How can I share my WiFi password from my iPhone?

Wifi
1

I’m trying to share my home WiFi password from my iPhone to a family member’s iPhone, but the automatic pop-up to share the password isn’t showing up. Both phones are on the latest iOS and we’re connected to the same network. Do I need to change any specific settings or iCloud options to make WiFi password sharing work correctly?

2

Couple of things to check, because that popup is pretty picky.

  1. Check basics
    • Both iPhones need Wi Fi and Bluetooth turned on.
    • Turn off Personal Hotspot on both.
    • Both need to be near each other, like same room.
    • Both on latest iOS, which you already said.

  2. Contacts and Apple IDs
    • On your phone, save your family member’s Apple ID email in Contacts.
    • On their phone, save your Apple ID email in Contacts.
    • Use the same Apple ID email they use for iMessage and iCloud.
    • After saving, force close Settings and reopen Wi Fi settings.

  3. Correct connection order
    • Your iPhone must already be connected to the home Wi Fi.
    • On their iPhone, go to Settings > Wi Fi.
    • Tap your home network name so it shows the password prompt.
    • At that moment, keep both phones unlocked and next to each other.
    • You should then see the “Share Password” popup on your phone.

If it still does not show up, try this quick reset:
• On both iPhones, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
• Reconnect your phone to Wi Fi manually.
• Try the share flow again.

If you use a dual band router with 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz under different names, make sure you both use the same SSID. Some users reported the share feature failing when one phone used 2.4 and the other used 5 under different names.

For checking Wi Fi quality at home or planning a better setup, a tool like NetSpot Wi Fi analyzer helps you map signal strength, channel usage, and problem spots. It helps when guests keep having issues on certain rooms or bands.

3

Couple more angles you can try if the popup is being stubborn:

1. Make sure you’re not on a captive or weird network

The Apple WiFi password sharing feature is picky about the type of network:

  • It usually will not work on:
    • Guest networks with isolation turned on
    • Networks that require a web login page (cafes, hotels, uni, etc.)
    • Some “guest VLAN” setups from ISP routers

If your “home” WiFi is actually the router’s guest SSID, try connecting both iPhones to the main SSID instead and test again.

2. Disable MAC address randomization (temporarily)

This one is less obvious, but it has broken sharing for some folks:

On both phones:
Settings → Wi Fi → tap the ⓘ next to your network → turn off Private Wi Fi Address, then reconnect.

Sometimes the router or Apple’s sharing logic gets confused when it sees different randomized MAC addresses and some saved profile.

3. Turn off VPN / security apps

VPNs and some “security” or “device management” profiles can mess with WiFi sharing:

  • Turn off any VPNs on both devices (Settings → VPN).
  • If your work installed a management profile (MDM), it may block some iCloud features. In that case, try from a personal device instead.

4. Restart iCloud & checking account region

@viaggiatoresolare covered the Contacts / Apple ID part pretty well. I’ll slightly disagree with the idea that a simple Settings force close is always enough. I’ve seen this start working only after fully reauthenticating iCloud:

  1. On both phones: Settings → top Apple ID banner → scroll down → Sign Out.
  2. Restart the phone.
  3. Sign back in with the same Apple IDs as before.
  4. Then retry the WiFi share flow.

Also make sure both Apple IDs are from regions where all iCloud features are supported. Mixed-region setups occasionally act weird.

5. If it still refuses, use QR or manual sharing

At some point it’s faster to bypass the Apple magic:

  • You can create a QR code with your WiFi SSID + password using any offline QR generator on your Mac/PC, then scan it with the family member’s iPhone camera.
  • Or just show the password and let them type it in once. After that, iCloud Keychain will sync it across their devices.

6. When the problem is really your WiFi, not the phones

If you keep having issues with devices randomly dropping or failing to connect in certain rooms, the password share thing might just be exposing a flaky network rather than being the core problem.

A proper WiFi analyzer helps here. Using something like
visualizing and tuning your home WiFi coverage
you can:

  • Scan for overlapping channels from neighbors
  • See if your 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz network is way weaker in certain rooms
  • Check whether your dual band setup is misconfigured

Cleaning up channel congestion and signal dead spots often makes all the Apple “auto” features behave more reliably.

