How to Find WiFi Passwords in Windows & MacOS

You may come across a situation when you want to share your WiFi with a guest but you’ve forgotten the password and it’s only saved on your computer, or perhaps you’ve got a new device and want to connect it to all the WiFi networks that are saved on your computer.

In both scenarios, the solution is to access the WiFi passwords saved in your computer system. But not many of us know how to do so and for all those who don’t, I’ve created this post to inform you all about finding WiFi passwords in both Windows and MacOS. Let’s take a look.

Windows

There are two ways to see Wi-Fi passwords on Windows. You can either use:

1. Command Prompt commands.
2. A dedicated third-party tool.

1. Finding Wi-Fi passwords with Command Prompt

Press Windows + R keys and type cmd in the Run dialog to open the Command Prompt window.

Now run the below-mentioned command:

netsh wlan show profiles

This will list all the WiFi SSIDs saved in your Windows PC. You’ll need to refer to this list to find the password of the respective SSID using the next command.

Now enter the below-mentioned command and replace Wi-Fi SSID section with the actual WiFi SSID of which you want to know the password of.

netsh wlan show profile name=WiFi SSID key=clear

You will see a bunch of information about the respective WiFi connection. Here the WiFi password will be written next to Key content section.

2. Finding WiFi passwords with third-party tool

The above method is a good native way to see Wi-Fi passwords, but it can be a little cumbersome. A more convenient method is to use a third-party tool that will show all the passwords and SSIDs in a single interface without any extra effort.

For this purpose, I use my favorite Nirsoft utility –WirelessKeyView. It is completely free and also very easy to use.

Install WirelessKeyView and launch the app. Without any intervention, all the passwords will be revealed to you along with their SSID. You can copy this data and even export it to a file to move all the passwords to another PC.

MacOS

In MacOS, it’s rather easy to view all the saved WiFi passwords. However, you need to make sure you login with an administrator account and know the username and password of the account.

Here’s how to access saved WiFi passwords on Mac:

1. They are stored in the Keychain Access app so you need to open it from Applications inside Utilities folder.
2. Here select System from the left panel and then select Passwords in the Category section.
3. You will see a list of all the saved WiFi networks along with their SSID and kind. Double-click on the network of which you want to reveal the password.
4. Options for that specific network will open up. Here, check the checkbox next to Show password and authenticate by providing the username and password of the current user account. The password will be revealed after successful authentication.

Though there are other methods to access the saved WiFi passwords in your iOS or Windows computer, however, the ones that I’ve mentioned here are the easiest and simplest. Do give them a try and share your experience with us.

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