Tell me if you’ve ever had this happen. You’re at a family member’s house and their internet is locked down with a wifi password. You have access on your computer but someone else needs it and the person who knows the password isn’t there. It’s not like this happens all the time, but it’s happened often enough for me to be frustrated. Just a few weeks ago I was at a church for a conference. I had access on my computer from the previous year. I was trying to take care of email on my phone, but cell service in the part of the building I was in was non-existent. I needed access to the wifi on my phone, but no one was around who knew it. Good thing I’d learned how to recover a previously entered password on my computer. Here’s how:

Step One: On your Mac, go to your applications folder. Click on the utilities folder and then “keychain access.”

Step Two: On the left-hand side, you will see multiple items you can select. I click on the keychain, “local items.” This will display all the wifi passwords you’ve entered on your computer.

Step Three: Find the wifi network you’re currently on (or the one you’re trying to find… you don’t have to currently be on the network to find it). Once you find the appropriate network, double click on it.

Step Four: A box will open describing the network. At the bottom of the box is a checkbox labeled, “show password.” Click on that box and you will be prompted to enter your computer’s password. Enter this password and then the password you’re looking for will be revealed.

Here’s the good news. You can use Keychain access to find passwords to just about everything else, like passwords on website, computer programs and everything else imaginable. Hopefully this helps in your moment of desperation like it has helped me!