MySQL: Unable to reset admin password; --skip-grant-tables disallowing ALTER USER

Question

Somehow the root password on my local installation of MySQL (Ver 8.0.30-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu))) isn't what I thought it was. Okay, quick search reveals that the step to reset it is to stop MySQL, restart it with mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables and go in and change the password. Okay, no big deal.

mysql> ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '';
ERROR 1290 (HY000): The MySQL server is running with the --skip-grant-tables option 
so it cannot execute this statement

What?!? I'm running with the --skip-grant-tables option precisely because I was told to do so. Okay, let me try the other way:

mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET authentication_string=PASSWORD('')
WHERE User='root' AND Host='localhost';
ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that 
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '(''), 
plugin='mysql_native_password' WHERE User='root' AND Host='%'' at line 1

Why does everyone say to use --skip-grant-tables if ALTER USER doesn't work under it? What is wrong with the UPDATE statement? And what's the best way to fix this situation?

(BTW, this server isn't and won't be exposed outside of our organization, so I don't need the lecture about the password being empty.)

Answer 1

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
UPDATE mysql.user SET plugin='mysql_native_password' WHERE User='root';
ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '';

Restart machine.