How To View Saved WiFi Password In Your Android Device?
If you have forgotten your Wi-Fi password, you need not worry as you are not alone and it is more common than you may think. Many users connect their smartphones with their Wi-Fi while setting them up and forget it. This could happen if you want to share the Wi-Fi password with one of your friends and you don’t remember the password of your Wi-Fi. And in case you haven’t saved your Wi-Fi password anywhere physically or in memo apps like Google Keep. There are several different ways to access it from your Android phone.
It is possible to view saved WiFi passwords on your Android device, but you will need to have root access to your device. If you don't have root access, you won't be able to view the saved WiFi passwords. Here are the steps to view saved WiFi passwords on your Android device:
- Download and install a file manager app that supports root access, such as ES File Explorer.
- Open the file manager app and navigate to the root folder of your device.
- Go to the "data" folder, then to the "misc" folder, and then to the "wifi" folder.
- In the "wifi" folder, you will see a file named "wpa_supplicant.conf". Tap and hold on this file, and then select "Open with" and choose a text editor.
- In the text editor, scroll down to the section that says "network={}". Under this section, you will see the SSID (name) of the WiFi network you want to view the password for.
- The password will be listed next to the line that says "psk=". This is the WiFi password for the network.
- If the password is not visible in plain text, it may be encrypted. In this case, you will see a line that says "psk=" followed by a string of random characters. This string of characters is the encrypted password.
- To decrypt the password, you can use a tool such as Hashcat or John the Ripper. However, this requires some technical knowledge and is not recommended for beginners.
- Once you have obtained the WiFi password, you can use it to connect to the network on any device.
Unfortunately, smartphones and tablets running stock on Android 9 and lower cannot generate QR codes for your Wi-Fi. However, you can use any third-party app to generate a QR code for your Wi-Fi. Or you can generate it from another device and use the Google Lens app to scan the QR code.
You can use any QR code generator app from Google Play Store and use the option to generate QR codes for your Wi-fi. And this QR code image can be saved to your gallery. And now follow the below steps to decode the Wifi password from the QR code image.
- Open the Google Lens app or tap the lens icon in the Google app
- From here you can select the QR code image from your gallery or choose search with your camera option
- Once the QR code is scanned you’ll see your password along with the Wi-Fi name below in the results.
You can even use the Google Photos app and look for the Google Lens option there. Once the QR code is scanned, you will see your Wi-fi credentials as plain text and you can note down the credentials.