Your Mac says the Wi-Fi password is wrong, but it's right

Why it happens

Your Mac saves each Wi-Fi password and tries it again every time. If the router's password or security type changed, the saved one no longer works, but your Mac keeps offering it. Forgetting the network makes it ask you fresh.

How to fix it

1. First, find the current password. Look on the sticker under the router, ask whoever runs it, or check what your Mac has saved in the Passwords app: click Wi-Fi in its sidebar, pick the network and hold the pointer over the dots next to Password.

   Passwords›Wi-Fi

2. Open System Settings and click Wi-Fi. Click Details next to the network, then Forget This Network, and confirm. This removes the saved password from this Mac and from your other devices that use iCloud Keychain, so they'll need the password again too.

   Wi-Fi›Details…

3. Click the network in the list again. When the password box appears, tick Show password so you can see what you type.

4. Type the current password and click Join. Passwords care about capital letters, so check that Caps Lock is off, and watch for look-alikes such as 0 and O or l and 1.

Still not fixed?

1. Still rejected? Double-check the password with whoever set up the router, or read it again from the sticker. Router passwords are often changed and the sticker then no longer applies.

2. Ask someone whose iPhone is still on this network, and who has you in their Contacts, to open their iPhone and hold it near your Mac while it asks for the password. Their iPhone may offer to share the password, so they tap Share Password.

3. Restart the router by unplugging it for 30 seconds, then try again. Routers sometimes refuse new devices until they restart.

4. If someone recently changed the router's security, ask them to set it to WPA2/WPA3 or WPA3 Personal. Very old settings such as WEP can stop a Mac joining at all.

5. If your Mac rejects the right password on every network, including a phone hotspot, contact Apple Support. If only this one router refuses, contact your internet provider or the router maker.