- How To Find Password For Wifi On Macbook Air
- How To See Password For Wifi On Mac Iphone
- I Need My Wifi Password
- How To Set Password For Wifi
Recovering a Forgotten WiFi Password Using Your Mac. Click on Launchpad in your dock, search for and click on “Keychain Access.” 2. When Keychain Access loads, click on “System” in the left-hand menu. That is where your WiFi network is located. Find your WiFi network in the long list. Jul 27, 2015 I ‘ve MBP 13″ laptop. How can I find out the Wifi password on Mac OS X using command line and GUI options? OS X stores your WiFI details including password in Keychain password management system.
One of my weaknesses is remembering little details, especially my wifi password. Being the paranoid “they’re all out to get you!” kind of guy I am, I change the wifi password once a week. That means it is very common that I forget what the current password is. So how do I find saved wifi passwords on my MacOS computer?
It turns out that this is actually quite easy. It’s simply a case of knowing which corner of the operating system to look at. Once you know, it’s sitting there right in front of you, and it only takes less than a minute to uncover.
Find Your Current Saved Wifi Passwords In Less Than a Minute
The secret is a Mac feature called “Keychain Access“. This is where your Mac will remember all of your logins and passwords for all of the websites and system functions you use. These logins and passwords are encrypted with your iCloud password, so in this respect, it is no different than say a desktop password manager or a browser password manager.
But you must have Keychain Access enabled on your Mac for the following to work!
How do you find out if it is enabled? Go to System Preferences–>iCloud. Scroll down till you find Keychain. Is it ticked? If so, your wifi password will probably be saved. If it is not ticked, then it won’t be.
So here is how to find your current saved wifi password.
Open Up Keychain Access
On a MacOS, the Keychain Access app can be found in the Applications–>Utilities folder. Double-click and open it.
This is what the Keychain Access app looks like on MacOS Sierra.
On the top left, you will see four Keychains – login, iCloud, System, and System Roots. The one you want is “System“. So click on that.
Find Your Wifi Network
If you look at one of the tables in the middle, you will see that one of the headers is called “Kind“. Click that until everything in that column moves into alphabetical order with the “a”‘s at the top. That is when you will see “Airport network password” and to the left of that, your wifi network name (also known as the SSID). I have blanked mine out for obvious reasons.
If your Mac has other wifi passwords stored, the network SSID’s and the passwords will also be stored here under “Airport network password“. In fact, this might be an excellent opportunity to delete any unneeded ones. Just right-click on the entry and choose “Delete“. It will ask you to enter your Mac username and password to confirm.
Double-Click On The Wifi Network Entry
When you see the network you need the password for, double-click it and this box will pop up.
The name of your network will appear under “Name” and “Account” (again, mine is blanked out). Now, simply click the box next to “Show Password”. It will ask you to enter your username and password twice, and then your password will appear.
Don’t get excited folks. That isn’t my password. Although I heartily agree with the sentiment!
You can now copy and paste the password (if you want) then close the box.
Change Your Wifi Network Password
Notice it says to the password box, “save changes“. Well, you can use that to change your wifi password – if you have already changed it in the internal router box settings.
Dragon speaking for mac. Think of it this way – you have changed the password in the router box settings, but your Mac still has the old password stored in its Keychain Access memory. So, everytime it tries to connect now, the password will be wrong.
If this is the case, use this box to change the password to the new one. Keychain will then automatically sync, and because Keychain syncs across all MacOS and iOS devices in your possession, your new wifi password will get changed everywhere.
Conclusion
Although I technically use KeePassX for my password storage needs on the MacOS, I am also turning more and more to Keychain Access. I would never abandon either one of them. I see them as backing each other up.
But KeePassX and its ilk do not automatically update wifi passwords – Keychain Access does. So that should be your first – and only – port of call when looking for your current wifi password.
Here is how you can find the WiFi password from the computer or smartphone. Now, make no mistake, here, we are talking about finding the WiFi password of the connected network. And not hacking your neighbor’s WiFi.
So let’s get started (or see the video tutorial below)
1. Find WiFi Password on Windows 7/8/10
Do you know, Windows stored each and every WiFi passwords that you have ever connected to? Not just the current Wi-Fi network. And you can quickly find it either by running a simple command on cmd or by going to the network settings.
Method 1 – Using cmd
The quickest way to find WiFi password on Windows is by using the command prompt. This even works, for WiFi networks, that you have connected to in the past. Though, you’ll have to remember their SSID (WiFi name) in proper cases, to recover their password. So, here is how to do it.
