A device that has forgotten the Wi-Fi password
Get any device back onto your own Wi-Fi from scratch, and know exactly where the password lives when it asks.
A tablet that has been perfectly happy for two years suddenly asks for the Wi-Fi password again. Nothing you did caused that.
Whatever the cause, the repair is the same and it is short. The password is printed on the box itself — usually on a sticker underneath, sometimes on a little pull-out card. It is a long string of letters and numbers, and it was never something you chose.
Key points
- Get a device onto a Wi-Fi network from scratch, without help
- Find the password on the box, and know it was never one you chose
- Tell the Wi-Fi password apart from the three passwords it gets confused with
- Type it wrongly without consequence, because there is none
What to remember
- Pick the name that matches the sticker, type the password from the sticker, press Join. Nothing else on that screen matters.
- The Wi-Fi password lives on the box. It is not one of your passwords, and it never was.
- One password is printed on a box and shared freely. The others are yours, and are never needed to join anything.
Try this
Photograph the sticker under your box with your phone, and keep the picture somewhere you can find it. Everyone who visits will ask for it eventually, and reading it off a photograph beats lying on the floor with a flashlight.
Practice: A device that has forgotten the Wi-Fi password. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.