Very strange - losing trust in Prestashop
Restored backup from Nov 18 - same (cleared cache etc)
I had made a WORKING copy of the site in March 18 before a lot of new products were added
I had forgotten about this - guess what that does NOT work either - VERY suspicious / Very strange
Installed a new copy of PS 1.6. Can obviously login
Created same user so tried copying the encrypted password to the orig site - same behavior in the orig site
still not sorted I think I need to to find a Contractor
Looks like Prestashop no longer offer ticket based Password recovery Support option !