 INFO Performing postInitialization step for component 'security-users' with version 2 and status CURRENT
Nov 11 23:04:25 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:25.357+0000 INFO Updating the initial password in component 'security-users'
Nov 11 23:04:25 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:25.360+0000 INFO Updating initial user password from `auth.ini` file: neo4j
Nov 11 23:04:27 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:27.462+0000 INFO Bolt enabled on localhost:7687.
Nov 11 23:04:28 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:28.366+0000 INFO Remote interface available at http://localhost:7474/
Nov 11 23:04:28 Inspiron-5570 neo4j[9454]: 2020-11-11 17:34:28.367+0000 INFO Started.

```

**Kindly help me in this issue**

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david\_allen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/david_allen/32/13090_2.png) [@david\_allen](https://community.neo4j.com/u/david_allen)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:42pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo-clienterror-security-authenticationratelimit-the-client-has-provided-incorrect-authentication-details-too-many-times-in-a-row/28844/2 "2020-11-12T12:42:30Z")

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if you did a re-installation, it seems likely that your old system database is still hanging around. It might be in a location like /var/lib/neo4j/data/database or someplace close to that.

When you first set an initial password, it gets written to the system database. You can't set an initial password twice; so if you have an old system database hanging around, that's probably blocking you from creating a "new initial password".

The solution would be to delete your old database folders and start fresh, understanding of course you're destroying all the old data by doing that.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![beginner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@beginner](https://community.neo4j.com/u/beginner)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2020, 12:58pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo-clienterror-security-authenticationratelimit-the-client-has-provided-incorrect-authentication-details-too-many-times-in-a-row/28844/3 "2020-11-12T12:58:05Z")

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Yes, I removed everything completely, and done the fresh installation already, now it works

Thanks for your reply 😃

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![markstockwell2021](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex021/user_avatar/community.neo4j.com/markstockwell2021/32/22359_2.png) [@markstockwell2021](https://community.neo4j.com/u/markstockwell2021)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://community.neo4j.com/t/neo-clienterror-security-authenticationratelimit-the-client-has-provided-incorrect-authentication-details-too-many-times-in-a-row/28844/4 "2022-02-12T18:12:44Z")

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I was getting this error on fresh AMI build after one incorrect entry. Had to SSH into instance and run

> sudo service neo4j stop  
> cd /etc/neo4j  
> ./reset-password-aws.sh  
> sudo service neo4j start

This will set pw to the instanceId, something like i-0e9ff11b7xxxxxxxx