That almost sounds like the changes are not taking effect. Can you log in with the default admin/admin password? If that’s the case, then you might be running into some kind of file permission issue, preventing changes to be persisted.
As an aside: the best way to re-gain access to Openfire in case of a lost password scenario is described in https://discourse.igniterealtime.org/t/how-to-reset-admin-password-on-openfire-version-4-3-1/