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How do I recover a Mac wifi password?Last month I was visiting a friend's office and was given the password to access their wireless wifi network. I want to use it again, but they've changed the access point (base station) name and now I don't have the password. I can ask, but surely there's some cool Mac way to recover the old password? Interesting question! There are a couple of ways to get to this data, including simply using the Keychain Access utility, but probably the easiest way to get to this specific data is to go through Airport System Preferences. Go into the Airport control area of Mac OS X and you'll find a list of all the different networks you've successfully joined in the past, including those with and without passwords. Let me show you what I mean. Open up System Preferences --> Network --> Airport --> Configure...: ![]() Pick the network you need and click on the little "EDIT" button and a new window pops up with specific information on this network: ![]() Almost there. Now just click on the "Show Password" checkbox, and .... ![]() It's ugly and confusing because it's a hex ASCII password, rather than a mnemonic word or name, but it'll definitely work. If you grab that from the old configuration and copy and paste it into the new configuration when promopted for a password to access the network, you should get in just fine, assuming they didn't change the password too. Hope that helps you out on the road to being a kewl, l33t h4x0r3r! :-) Translation: cool, elite hacker.
Categorized:
Mac OS X Help
(Article 6875,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: mac os x, wifi networks, wireless security Previous: Where can I get my broken Sony PSP fixed? Next: How do I add a theme song to a Myspace Profile? Subscribe!
I used my password for Gmail on my IMAC OS X and I want to recover it, how do I do this? Posted by: Maile Lee at March 1, 2007 6:31 PMVery useful!! Thank you!! Posted by: Pablo at December 24, 2008 6:21 PMDear santa you just saved me hours, i was trying to figure out how to change my password on my linksys, after spending what seems like hours on the phone with this group of seemingly unhelpful people i was ready to (metaphorically) kill myself. luckily i stumbled here. thankyou very much. seriously, thankyou. no, really i hate linksys thankyou. Posted by: Michael at May 18, 2009 10:08 PMThis information is outdated. This will no longer work. Posted by: Mystech at May 30, 2009 9:55 AMIt's changed, Mystech, but only a tiny bit. Instead of the screen looking like it does above, it's more brief, but if you've selected the Airport location and click on "Advanced..." you'll find that the rest of the steps here work just fine. Posted by: Dave Taylor at May 30, 2009 7:55 PMIn leopartd 10.5 don't work. This is the solution:Go Hi Dave can you change the password to anything you want? Posted by: charlie at December 25, 2009 4:55 PMThank you so much!!! This was incredibly helpful. We were uploading to our blog from afar and needed a password. Cheers, thanks Toni! Posted by: zer0 at March 3, 2010 9:22 AMToni, tq alot. Posted by: benik varenik at June 6, 2010 9:17 PMThis does not work for me. When I get to the screen with the "show password" box, that box is greyed out so I cannot clink on it to reveal the password. Any ideas on how to get around this problem? Posted by: Jenny at July 20, 2010 11:56 AMI bought a mac a year ago and have been able use the wireless without a problem. I want to change my airport network password but I'm not sure how because I sold my old PC, which I use to initially set up the wireless in my apt. Do you know I can change the password even though my current computer is not the one I used to set up the internet when I first moved in? Posted by: Juan at August 23, 2010 9:21 PMJuan, absolutely yes. You should be able to use a specific IP address (probably your gateway/router device if you look at System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP) and connect with your Web browser by prepending an "http://" to it. Like this: http://192.1.1.0/ as an example. Posted by: Dave Taylor at August 25, 2010 11:56 AMI LOVE U MAAAAAAN!!!!!! U SAVED ME )) THNX Posted by: kris at September 1, 2010 1:37 PMI have the same problem as Jenny. If you know what to do about this, I would appreciate