Forgot Your Router Password? Find Out Which One — and How to Get Back In

“Router password” can mean three different things, and the fix depends on which one you lost. The good news: in most cases you can get back in without wiping the router. A factory reset always works, but it also erases your Wi-Fi network and internet settings, so it comes last.

First: Which Password Did You Forget?

NETGEAR’s support makes the same point: the router’s admin password is separate from the Wi-Fi password and from the MyNETGEAR account. Many people try the Wi-Fi password on the login page and conclude they are locked out.

Forgot the Wi-Fi Password

This is the easy case, because the password is stored on every device that has connected before.

Look at the label. If nobody changed it, the Wi-Fi name and password are printed on the bottom or back of the router, often marked “Wireless Key”, “Wi-Fi Password” or “Network Key”.

Read it from a connected device. Windows, macOS, iPhone and Android can show or share the saved password of the network you are on. Our step-by-step guide covers each system: how to find your Wi-Fi password.

Read it in the router settings. If you can still sign in to the router, the wireless settings show the password. ASUS, for example, shows it under Network → Main network profile on current firmware, or Wireless → General on older versions.

If none of these works, set a new Wi-Fi password in the router settings — see how to change your Wi-Fi password — and reconnect your devices.

Forgot the Router Admin Password

There is no way to read a lost admin password out of a router. You can only try the likely candidates, use a recovery feature, or reset. Try these in order:

1. The default login. Many routers never had their admin password changed. Check the label first: newer routers have a unique password printed there. Older ones use a standard pair such as admin/admin or admin with an empty password; look up your model on our default router login list or the brand pages.

2. Passwords you use elsewhere. If you set the router up yourself, try the Wi-Fi password and your usual passwords. If someone else installed it — a family member, a technician, a previous tenant — ask them.

3. The app. If the router is managed through an app (Deco, Nighthawk, Orbi, ASUS Router, Eero and provider apps), you may still be signed in there. Many settings, including the Wi-Fi password, can be changed in the app without the web admin password.

4. The provider. If the router came from your internet provider, the admin password may be on the label or available from support, and the provider’s app often controls the device remotely.

5. A built-in recovery feature, if your brand has one (below).

Recovery Options by Brand

NETGEAR has the most useful recovery option, but only if password recovery was enabled during setup. Open routerlogin.net (or orbilogin.com for Orbi), enter wrong credentials three times, and a Router Password Reset screen appears. Enter the serial number from the label, answer the two security questions, and choose a new password. If recovery was never enabled, NETGEAR points you to a factory reset.

TP-Link offers Password Recovery by email or security questions on many models — again, only if it was set up in advance under Advanced → System → Administration. Then click Forgot Password? on the tplinkwifi.net login page and follow the steps. Without it, TP-Link says a factory reset is required.

ASUS and D-Link support pages tell you to restore factory defaults if you forgot the admin login; the default credentials then apply again. D-Link’s quick installation guides add that a forgotten device password or Wi-Fi password means a reset.

Provider gateways (Xfinity, Spectrum, AT&T, Verizon and others) are usually managed through the provider’s app and account, where you can change the Wi-Fi password and often the admin password without touching the device.

For brand-specific login addresses, see our pages for NETGEAR, TP-Link, ASUS and D-Link.

Last Resort: Factory Reset

If nothing above works, a factory reset restores the default admin login and Wi-Fi password from the label. It also deletes your Wi-Fi name and password, your internet connection settings, port forwarding rules and everything else you configured.

Before you reset, have the PPPoE username and password from your provider ready if your connection uses them; cable and most fiber connections do not. Then hold the reset button with a paper clip while the router is on — usually 5 to 15 seconds, depending on the brand — and set it up again. The full procedure, with brand-specific button times, is in how to factory reset a router, and how to set up a new router walks through the setup afterwards.

So It Does Not Happen Again

Store both passwords in a password manager, with a note saying which is the Wi-Fi password and which is the admin password.

Turn on recovery if your router offers it — NETGEAR’s password recovery or TP-Link’s Password Recovery — or manage the router through the manufacturer’s app.

Change the admin password from the default once you are back in — but write the new one down. See how to change the router admin password.

Back up the configuration. Most routers can save their settings to a file under Administration, System or Maintenance. After a reset, restoring that file brings everything back.