AirPort - Regain Access from Forgotten Passwords

To quickly change a forgotten password:

If you ever forget either your AirPort's base station Administrator or its wireless security password, the simplest way to access the base station again would be to perform a "soft" reset. (Note: This type of reset will temporarily disable all of the base station's passwords for up to five minutes. This should give you ample time to access the base station with the AirPort Utility to change any of the passwords.)

To retrieve a forgotten password:

There are three passwords types that can be used with an AirPort Extreme base station, AirPort Express base station, or a Time Capsule:

1. Wireless Security Password
2. Base Station's Administrator Password
3. Base Station's Disk Access Password

If you don't actually want to change any of these passwords, but just want to retrieve the existing ones, the following options are available for you to do so.

Option #1 - Using Keychain Access

• Run the Keychain Access app found in \Applications\Utilities
• In the top-left-side window, under Keychains, select "login." In the bottom-left-side window, under Category, select "Passwords."

For the Wireless Security Password

• In the right-side window, under the "Name" column, look for your Wi-Fi network's Network Name (or BSSID). The base station wireless security password entry will have a "Kind" of "AirPort network password."
• Double-click on your network name listing.
• Click on "Show password."
• If required, enter your Mac's administrator account's password.
• Your Wi-Fi network's wireless security password should now be displayed.

Alternatively, you can enter the following command in the Terminal app to retrieve the wireless security password from the Keychain: security find-generic-password -ga "<network-name>", where network-name would be the Network Name (aka, SSID) of your AirPort's wireless network. The password would be listed after the "Password:" key.

For example, if your AirPort's wireless network name is: mywirelessnetwork, the command would be:

• security find-generic-password -ga "mywirelessnetwork"

For the Base Station's Administrator Password

• In the right-side window, under the "Name" column, look for your base station's name. The base station administrator's password entry will have a "Kind" of "AirPort base station password."
• Double-click on your base station name listing.
• Click on "Show password."
• If required, enter your Mac's administrator account's password.
• Your base station administrator's password should now be displayed.

For the Base Station Disk Access Password

• In the right-side window, under the "Name" column, look for your base station's name. The disk access password entry will have a "Kind" of "AirPort Disk password."
• Double-click on your base station name listing.
• Click on "Show password."
• If required, enter your Mac's administrator account's password.
• Your base station disk access password should now be displayed.

Option #2a - Using the AirPort Utility from a Mac

• Run the AirPort Utility.
• Select the AirPort base station, and then, select Edit.
• From the AirPort Utility's menu bar, select Base Station > Show Passwords...
• Both the W-Fi security and base station password should now be displayed.

Option #2b - Using the AirPort Utility from an iOS Device

• Tap on the AirPort Utility.
• Tap on the appropriate AirPort base station, and then, tap on Edit.
• Tap on Advanced > Show Passwords (Note: The wireless security password will be listed after "Main Network;" the base station administrator password will be listed after "Base Station."