Your iPhone is always with you wherever you go, and if you don’t have unlimited data on your cellular plan, you’ve probably connected to dozens of Wi-Fi hotspots over the years. Wi-Fi passwords are saved on your iPhone, so you can automatically reconnect to your router or personal hotspot again, but finding a simple text password for a network is not an easy task.
While iOS remembers Wi-Fi passwords for all wireless access points you successfully connect to, there’s no obvious way to get the network’s public password. Your iPhone will allow you to share your saved hotspot password with another device trying to connect to the network in question, but only with other Apple devices running the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS.
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You can prepare ahead of time by writing down the simple text password of the Wi-Fi networks you join so you can quickly view or share it later, but what if you want to see the password for one that’s already saved to your My Network List in Settings -> WiFi? It’s not as easy as on Android, but it’s doable.
Find saved Wi-Fi passwords in iCloud Keychain
If you go to Settings -> Passwords on your iPhone, you won’t see your saved Wi-Fi passwords. You can manually add a new network as a “site”to record its credentials, but you’ll have to do this every time you join a new network for it to be really useful. Instead, look at your Mac.
A tool in the macOS Utilities app folder called Keychain Access contains all of your saved Wi-Fi network credentials. Open the app and make sure “iCloud”is selected in the sidebar under Default Keychains. If you have connected your Mac to the network, it may not have saved to iCloud, so you can also try “System”in “System Keychains”.
From the tabs, select “Passwords”to filter out secure notes, certificates, and other data, then sort the results by “Type”and look for the Wi-Fi network labeled “AirPort Network Password.”You can also use the search bar to find an access point by name.
Select the desired network, then press “Return”(or “Enter”) on the keyboard, or double-click the left mouse button on the network. In the pop-up window, check the box next to Show Password.
Then enter the keychain password to display the plain text password. Your keychain password is most likely the same as the password you use for your macOS user account.
The password for the Wi-Fi network should reveal itself when the request is authenticated, and you can copy and paste it from there.
Let’s say you want to immediately copy the password to your clipboard so you can paste it into a text message, email, or something else. You can simply select a network from the list in Keychain Access, then use the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-C or go to Edit -> Copy Password to Clipboard in the menu bar to copy it.
What to do if you can’t find your Wi-Fi password?
If you’ve checked your Keychain Access but can’t find the Wi-Fi password you need, you may not be syncing your Wi-Fi passwords with iCloud. You’ll want to enable it for all of your iCloud-connected Apple devices for the smoothest experience possible.
Go to Settings -> [your name] -> iCloud -> Keychain Access on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and make sure iCloud Keychain is turned on. From now on, any passwords you enter and save for Wi-Fi hotspots on your devices will sync with all your other Apple devices.
On macOS, go to System Preferences -> Apple ID -> iCloud, then make sure Keychain Access is checked in the list.
Are there other ways to find saved Wi-Fi passwords?
Using iCloud Keychain is the most convenient option for getting plain text passwords for saved Wi-Fi networks on your iPhone, even if you need to use a computer. However, if you are trying to find the password for your own Wi-Fi network, you can use the app for your wireless router.
For example, I have an AmpliFi Mesh Wi-Fi system and I can go to the wireless network settings for the router in the AmpliFi app and enable “Show password”to open it.
If you don’t have a wireless router app, you can go to Settings -> Wi-Fi, press the (i) button next to your network name, press and hold the “Router”line, and press “Copy”.» Note that this only works when you are currently connected to the network for which you are trying to get the router’s IP address.
Then navigate to the copied IP address in Safari or another web browser and follow the instructions to log into your router with your account credentials. If you have never reset the default username and password for your router, you can try some of the default combinations for your model from the Router Login Default Password List.
After logging into your Wi-Fi router, you can go to your wireless network settings to view your current network password.
If you don’t have a Wi-Fi network that you need to find a simple text password for, there’s not much you can do if the iCloud keychain method doesn’t work other than asking the hotspot owner for the password. That is if you are not a hacker.
While it’s probably illegal, you can access your Wi-Fi network credentials using tools like Wifiphisher, Bettercap, Wifite2, Hashcat, Airgeddon, Besside-ng, Fluxion, USB caches, and even greeting cards. Of course, you will also need a computer for most of these hacking tools.