The admin password is gone — nobody on the team knows it, or it was set by someone who's no longer around — and the router won't let you in through WinBox, Webfig, or SSH. There's no password recovery email for a router: the two real options are a hardware reset or a full reinstall, and both erase the existing configuration.
Try the physical reset button first, if the router has one
Most MikroTik boards have a dedicated reset button, but the exact procedure — how long to hold it, whether you hold it before or during power-on, what the LED pattern means — varies by model. Look up the specific procedure for your board on mikrotik.com before doing anything, since holding it the wrong way on some models does something other than a full reset.
If there's no reset button, or it doesn't work, use Netinstall
Netinstall reinstalls RouterOS from scratch over Ethernet, from a Windows PC connected directly to the router. It works even when the router's current install is in a broken state that a soft reset can't fix. Download Netinstall from the MikroTik website, put the router into Netinstall/boot-from-network mode per your model's procedure, and select the RouterOS package to install.
Reconfigure from scratch — or restore a backup if you have one
Both paths above wipe the existing configuration. If you made a backup or export before this happened, this is where it pays off — restore it once the router is back up. If not, you're starting from the factory default configuration.
Why do it this way
The physical reset button is faster and doesn't need a PC, special cables, or network access to the router — it's the right first move whenever it's available and you know the procedure for that specific model. Netinstall exists for the cases the reset button can't cover: a router stuck in a broken boot state, a model where the reset procedure isn't clear, or a situation where the button itself is inaccessible or has failed. Knowing both matters because you don't get to choose which situation you're in until you're already in it.
How MoniTik helps
Both of these recovery paths need physical access, which is exactly the scenario MoniTik is built to help you avoid needing in the first place — if you can reach the router through remote WinBox before it gets into a locked-out state, there's no reset or Netinstall trip required at all. And when a router does go completely unreachable, MoniTik's alerting tells you the moment it happens instead of you finding out when a customer calls.
Camila focuses on routing, VPNs, and hardening MikroTik deployments for small and mid-size networks.