Three Ways to See a Password in Your Browser Instead of Dots

Browsers always hide passwords behind asterisks (***) or dots to ensure no passerby steals your password. However, on some occasions you may want the password to be visible. Maybe you made a mistake while writing the password and now want to see the mistake to correct it instead of entering the whole password. You may also depend a lot on a browser’s built-in password manager to autofill password fields, so there is a good chance you might have forgotten your password.

In this post we will show you three ways to reveal passwords easily in your browser and even copy them.

Warning: passwords are hidden to ensure they don’t get stolen by someone standing behind you. Before you reveal your password using one of the methods below, make sure no one is standing near you who could take a peek. (This also includes the person peeking from the window behind you)

1. Reveal Saved Passwords in Chrome

Once you’ve entered a password for a particular website once, you’ll get the option for Chrome to save it in its list of passwords. The good news is that you can go to your Chrome settings and see all your saved passwords listed there.

To do this, click the three-dotted menu icon at the top-right corner of Chrome, then click Settings.

In the Settings menu, click Passwords to see your full list of saved passwords.

Find the site you want to reveal the password for in the list, then click the eye icon to the right of the password column.

Enter your Windows password or PIN in the pop-up window, and your password will show up in the last.

You can now click the eye icon next to any password in the list, and you’ll see that password right away. (If you restart Chrome or your PC, you’ll need to enter your Windows password to see passwords again.)

2. Reveal a Password from the Developer Options

If you want to reveal a password without any need of third-party utilities, then you will have to make a tiny edit in the script of the page. When you find a password field, right-click on it and select “Inspect element.”

The “Inspect element” developer tool will open, and you will see some complex text strings. Here you need to look for a line starting with <input type="password." Once found, double-click on type="password" to edit it and replace “password” with “text.” It should look like the following: <input type="text."

Close the Inspect element window, and the password will be revealed. You can easily edit or copy the password until the page is reloaded again.

3. Use a Third-Party Extension

There are many third-party extensions available that will let you reveal passwords automatically or with just the click of a button. If you need to reveal passwords often, then an extension will be a better solution with faster results. Below are some extensions to try:

ShowPassword for Chrome: Show password by hovering your mouse cursor over the password field.

Show/hide passwords for Firefox: Each time you type a password, you’ll get a browser option to show it.

Show Password for Opera: Automatically reveals all password fields.

Conclusion

Revealing your hidden password might be a bit risky, but it can also be very handy. The first two methods are perfect if you just want to check out your password for reference. However, a third-party extension is highly recommended if you need to reveal passwords often or just want to remove this protection from the browser to make it easier. If you know of any other convenient ways to reveal a password, share with us in the comments.