How to recover passwords with Keychain Access
03.12.2014
If you're the kind of upstanding person I believe you to be, over the coming holidays you're going to spend some time with family and friends. And because you're the kind of person who watches videos like this, you're probably one of the tech savvier people they know. And because you are, sure enough you're going to get this question:
"I need to get into my old email account but I can't remember the password. What should I do"
Sure, you could go through the steps to request a new password if it's offered, but maybe you can avoid all that with this simple tip.
Launch Keychain Access, search for the name of the account you want to discover the password for, double-click on it, and an information window will appear. Enable the Show password option and you'll be prompted for the user password for that account. Enter it and click Allow. The password will appear in the appropriate field.
You then pass along that password to the person you're helping. If you're not terribly trustworthy you might suggest that after you leave they take steps to change that password.
Christopher Breen