In life, there can be situations in which you lose access to your familiar home Wi-Fi network. Indeed you or your relatives have faced this situation at least once: after returning from a vacation or an extended business trip, after changing your smartphone or laptop, new devices cannot connect automatically, and the paper with the written password is lost.
In the past, if you had to turn your house upside down to find that damned piece of paper after reading this text, you’ll be wiser. Unfortunately, you can lose any password – from the Wi-Fi or your account in your favorite club online, so you can’t play Bollywood’s classic slots and similar activities. Therefore, passwords must be stored somewhere. We’ll tell you how to restore Wi-Fi access if you need to have your password handy.
How to find out your Wi-Fi password
If there is no hope of finding that unfortunate piece of paper with a written password, then it is time to proceed to more drastic measures. There are several ways to recover a forgotten password: with the help of a previously connected PC and Mac, a smartphone, a router itself, or special programs. Below we’ll understand each of these methods in more detail.
How to see the password from Wi-Fi on your computer
You can recover a Wi-Fi password using a PC or Mac. The method will work if the device is previously connected to this network.
Recall the password from the Wi-Fi using the command line
To find out the password from your Wi-Fi network on a Windows computer, you can use the command line’s capabilities. To do this, you need to do the following steps:
- Run the command line. To do this, press the Win+R key combination or enter the word “Run” (without quotation marks) in the search line next to the “Start” button. After that, left-click on the result that appears.
- In the window that will open, type cmd and press Enter or OK.
- In the new window, type or copy the command , and then press Enter.
- In the list that appears, find the network whose password you are looking for and use its name in the following command WLAN shows profile name=WFN key=clear, where WFN is the network name.
- In the data array that appears, you should find the line “Key Content” – the combination you are looking for will be written against it.
Wireless network parameters
Another way to find the password from the Wi-Fi on a Windows computer previously connected to the home network is through the menu “Network and Internet Options.” To do this, you must sequentially perform the following steps:
- Right-click on the network environment icon – by default, it is located in the bottom right corner, next to the icons for volume control and keyboard layout change.
- From the context menu, select Open Network and Internet Options.
- Click on the Status tab on the left side menu.
- Click on “Configure Adapter Settings”.
- In the window that opens, locate your wireless connection and right-click, bringing up the context menu.
- Select the “Status” item.
- Next, select “Wireless Network Properties” and go to the “Security” tab.
- Here, the Wi-Fi-network password is displayed in encrypted form. To see the characters we need, activate the checkbox “Display typed characters” – and the secret and forgotten combination you are looking for will appear in front of you.
- If you can’t find the parameters described in the first paragraphs, chances are that you have Windows 11. In this case, the first four items will be slightly different. With the latest version of the operating system from Microsoft, you have to do the following: use the Win+R key combination on the desktop and type the command “ncpa.CPL” (without the quotes). After that, press Enter. Next – from point 5 – similar to Windows 10.
View Wi-Fi passwords using special programs
It is possible to retrieve previously lost passwords not only by traditional operating systems. Another proven option is to resort to the help of special software. One of the most famous programs is WirelessKeyView, developed by Nir Sofer. It is free and will help you find your password in just a few clicks. You can download it at no extra charge from the project’s official site. Once installed, the utility will display a list of all networks to which the computer is connected. In addition, the combination of characters you are looking for will be displayed in the Key (ASCII) column.
Finding a password from the Wi-Fi network with the help of the router
But what to do if a new version of the operating system was installed on your computer or for some other reason, for example, due to a system failure, the password is not saved? In this case, you can get the password directly from the router settings. To do this, you will need a patch-cord-type connection cable, usually supplied with the router. Most likely, you left it in the box under this gadget.
Did you find it? Then do the following steps:
- Connect your computer with a patch cord to the router.
- In the address bar of any browser, enter the login details – they are always listed at the bottom of the router. The most common addresses are 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. But some manufacturers use alphabetical designations as well.
- On the page that opens, enter your login/password mapping – by default it is admin/admin, admin/1234, or admin/0000.
- Then the interface will be different for different manufacturers, but you need to look for the tab or item “Home network” and click on the network’s name.
- A new window will open the Wi-Fi network settings, among which you can see the password. You can set its new value if necessary; once again, write it down on paper.
For Android
Various manufacturers of Android smartphones have their own operating system add-ons: MIUI for Xiaomi, One UI for Samsung, etc. Some setup menu details may be slightly different and named differently, but the algorithm for extracting the Wi-Fi password from the Android OS is the same. What’s needed:
- Go to the settings section – the gear icon.
- Find the item Wi-Fi or “Wireless Connections”.
- Select the network to which the smartphone is connected and the password from which you want to know, and go to “Properties.”
- Select “Share with QR code”.
- Confirm the action with a PIN code, fingerprint, or face unlock.
- The desired password will be written above or below the QR code in the window that opens.
It should be noted that this way will work with the 10th version of Android.
For iOS
The smartphone from Apple will also need the latest firmware version, iOS 16. In earlier versions, getting the password out of the iPhone without tampering was impossible. So, to find the password from the Wi-Fi in the “apple” technique, follow these steps:
- Go to the Settings app.
- Tap the little blue I next to the network your iPhone is already connected to.
- Find “Password” in the list and tap on it.
- The required combination of characters will appear on the screen, from where you can copy it immediately to the clipboard, so that you can conveniently send it later in a messenger, without making any accidental mistakes.
Password, by the way, can be written not only on paper. There are several special programs, which are conventionally grouped under the name of “password managers.” They allow you to record a combination once, after which you can easily retrieve and use it.