The fastest way: Keychain Access
Your Mac stores every WiFi password you have ever connected to in an app called Keychain Access. You can retrieve any of those passwords in about 30 seconds without restarting or entering recovery mode.
Open Keychain Access by pressing Command + Space, typing "keychain", and pressing Enter. In the window that opens, click the "Passwords" category on the left side. In the search box at the top right, type the name of your WiFi network exactly as it appears on your device — for example, "Linksys-Guest" or "CoffeeShop-5G".
When the network name appears in the list, double-click it. A small window will pop up. Check the box next to "Show password". Your Mac will ask for your login password — the same one you use to unlock your computer. Type it and click "Allow". The WiFi password will now be visible in plain text in that window.
Key Takeaways
- Keychain Access stores all your saved WiFi passwords and is the quickest way to find one without restarting your Mac.
- You will need your Mac login password to view a saved WiFi password, even if you are the only person who uses the computer.
- If you cannot remember your Mac login password, you cannot retrieve WiFi passwords through Keychain Access.
- The network name you search for must match exactly what appears in your WiFi list — spaces, hyphens, and capitalization all matter.
- If a network does not appear in Keychain Access, your Mac has never connected to it, or the password was deleted manually.
What to do if the network does not show up
If you search for a network name and nothing appears, it means your Mac either never connected to that network or the password was removed from Keychain. Check your WiFi menu to confirm the exact spelling and capitalization of the network name — many networks have similar names, and typing "Linksys" when the actual network is "LINKSYS" will return no results.
If you are certain of the spelling and the network still does not appear, try this: in Keychain Access, click the "All Items" category instead of "Passwords". Search again for the network name. Sometimes WiFi entries are stored in a different category depending on how your Mac connected to them.
If the network still does not appear, you will need to reconnect to it. Forget the network from your WiFi settings, then connect again and enter the password manually. Once you do, the password will be saved to Keychain and you can retrieve it this way in the future.
Retrieving a password for a network you are not currently connected to
You do not need to be connected to a WiFi network to find its password in Keychain. The password is stored on your Mac regardless of whether the network is in range or whether you are currently using it. This means you can look up a password for a network at your office, a friend's house, or a hotel — as long as your Mac has connected to it before and you remember the network name.
This is useful if you need to give someone else the password but do not want to walk them through connecting to the network first. You can retrieve it from Keychain, write it down, and share it without needing to be on that network.
Why your Mac asks for your login password
Keychain is your Mac's password vault. It stores not just WiFi passwords but also passwords for websites, email accounts, and apps. To prevent someone else from sitting down at your computer and accessing all of those passwords, macOS requires you to enter your login password before showing any stored password.
This is a security feature, not a bug. If you share your Mac with other people, they cannot view your WiFi passwords without knowing your login password. If you are the only user and you have forgotten your login password, you will need to reset it through your Apple ID or recovery mode before you can access Keychain.
Copying the password to share it safely
Once you can see the password in Keychain, you can copy it directly from that window. Click inside the password field, select all the text with Command + A, copy it with Command + C, and paste it wherever you need it. This is faster and more accurate than writing it down by hand, especially for long or complex passwords.
If you are sharing the password with someone in person, paste it into a text message or email rather than reading it aloud — people often mishear characters like "zero" versus "O" or "one" versus "l". If you are sharing it with a guest on your network, consider using your router's guest network feature instead, which lets you set a separate password that you can change or disable without affecting your main network.
What to do if you forgot your Mac login password
If you cannot remember the password you use to unlock your Mac, you cannot view any passwords stored in Keychain, including WiFi passwords. You will need to reset your Mac login password first. The method depends on whether you have an Apple ID linked to your Mac.
If you do have an Apple ID, restart your Mac and hold Command + Q when the login screen appears. Select "Reset Password" and follow the prompts to reset your login password using your Apple ID. Once you have set a new login password, you can open Keychain Access and retrieve your WiFi passwords as normal.
If you do not have an Apple ID or cannot access it, you will need to use macOS Recovery. Restart your Mac and hold Command + R until the Apple logo appears. Open Utilities from the menu bar and select Terminal. Type resetpassword and press Enter. This opens the password reset tool. Follow the prompts to create a new login password, then restart and log in with that new password.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I see WiFi passwords on my Mac if I am not the administrator?
No. Only the administrator account can view passwords in Keychain. If you are a standard user on a shared Mac, you cannot retrieve WiFi passwords even if you are connected to the network. You will need to ask the administrator to look it up for you.
Does deleting a WiFi network from my Mac also delete the password?
Forgetting a network from your WiFi settings does not automatically delete the password from Keychain. The password remains stored. However, if you manually delete an entry from Keychain itself, it is gone and you will need to reconnect to that network and re-enter the password to save it again.
Can I export all my WiFi passwords at once?
Keychain Access does not have a built-in export feature for WiFi passwords. You can only view and copy passwords one at a time. There is no way to save all of them to a file or print them in bulk through the standard Mac interface.
What if I see a password in Keychain that I do not recognize?
It means your Mac connected to that network at some point in the past. Check the network name carefully — it might be a network from a previous job, a hotel you stayed at, or a neighbor's network. If you do not want to keep that password, you can delete it from Keychain by right-clicking the entry and selecting "Delete".
Will resetting my Mac delete all the passwords in Keychain?
A full factory reset will erase Keychain and all stored passwords. A regular restart or software update will not. If you are planning to erase your Mac, write down or export any WiFi passwords you need to keep before you start the reset process.