it, Thanks! Posted by: lofa at October 2, 2010 10:23 AMhi there i am able to get to the screen that has the "show password" box. the admin password i have does not work here. PS - i too am trying to re-find the password i use when using airport to access my wireless modem. (macs+ iphone / ipad) H E L P Posted by: charlie at October 2, 2010 9:29 PMIt'd be stored in the Keychain Access.app (under an "Airport Network Password"). http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=504486 Posted by: Jacob Langvad at October 4, 2010 7:55 PMHi, I have a Macbook (10.4.11) and I recently lost access to my personal network. As I'm a bit of a computer dunce, a work colleague initially set up the network and the password has since been lost. I have followed the steps provided on this page, but when I try to enter the hex ASCII password (which is really long) into the 'Assist Me' option of the network setup assistant, the password is deemed invalid. I'm a bit stumped and would appreciate any help. Apologies if this is an easily solved problem, it's just very frustrating! Posted by: Victoria at October 5, 2010 11:41 AMLo and behold, a family member discovered the password on a piece of paper wedged in a drawer. Thanks anyway! Posted by: Victoria at October 5, 2010 11:50 AMHi all, I used the above info to recover my lost wifi password. very helpful. however, when I cut and pasted the password to join network (using macbook) the dialogue box stated that it was an invalid password. any suggestions? Cheers, Victor Posted by: Victor at October 9, 2010 1:05 AMHi
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! for the Leopard info. SAVED ME! Posted by: Vanberk at December 8, 2010 1:37 PMJenny and lofa, I had the same problem as you both - the 'show pwd' option grayed out. This tip out here helped me to retrieve the pwd: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=306920#5 Try yourself. Posted by: thiru at December 14, 2010 9:53 AMThanks so much for this post, you saved me an awful lot of work resetting my router and starting all over! Posted by: Chris P at January 9, 2011 3:00 PMDave, How can I quickly set up a WiFi Mesh (Mobile Adhoc) network on a MacBook Pro? Posted by: Kirk at January 30, 2011 9:10 AMI have been trying to find the answer to this for about 14 months and got it tonight. Thank you, toni! Thanks to all! Thanks, really helpful. Problem fixed within 30 seconds! Posted by: Geert Van Boxelaer at February 27, 2011 3:46 PMTONI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sadly it doesn't work on OS X 10.6 Posted by: Nick at June 30, 2011 3:22 AMtoni... i never comment on websites that have helped me but you saved me today!... thanks sooooo much Posted by: frank at July 4, 2011 5:47 PMWhy doesn't it allow me to review the password? :\ Posted by: ._. at August 1, 2011 8:59 AMThanks Toni!! It worked like a charm. Posted by: Ro Halfhide at August 10, 2011 4:29 AMBut what if I don't have access to the checkbox (show password) as this has been grayed out (so probably secured?) Posted by: myrthe at August 10, 2011 1:41 PMConfirming that the keychain access works on OSX Lion Posted by: tg at August 25, 2011 10:49 AMBut what if I don't have access to the checkbox (show password) as this has been grayed out? And if I click on it, it will let me enter something new, but the SAVE button is greyed out so I can't save it. Any easy way on this, or do I have reset my Airport? Thanks! Posted by: Linda at August 28, 2011 4:23 PMHI DAVE, THAT WAS JUST GREAT. MY W-LAN PW WERE RECOVERED THIS WAY IN LESS THAN 5MIN. THIS WAY THE IPAD2 WE'VE GOT COULD GO ON AIR NOW. MANY THX FROM MUNICH GERMANY. COME TO THE OKTOBERFEST I'LL BUY YOU A MASS (1 L BEER ) Posted by: DANIEL at October 26, 2011 3:24 AMthanks. advice still works just fine 3 yrs. later. Posted by: isabelle at November 27, 2011 11:32 AMfor some reason my "show password box" is grey and won't allow me to select it. I need the wireless password for the laptop, this computer is already connected to the internet. Is there another way to figure out what the password for the wireless is? Posted by: Verinia at December 7, 2011 4:05 PMThank you!!! Thanks for the leopard update. Works on lion too! Posted by: Michelle at February 5, 2012 5:33 PMI have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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