How do I reset my NHS App password?
Short answer
Ask for a password reset where you were trying to log in — it is your NHS login password, not an NHS App one. NHS login emails you a reset link that lasts one hour; if it expires, enter your email address again to get a new one. Lose the registered email address itself and NHS login tells you to create a new account.
Verified · 8 cited sources
It is not an NHS App password. It belongs to NHS login, which the NHS describes as letting you access a range of health and care websites and apps with one set of login details — online pharmacies, online and video consultation services and patient access services as well as the NHS App itself. Change it once and it changes everywhere. That is why the reset happens on NHS login's own screens rather than inside the app, and why the instructions live at help.login.nhs.uk rather than on the NHS App help pages.
Check first that this is your service at all. The NHS App is an England service: NHS says you must be aged 13 or over and registered with a GP surgery in England to use it. If you are registered with a practice in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, an NHS login password reset is not the route to your records — the devolved health services run their own patient-facing apps and online accounts, with their own sign-in and their own recovery routes, and your own practice or health board is the body to ask. NHS login itself does not state a geographic limit, which is part of the confusion.
Start from wherever you were trying to log in. Enter your email address, ask for a reset, and NHS login emails you a link. That link has a time limit of one hour and NHS login states it plainly — an expired link is the commonest reason a reset appears to have failed for no reason. If more than an hour has passed, go back to the app or website and enter your email address again to generate a fresh one. A link that has already been used once also stops working, in which case log in with the password you have just set.
A password reset does not help if the real obstacle is the security code. Two-step verification sends a code to a registered mobile phone number, and if that number is gone the reset email will not rescue you. At the code screen choose "I cannot log in using my mobile phone", then "Change the mobile phone number I use to log in". NHS login asks for the old number, or will email a security code to your registered address instead — which is precisely why the email account matters more than the handset.
Lose the registered email address and there is no transfer route at all. NHS login's own instruction is to start again: select "Continue with NHS login", then "Create an account", give an address you can actually reach, and when the screen tells you "You already have an NHS account", choose "Continue with my new account" and accept the conditions. Our reading is that a new account means going through NHS login's identity checks again before full access comes back, because those checks are attached to the account rather than to the person — the email address page does not say so. The NHS lists the options: photo ID with a face scan or a recorded video, a fast-track using the mobile number already registered for GP online services, or a linkage key, ODS code and account ID from your surgery.
Once you are in, close the gap that caused the lockout. In the NHS App, Profile, then Contact and login details, then Login and security lets you change the login email address, change the password, change the number that receives security codes, and add a passkey — which signs you in with your device's fingerprint, face or PIN and cannot be forgotten. Your login details and the contact details your GP surgery holds are separate records; updating one does not update the other.
One symptom is worth separating out, and our view is that it is the one most often misdiagnosed as a password fault. If the password works, you reach a logged-in screen, but prescriptions, appointments or your record are missing, the password was never the problem — that is the link between your NHS login and your GP surgery, and the surgery is the body that repairs it. Resetting the password again will not touch it. The NHS publishes the login routes and the surgery registration routes separately and does not present them as a triage, so the distinction is ours rather than theirs.
- The emailed reset link lasts one hour — after that, request a new one
- It is an NHS login password, shared across every health app that uses NHS login
- The NHS App is for people aged 13 or over registered with a GP surgery in England — Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run their own services
- Lost the registered phone? Use "I cannot log in using my mobile phone" at the code screen
- Lost the registered email? NHS login tells you to create a new account and re-prove your identity
- Add a passkey afterwards so a forgotten password cannot lock you out again
- Missing prescriptions or records after a successful login is a GP linkage fault, not a password fault
People also ask
Sources & provenance
Facts verified
- 1.Passwords OfficialNHS loginUsed for: How to request a reset, the one-hour limit on the emailed link, and why an expired, used or broken link fails
- 2.Mobile phone number OfficialNHS loginUsed for: The "I cannot log in using my mobile phone" and "Change the mobile phone number I use to log in" route, and the option of a security code by email
- 3.Email addresses OfficialNHS loginUsed for: Changing the login email address, and the instruction to create a new account and continue past the "You already have an NHS account" prompt when the registered address is lost
- 4.Manage NHS login details OfficialNHS loginUsed for: That email address, password, mobile number, passkeys and deletion are all managed through NHS login rather than the app
- 5.Managing your login settings in the NHS App OfficialNHSUsed for: The Profile, Contact and login details, Login and security path, adding a passkey, and that login details and contact details are separate
- 6.About NHS login OfficialNHSUsed for: That one set of NHS login details covers a range of health and care websites and apps, and the identity verification options — photo ID with a face scan or recorded video, the fast track using a mobile number already registered for GP online services, and the linkage key, ODS code and account ID from a surgery
- 7.NHS App OfficialNHSUsed for: That you must be aged 13 or over and registered with a GP surgery in England to use the NHS App — the basis for saying this is an England service and not the route for patients in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland
- 8.Logging in to the NHS App OfficialNHSUsed for: The three ways to log in — password plus security code, biometrics, or a passkey — and that login problems go to the NHS login help centre
Not a source — AI-assisted analysis on this page
- AI-assisted analysis — re-verification, and password faults versus GP linkage faults — Two readings here are ours. First, that creating a replacement account after losing the registered email address means passing NHS login's identity checks again: the email address page gives the steps for making the new account but says nothing about re-verification, and we infer it from those checks being attached to an account rather than to a person. Second, the triage that separates a password fault from a broken link between an NHS login and a GP surgery. The NHS documents login recovery and surgery registration on separate pages and never contrasts the two symptoms; the conclusion that a successful login with missing records is a surgery problem is ours, not an NHS statement.
The reset process, the one-hour link limit, the lost-phone route, the security-code-by-email fallback and the create-a-new-account instruction when the registered email is gone are taken from NHS login's own help centre pages cited above; the in-app Profile, Contact and login details, Login and security path and the passkey option come from NHS.uk; the England-only eligibility — aged 13 or over and registered with a GP surgery in England — from the NHS App page. Two things are our reasoning and are labelled in both the text and the source list: that a replacement account means proving your identity again, and the triage separating a password fault from a GP linkage fault. Screen labels and menu paths change as the NHS App is updated, so if a button is not where this says, check help.login.nhs.uk before assuming your account is broken.
Facts on this page are taken from the sources listed above — UK government departments, devolved administrations, regulators, statutory bodies and official statistical releases. Comparisons, judgements and "which option suits whom" conclusions are AI-assisted analysis written over those sources; they are marked in the text and listed as an AI-analysis entry in the sources, not attributed to any authority. Rates, thresholds, fees and processing times change, usually at the start of a tax year in April; figures are current as at the review date shown and should be confirmed with the responsible body before you rely on them. Much of what follows differs between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — where it does, this site says so.