Mac Won’t Remember a Wireless Network Password? Here’s How to Fix It
We recently covered how to resolve an issue when Mac OS X doesn’t remember a wireless network, password protected or not, and since then several readers have notified us of another separate issue: Mac OS X won’t remember a wireless network password. The networks are remembered, but each time the network is found the password is forgotten and has to be reentered. This annoyance is fairly easy to resolve, as shown below.
Using Keychain First Aid
- Hit Command+Spacebar to bring up Spotlight, launch “Keychain Access”
- Pull down the “Keychain Access” menu and select “Keychain First Aid”
- Enter the password accompanying the given user name
- Check “Repair” and click on “Start”
Sometimes repairing the keychain can be enough to resolve issues with passwords being remembered by OS X, but if not carry on with a solution that definitely works below:
Remove Wireless Networks from Keychain
- Hit Command+Spacebar for Spotlight and search for “Keychain Access”, launch the app
- Using Keychain Access search box in the upper right corner, search for “Airport network password”
- Locate and select the name of the problematic router, if there are multiple entries for a single router select them all
- Right-click on the router name and choose “Delete RouterName”
- Authenticate the removal, then close out of Keychain Access
- Reboot the Mac and re-join the wireless network
Mac OS X should now remember the wifi password without incident.
If you’re having broader problems with Mac OS X Wi-Fi where it doesn’t work at all or doesn’t work after waking from sleep, try the above methods in combination with removing the network and renewing the DHCP lease.
If you’re still out of luck, don’t miss our guide on fixing wi-fi problems in OS X Lion.
I keep experiencing the same issues, and none of these fixes seem to either work, or still be possible after updates.
There is no key chain first aid!?!?
It was removed in a recent update. I’ve had no luck so far finding any solution to the password problem myself.
hope this works. I will find out soon. thanks in advance and no thanks to Apple for being a royal PITA for all the times I had to turn my router over to get the password that it wouldn’t remember.
After much frustration this worked perfectly. Thank you!!
thank you this solved my problem! much appreciated.
[…] can use the same fix when a Mac won’t remember wi-fi passwords, though forgetting networks is resolved through Repairing Permissions […]
I find simply turning wi-fi off then back on fixes the problem when this happens…
[…] Via | OSXDaily […]
Sometimes deleting com.apple.airport.preferences.plist from /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ will do the trick too
Saw this earlier today on WiFi dropping the connection even though it has nothing to with Password it might be of some interest to people that have their WiFi dropped by Airport.
Troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues in OS X Lion and Mac OS X v10.6 { http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US }