In this guide, we’ll explain how to see the WiFi password for each network you connect your Android device to and why you might want to find it. Did you know that your Android device saves the WiFi password for each network? Whether it’s WiFi at home, at work, at Starbucks, at a friend’s house, or on a mobile hotspot device.
There are many reasons why you might want to find a WiFi network password. This may be because you lost or forgot the password, or because you don’t want to dig through the router and find the underlying information.
Another reason is to share the password with your friends, family members or log in to the network with a different device. If you don’t have a password, there is a way to find the information stored on your Android device. As long as your phone has root access (like Jailbreak for Android), you can see the WiFi password of any network you use.
There are several different ways to find the WiFi password stored on your Android phone or tablet. It’s easy to find with a File Explorer or apps in the Google Play store, as long as you have root access. Basically, the Android operating system hides this information for most users. If the phone is rooted, you can easily access these files and see the passwords in plain text. This time, remember to write it down and put it in a safe place.
First, we’ll show you how to find it with a file explorer, then share instructions for an app that does it for you.
How to Find WiFi Passwords on Android
As long as you have root access, open a File Explorer app with root privileges. We recommend ES File Explorer or File Explorer Root. Make sure you have granted access, then proceed to the steps below. Essentially we go to data/miscellaneous/wifi and wpa_supplicant.conf (or wep_supplicant.conf) if the network uses WEP instead of WPA.
From here, your phone will display a text list detailing all the WiFi networks you’ve ever connected to. These text files show the WiFi name, password and security type, and yes, the WiFi password access key. The wpa_supplicant.conf file is easier to read with a text editor, so open it as plain text.
Now browse through all saved WiFi networks or search for the SSID (network name) of your WiFi until you find what you are looking for. Scroll through until you find the SSID and PSK, we want the latter of the two.
To the right of the PSK will be the password of the WiFi network. This much. We are all done and now you can share the password with your friends or family, write it down and put it in a safe place. This works great for hotel WiFi and that sort of thing.
Find Android WiFi Password with an App
If messing around with file explorers and opening weird text files isn’t your thing to do, we have one more option. Go to Google Play Store and WiFi Key Recovery app. This app works just like the instructions above and you will need root access but it does all the hard work for you.
This app makes the whole process extremely simple. Once it gets root access, it instantly opens the list of networks for you. If you have connected to many different WiFi hotspots while owning your device, the list can be quite long. To speed things up, use the search bar to find the name of the WiFi network you’re looking for.
More Details and One Final Tip
In closing, it’s worth noting that this process can be even easier depending on the smartphone or tablet you have. Major flagship phones from Samsung, LG, Motorola, and other big names hide files like the wpa.supplicant.conf we mentioned above. However, some phones don’t do this and you can use a file explorer to find your WiFi password without root.
Finally, if you have guests or visitors and do not have access to the WiFi password, there is another way to connect them. Find your wireless router and press the WPS Push button on the router, then enable WPS Push in settings > connections > WiFi on any Android device. This connects them securely to your WiFi without a password. Good luck and enjoy.