Simply open up the cmd and type in the following command.
netshwlan show profile WiFiName key=clear
Here, replace the WiFiName with your SSID (or the name of the network, you have connected in the past). And that’s it. Scroll down till you see security setting and next to your key content is your password.
Method 2 – Using Network Settings
If you prefer GUI, then go to your Network and sharing center. To do Right-click on the Wireless Network icon in the taskbar and click “Open Network and Sharing Center”.
Next click on the WiFi name > a new window will open, select Wireless Property > Click the Security tab and check the Show characters checkbox, to see the hidden password.
See gif animation here.
Note: In Windows 8 and 10, there is no way to find the Wi-Fi password of Network you have connected in the past, using a GUI approach. You’ll have to use the cmd for that.
#2 Find WiFi Password on Mac OS
Like Windows, you can also find the Wi-Fi password of current network and as well as previously connected network. But now, you need ‘adminprivileges‘ to see WiFi password. There is no way to find WiFi password in Mac OS, if you don’t have to admin password.
So, here is how to do it.
Start by pressing cmd+space to bring up spotlight and search for ‘Keychain Access’.
Alternatively, you can also go to /Applications/Utilities/Keychain Access.
Here you will see the list of all WiFi networks. Powerpoint for mac. But before you make any changes, you need to unlock the padlock.
Now, scroll down till you see your current WiFi name (or use the search bar on the top).
Once your find the WiFi name > double click it > show password > enter the MAC’s login password. And there you have the Wifi password of that network.
If you don’t have access to admin password, then there is no way to find the WiFi password in MAC. But there is a workaround, mention at the end of the article.
#3 Find WiFi Password on Linux
To find WiFi password on Linux (tested on Ubuntu), open up your terminal and type in this command and hit enter. It will ask you for your user password, enter then and hit enter again. And there you have the list of connection and their password.
sudo grep psk= /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*
This asterisk will bring up all the connections and their keys. If you want to see keys of a specific network then replace the asterisk with the network SSID.
#4 Find WiFi Password on Android
When it comes to Android, it’s even tougher than Mac OS. Why? Well, because the file that stores the Wi-Fi passwords, is encrypted and not available to the regular users. You will need root access to view its content. There is no way to see it without Root access. Even if you root it now, it will erase all the data and log you out of network
How To Find Password For Wifi On Macbook Air
Now, if you are lucky enough, to have a Rooted Android phone or tablet, then you can use an app like Free WiFi Password Recovery to recover all the saved Wi-Fi password. The app is free and compared to other similar apps on the store it has less intrusive ads.
Alternatively, if you like to do it without any app, then open ES file explorer, swipe right to bring up the menu and turn on ROOT Explorer, next navigate to the root directory -- /data/misc/wifi/. Once there, scroll down till you see awpa_supplicant.conf file and open it with any text editor.
Here you will find all the SSID with their password.
#5 Find WiFi Password on iOS
Like android, iPhone and iPads also hide WiFi password from plain sight. But if you are lucky enough to lay your hands on jailbreak iPhone then, you can use this free utility called WiFi Passwords (not tested).
However, you can see saved WiFi password on your iPhone (not work on iPad) if you have a Mac computer and both your iPhone and Mac are connected tothe same iCloud account. So once you have that, you can access the keychain database of your iPhone (a file where all passwords are stored) from your Mac.
For details, check out this guide on How to View Saved iPhone WiFi Passwords on Mac (No Jailbreak)
#6 Find WiFi Password on Router
How To See Password For Wifi On Mac Iphone
If for any reason, above methods didn’t work, then you always can check the password directly from the router page.
Open a browser from any device connected to the network. In the address bar https://qsuwssn.weebly.com/bluray-drives-for-mac.html. , type in ‘router’s IP address’. Usually, it’s 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. But it may be differ depending on the router. Don’t worry a quick Google search with your router’s model number will get you this information.
Next, enter the username and password of the router.
Again this is different for every device, so ask the owner (or try admin Format external hard drive for mac. as both username and password). Once you successfully log in, navigate to wireless setting and there you will find the password under Wireless Password field.
I Need My Wifi Password
What if nothing works?
In most cases, the above mention methods will help you recover your WiFi password, but in case all you have a un rooted Android phone and no access to your router, then here are a couple of things you can try connecting to your router using the default WPS PIN.
If you have physical access to the router, then look for the small WPS option at the back of your router and press it, now on to your Android smartphone, go to Wireless settings > Advance option > turn on WPS scan.
When you press the WPS button at both your router and Android smartphone simultaneously, the router automatically shares the WiFi password over the air and connects the device to a router without any need to enter the WiFi password. (Video tutorial here)
How To Set Password For Wifi
Read more: What to do if You Forget Your Wi-Fi Password