How to Retrieve Saved Wi‑Fi Passwords on Windows, Linux, and macOS

Have you ever realized months after connecting to a Wi‑Fi network that you no longer remember its password? Operating systems keep a record of every Wi‑Fi network you have joined, enabling automatic reconnection without re‑entering the password. This article shows how to discover those saved passwords on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Windows

Open the Command Prompt with administrator rights (search for CMD and run as administrator). First, list all stored Wi‑Fi profiles:

netsh wlan show profiles

Identify the profile name you want, then display its password with:

netsh wlan show profile <profile-name> key=clear

The output includes a line Key Content : <password> showing the saved password.

Linux

On most Linux distributions, Wi‑Fi configuration files are stored under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ . Navigate to that directory and list the files:

cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
ls -a

Open the file corresponding to the desired network (replace <Interface name> with the file name) to view its contents:

cat <Interface name>

Within the file, the line psk=<password> reveals the stored Wi‑Fi password.

macOS

macOS also stores Wi‑Fi passwords in the Keychain. Use the security command to retrieve a password (replace Interface-name with the SSID):

security find-generic-password -ga Interface-name | grep "password:"

The command outputs the password for the specified Wi‑Fi network.

Conclusion

If you have ever joined a Wi‑Fi network, its password is saved on your system regardless of the operating system. By using the appropriate terminal commands, you can view all stored Wi‑Fi passwords without needing to reconnect to the network.