Readable, search friendly version of your situation

Trying to share your home WiFi password from one iPhone to another and not seeing the “Share Password” popup? Even if both iPhones are updated to the latest iOS and connected to the same wireless network, the feature can fail if you’re on a guest SSID, using randomized MAC addresses, running VPNs, or dealing with a misconfigured router. Verify both phones are on the primary WiFi network, disable Private Wi Fi Address temporarily, turn off VPNs, and make sure both Apple IDs are properly signed in and saved in each other’s Contacts. If the automatic sharing still doesn’t appear, consider using a WiFi QR code and test your network quality with a WiFi analyzer like NetSpot to rule out coverage and interference problems.

1 Like
4

Couple of edge‑case things that @reveurdenuit and @viaggiatoresolare didn’t really dig into, which can still kill the Wi‑Fi password popup:

  1. Check router settings, not just the phones

    • If “AP isolation” or “client isolation” is enabled on the main SSID, devices on Wi‑Fi cannot talk to each other, which can silently break the Apple sharing flow.
    • Also look for “block LAN to WLAN” or similar options. Turn those off on the main network, at least temporarily, and test again.
    • If you are using multiple access points or a mesh, make sure both iPhones are on the same SSID and preferably the same VLAN. Some mesh systems let you put certain devices on an “IoT” or isolated network.

  2. Watch out for content filters / security routers

    • If you run stuff like Pi‑hole, AdGuard Home, or DNS‑based parental controls, they might interfere with Apple’s background calls that help with password sharing.
    • For a quick test, bypass them: temporarily use the ISP router’s default DNS or a simple guest network without filtering, see if the popup appears.

  3. Keychain weirdness

    • On the sender iPhone, go to Settings → Apple ID → iCloud → Passwords & Keychain and toggle it off, restart, then on again.
    • This is different from signing fully out of iCloud like suggested earlier and is often enough to kick the Wi‑Fi credential sharing back into shape.
    • Also, if you ever manually edited that network in Settings → Wi‑Fi → ⓘ → “Configure IP / DNS” to custom values, try “Forget This Network,” reconnect cleanly, then retry the share.

  4. Try a completely fresh SSID

    • Create a new test Wi‑Fi name on your router, simple WPA2/WPA3 password, no guest options, no portal, no VLAN tricks.
    • Connect only your two iPhones to this test SSID and try sharing there.
    • If it works on the test SSID but not the main one, the problem is 99% in router / network configuration rather than iOS.

  5. When you start suspecting coverage or interference

    • If the popup appears sometimes in one room but not another, your “same network” might not be as healthy as it looks.
    • A Wi‑Fi analyzer like NetSpot can help you visualize signal drops, channel congestion, and see whether one phone is roaming to a weak AP while the other is on a strong one.
    • Pros of NetSpot:
      • Very clear heatmaps so you can see where coverage is bad.
      • Helpful for tuning channels and AP placement so features like AirDrop and password sharing behave more consistently.
      • Works well for both quick scans and deeper surveys if you tweak your home setup a lot.
    • Cons of NetSpot:
      • Requires a laptop and a bit of time to walk around and map the place.
      • Overkill if you just want a one‑off fix and never touch your Wi‑Fi again.
      • Some advanced features are behind paid tiers, which not everyone needs.

  6. About the previous advice

    • I slightly disagree with logging out of iCloud on both phones as an early step. That can be heavy‑handed and may trigger long resyncs of photos and data. I would reserve full iCloud sign‑out as a last resort, after simpler things like Keychain toggle, Forget Network, and router checks.
    • I do agree with @reveurdenuit and @viaggiatoresolare on avoiding guest / captive networks and making sure Apple IDs are in Contacts, but those alone won’t fix issues rooted in router isolation or filtering.

If after all that the popup is still dead, assume it is an environmental or policy issue and fall back to a Wi‑Fi QR code or manual typing. The silver lining is that once your family member connects once, iCloud will remember the password on their devices and you probably will not have to fight this again.