Enter it once and then forget it – the WLAN password is not exactly one of those things that you want to and have to remember all the time. Despite WPS and printed standard keys, there are always occasions when you simply want to display the password quickly. For example, to type it into a new device, or to give it to a visitor.
Enlarge
Share your WiFi password – it’s that easy
© Shutterstock.com / wsf-s
Read and display WiFi password in Windows
In Windows (regardless of whether it is Vista, 7, 8 or Windows 10/11), you do not need any additional software to display the password for the WLAN connection currently in use. To see your own WiFi password, simply right-click on the WiFi icon and select “Open Network and Sharing Center”. In the next window, in the “Show active networks” section, click on the link next to “Connections” to open the WiFi connection status window. Then click on “Wireless Properties”, then select the “Security” tab and check “Show characters”. The WLAN password is then displayed in plain text in the “Security key” field.
Alternatively
start the command prompt (CMD.exe) with administrator rights. Click the Windows icon and then type CMD. Windows displays “Command Prompt” in the program menu. Right-click on it and select “Run as administrator”. Confirm the security prompt and enter the following command:
netsh WLAN show profile name=SSID name key=clear
Enlarge
With the netsh command for the command prompt, you can display the WLAN key stored in Windows for each SSID.
Replace “SSID name” with the name of your WLAN. You do not currently have to be connected to the WLAN to display the WLAN key in this way. Windows only needs to be logged into the network once for the key to be available.
Display WLAN password on the Fritzbox
You can view the WiFi password used on almost all routers. However, you must have access to the router’s web interface to do this. It doesn’t matter whether you access the web interface via Ethernet or WLAN. You can usually access the Fritzbox interface simply via the URL http://fritz.box .
Once on the interface, open the “WLAN -> Security” menu on the left and then select the “Encryption” tab on the right. The WLAN password can then be found in the “WLAN network key” field.
If you have activated a WLAN guest access, you will find its password under “WLAN -> Guest access”.
By the way: In both cases you can also change the WiFi password used here. Please note, however, that all existing WLAN connections to the router will then be interrupted and you will have to enter the new WLAN password for all devices in order to be able to connect to the network again.
View or share WiFi password on Android
Your smartphone is still connecting to the WLAN, but you have forgotten the password for it. The easiest way is to open the router interface on your smartphone as described above and read the password there.
Of course, you can also read out all the passwords stored in the device directly. To do this, however, root access to the Android smartphone must be activated. After that, install and launch the Wifi Key Recovery app. You can then export the password list determined in this way, or copy individual entries to the clipboard by tapping on them.
Enlarge
With many Android devices, WiFi access can be easily transferred to other devices via a QR code
You can also easily share your WiFi password on many devices with the latest Android version using a QR code. To do this, tap “Settings -> Wireless & network -> Wi-Fi” and then tap the name of the connected network. A window will appear with a QR code that you can read on another device with any code scanner (e.g. QR & Barcode Scanner ) to connect.
Anyone who owns a Fritzbox can install the MyFritz! app on Android and will then find the WLAN network key for their Fritzbox under “Comfort functions” and “WLAN”. From here it can then be shared via a QR code or via WPS.
Find out WiFi password on macOS
About the utility
keychain management
As an administrator, you can also make your WiFi password visible under macOS. Call up the program and enter the name of the WLAN in the search mask at the top right. If you now click on the found entry of the type “Password of the AirPort network”, you will get a dialog box with no visible entry next to “Show password”. Click on the tick there and enter your admin password now at the latest. You will now see the password in plain text.
Share WiFi password from iOS 11
As of iOS 11, saved Wi-Fi passwords cannot be displayed without a jailbreak. But if you want to transfer your Wi-Fi password to another iOS (or macOS) device, it’s really easy. Activate Bluetooth and WLAN on both devices and connect one device to the network. Hold the other device next to the connected one and a window will appear through which the WiFi password can be shared. However, the prerequisite is that the person with whom you share the password is also stored in the address book of the source device.
If you need to know the Wi-Fi password, there is still a detour via macOS: All Wi-Fi passwords to which a Mac was connected are saved in the macOS keychain. You can find more information on this in this tip.
Reading tip: Change WLAN password – this is how it works