How to view saved WiFi password on iPhone

It’s very easy and common to forget the WiFi password. Worry not, here’s how you can see the saved WiFi password on your iPhone.

Want to view the WiFi password on your iPhone? It is one of most needed features but if you don’t have it saved in plain text on your device, it’s going to take some work to view it on your iPhone.

In this article, I will let out all the way you can see the WiFi password on iPhone.

In This Article show

Where is the WiFi password saved on iPhone?

On iPhone, it is not possible (yet) to access this information directly without a few workarounds, which we shall see in a minute. Make no mistake, the WiFi password is indeed stored on your iPhone in a safe place that is not accessible by regular means.

This is done intentionally to protect your information and keep it safe. For instance, if you lose your iPhone, and if the WiFi password is simply shown in plain text for everyone to see, anyone could get access to your password. Now, that would be a huge security threat.

On the other hand, if you have a jailbroken iPhone, there are apps that are specifically built for this purpose that will help you see your iPhone WiFi password. But most people don’t jailbreak their devices.

The rest of this article explains how you can actually know and see the password of the WiFi connect on your iPhone.

See the WiFi Password using the router

The most straight forward way to find your WiFi password is through your WiFi router configuration. That’s right; we are going straight to the source.

I know, I know. This is not actually ‘finding the WiFi password on your iPhone’. But it still gets the information you are looking for.

All the WiFi routers let you check and configure the settings (such as password) right from the browser. You can even do this from your iPhone browser.

Get the necessary information from iPhone

Make sure your iPhone is connected to the WiFi network for which you are trying to find the password for.
Open the Settings app.
Tap on Wi-Fi.
Tap on the information icon on the right-hand corner of the Wi-Fi network name.
Find the Router field and make note of the IP address right next to it.

Tip: You can long-press on the IP address to copy it. More often than not, it is something like 192.168.0.1 but it could very well be something else too.

Note: You will be asked for a username and password in order to acess the router settings. I hope you had written this down when you configured it.

Or there is a good chance you didn’t even change the default username and password (which is the case with most people). If so, the default username/password will be something like user/password or admin/admin or admin/password.

If the above does not work, you can simply Google like this: “default password for [your Wi-fi router model]”. You might find the default username/password.

On your iPhone, use any web browser of your choice to visit the IP address you just noted down. This is where you can check and configure all your Wi-Fi router settings.
You will be asked to log in to your router. Enter the details and proceed.
Once you login, each router will have slightly different types of settings. But you should be looking for something like ‘Wireless settings‘ or ‘Wireless security‘ or your Wi-Fi name. Then, you would be on the right track.

View the WiFi Password using iCloud Keychain

One drawback in the above method is that it only let’s view the password of the IP address that you are currently connected to. If you wanted to check the password of an old network that you had used in the past, then you are out of luck with the above method.

But, with iCloud Keychain, you can see the password of all the WiFi network you had saved on your iPhone. The only requirement is that you need to have the iCloud keychain featured enabled on your iPhone.

When this iCloud Keychain is enabled, whatever password you have decided to share across multiple devices will be available to see in the Keychain.

Oh, and you need a Mac for this method. You are out of luck if you are on Windows.

Enable iCloud Keychain in iPhone and Sync the Passwords

First things first, you need to make sure iCloud Keychain is enabled on your device. Follow the below steps:

Open the Settings app.
Click on your Profile at the top of the settings.
Tap on iCloud.
Tap on Keychain.
Make sure it is enabled. If it’s not, please, go ahead and enable it.

Note: If you are just enabling the iCloud Keychain, it may take some time for all the passwords to get synced to it. So, please wait for a few mins, maybe 15 – 20 minutes, before proceeding to the next step.

If you have been using Keychain all along, proceed to the next steps now.

Access Keychain from your Mac

We are now going to connect to Keychain in Mac to get the password of the WiFi network.

Step 1. Open System Preferences on Mac and click on the Apple ID button.

Step 2. In the next screen, make sure Keychain in enabled. If not, please enable the same.

Step 3. Next, search for and open Keychain on your Mac.

Step 4. Once the Keychain opens, search for your WiFi network name and you will see it listed.

Step 6. Double click on the listed WiFi networks. This will open a dialog box as below.

Step 7. In the above, click on the Show password check box at the bottom. You will be asked to enter your password.

Step 8. Once you enter the password, Keychain will reveal the WiFi password that you had saved.

You can now copy the password and save it somewhere so that you can share it with others or enter it manually on another device from which you are trying to connect to WiFi.

Even if you cannot find the WiFi password on your iPhone, you can still share your WiFi password easily with your friends and family.

There are a few requirements for this though:

Both the devices must be running iOS 11 or newer.
Your friend’s Apple ID must be stored in your contacts.
Both the devices must have Bluetooth enabled.

That said, here’s how you can easily share the WiFi password on your iPhone:

Note: This method also works on Macs running macOS High Sierra (10.13) or higher and iPads running iPad OS.

Hold your friend’s iPhone very close to your iPhone.
Your friend should use their phone to try to connect to the WiFi network.
The Share Your Wi-Fi pop up will show on your iPhone at the bottom of your iPhone screen. Tap the Share Password button.
The WiFi password will now be shared to your friend’s iPhone and will connect automatically.
On your iPhone, tap Done.

View the WiFi password of your personal hotspot

If the WiFi password you are trying to share is of your iPhone personal hotspot, you are in luck.

Personal Hotspot feature on iPhone helps you share your data connectivity to other devices over WiFi. So, anyone who wants to connect to your Personal Hotspot via WiFi, simply needs the password for your Personal Hotspot.

When you enable Personal Hotspot on your iPhone, it acts like the WiFi router. Hence, it is pretty easy to find out the password.