You go to a cafe or someone’s home and you connect to the local WIFi, but then you go back with a different device and you’re either too lazy or too shy to ask for the password again. Don’t worry because if you happen to have the original device with you, whether it be your phone or computer, you can actually pull up the old WiFi password and use it on your new device.
How To See WiFi Passwords In Windows 10
Active Connection
- Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing
- Click on the active WiFi connection
- Click on Wireless Properties
- Click on the Security tab
- Click the “Show characters” box and it will reveal the password to the WiFi network you’re connected to
Note that this method only works on networks that you’re currently connected to. If you’re looking for the WiFi password for a network you previously connected to, then follow the steps below.
View Passwords Using Command Prompt
- Launch Command Prompt
- Enter netsh wlan show profiles to show the WiFi networks you’ve connected to
- Enter netsh wlan show profile name=”WiFi Network Name” key=clear but replace “WiFi Network Name” to the name of the WiFi network you found using the previous command above
- Under Security setting, look for “Key Content” and it will show you the WiFi password
Using Third-Party Software
In case you’re not comfortable using Command Prompt and you want something a bit more straightforward, you can always use third-party software like the Magical Jelly Bean Wi-Fi password revealer.
All you need to do is download it on your computer, install it, and run it and it will show you all the passwords of the networks you’ve connected to. As the developers point out, this is not a tool to sniff out passwords of unknown networks. It only shows you passwords of networks you’ve successfully connected to before.
How To See Saved WiFi Passwords In macOS
- Press Command + Space on your keyboard and type in “keychain access”
- Launch the app
- Search for the name of the WiFi network
- Double-click on the name
- Click the “Show password” box to reveal the password
How To See Saved WiFi Password On Android
- Launch the Settings app
- Go to Network & Internet > Wi-Fi
- Select the network or tap “Saved Networks” if you want to see other networks you connected to in the past
- Tap the Share button and underneath the QR code, you will see the network’s password
- If there is no password displayed beneath the QR code, simply download the QR code to your phone
- Download and install this QR code scanner app
- Launch the app and scan the QR code that you previously saved and the WiFi password should appear
However, we should note that this method only works on devices running Android 10 or newer. If you own an Android phone with an older build, this method won’t work and you will need to have it rooted.
Filed in . Read more about Android, Google, macOS, Microsoft, Security and Windows.