How to look up passwords for websites and apps on an iPhone

iOS Settings Month continues with this little-known feature that reveals usernames and passwords (if you have either the right face for Face ID, the right finger for Touch ID, or the iPhone’s unlock code). VERY handy!

You enter passwords for websites and apps on your iPhone and most of them are remembered by the device. The good news is you don’t have to type your passwords over and over. The bad news is, that makes them easy to forget! Fortunately, Apple provides a password look-up feature in the Settings app, so you can quickly and easily determine what your passwords are.

First, go to Settings. Tap Passwords & Accounts. Tap Website & App Passwords. As you can see in the picture, I have 283 items in the Website & App Passwords section. Fortunately I’m not the one who has to remember them all– the iPhone does that. I just need to remember how to look them up.

When you tap Website & App Passwords you’ll have to authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your iPhone’s unlock code. We wouldn’t want people peeking at your passwords just because your phone’s unlocked. On a Face ID iPhone the screen will look like this:

After authenticating you’ll see a big list of websites with usernames showing (or partly showing, depending on what fits).

Tap one of the items in the list and you’ll see the username and password for it. (Here, I’ve tapped the California Department of Motor Vehicles item (labeled “ca.gov” in the list).) That reveals the username and password for that item.

Very handy.

Note: the usernames and passwords in this list are synced with the ones on your Mac and iPad if you’re using iCloud Keychain on all of your devices (which I recommend you do).

Note 2: Apple blanks out the password in screenshots. I had to add the password to the screenshot after the fact.

Note 3: it works exactly the same way on an iPad. Here’s a screenshot showing my iPad Pro ready to display the list of passwords once I authenticate with Touch ID.

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Author: Christian Boyce

Christian Boyce is a Mac and iPhone expert specializing in teaching people how to use Apple devices better, to get more done with them, and to have more fun doing it. He bought his first Mac (a Mac Plus) in 1986 and his first iPhone in 2007. He's written books and magazine articles, and given seminars at Macworld Expo, MacFair/LA, and the California Computer Expo. Over 30 years in the business. View all posts by Christian Boyce