Local Install - Admin Access Issues

ok, we have a live install of zencart that's working great. no issues (currently, knock on wood).

i'm moving backwards a bit here - but after we've had the shop up for a few months, i've decided to install the xampp package so that i can run/test zen locally. all the apache/php installed and is running correctly. i've installed a fresh copy of zen locally, am able to connect to it, as well as access the mysql database and the zencart admin control panel - all is good. however, when i "import" the sql dump from our live site, i am no longer able to access the admin panel on the local install. (incorrect password error). i've tried both the new username/password that i defined during the new setup, no luck. so i deleted, reinstalled, and defined the same username/password as on the live site - still no luck. i've tried to access the admin both before and after i start copying "layout" files, etc,.. both ways, once the .sql backup is imported, i am unable to access admin panel on local install. when i view the info in the sql table, it shows the username and email addresses from the live site - yet those passwords don't work either. i can still access store locally, view items, etc. i've read the notes on fresh installs, i've read notes on upgrading to new versions, and read notes on "i want to move my Zen cart installation to another host or different server". i feel like i must be missing something.. if the old user/pass doesn't work, and it doesn't accept a new user/pass - what can i do - or more specifically, have i gone about this in the wrong way? basically i'm just trying to setup a working duplicate of what we already have online, so that future mods/enhancements will take place on the local setup, which I will then "sync" with the live shop.

let me know if any more info is needed.

hopefully this is the best category for this thread- feel free to move this if these is a better fit.

I don't see anything that sounds wrong about how you're doing this.

However, a common error is having a DB_PREFIX setting on the live site that's different from the DB_PREFIX setting on the local site. Thus, when attempting to logins, it's pulling info from the wrong set of tables and thus can't do a security match.

i double checked, neither site has a db prefix defined... i'm going to continue to retrace my steps and see what might have gone awry - but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

not sure what i did different, but i just wiped everything out and reinstalled (for about the 10th time) - and it let me login to the local admin panel using the same user/pass as on the live site. i'd love to post what was wrong for future problems, but i have no clue what caused or fixed this issue.