“Hi, it’s me, SlamDunk. I know I’m currently logged in, but, er, ah, could y’all run my password by me? ”

Dear ChatGPT, I’m wondering if…

If you attempt a password, and it's wrong, won't it ask you "forgot your password"? and you can click on it and get it changed. At least that has been my experience.

Or is there an account settings choice?

Thanks. I finally found it, from an older device.

On another device, I did go to the website and chose the option “Forgot Password?”

They did not give me my forgotten password, but instead send a code to another email account. Then I was to type this code into the screen where I said I had forgotten my password. And that enabled me to login to that account on that device.

It still did not let me know what my password is. Pretty clever.

I since have located it on another device under the Apps Passwords.

I didn’t have it on all my usual devices because somebody in this household I thought but I must’ve misunderstood. Told me that it wasn’t a good idea to have my password stored that way.

Again, I was already in the account. It’s an account I use a lot, but for the life of me, I could not remember the password.

On the other hand, I have passwords written down for who knows what accounts. Pretty funny. Maybe they are for some defunct corporation I once had an account with. I usually try to use some sort of a word or demonic or something to trigger my memory about what the heck is what. I’m getting old well the thing is it’s not just age. It’s that I’m cumbered by a few handicaps that are challenging. It makes it hard to stay on top of things and organized.

Sometimes I encrypt things so well that I think it would take some sort of mastermind cryptographer* too untangled what I locked myself into or out of.

Maybe I should just stick to the password1, password2, password3….

* Or another disorganized and forgetful person

I have a bunch of pwds stored in google...many in fact. And it generates these random passwords that I'd not have a prayer of knowing. But then again, I don't need to.

But the best way to find out what your old password was is create a new pwd ... which will actually end up being the old one .. and the way you find out is it says you can't reuse the pwd!!

In my experience, you must know the lld one in order to change it.

This is one of my main accounts, so I don’t want to get locked out ;)

I really recommend a password vault on your phone and/or computer - you only need to remember one password (or write down one password) to open the "vault" of all your others. I've used Codebook by Zetetic for over 10 years - it's not high profile, but it is very secure. It's also easy to use, and it's free unless you want cloud storage (then $5/m).

Given the immense number of passwords we need these days for everything from banking to the library, I just couldn't keep up.

iPhone generates and stores them all automatically. FaceID opens up the file. It doesn’t always work seamlessly but good enough.

Thanks, TV and others. After the holidaze, I will have some time to focus on addressing that.

Meanwhile, ahem, there is another password snafu.

My previous doctor retired a few months ago. They put all my medical records, note, exams, results on a flash drive. I had other, recent, printed out copies of scans, reports, etc. and I seemed to be okay but busy with various life issues.

Only a few weeks ago I asked my tech savvy DH to open up that flash drive while I did something else. It was locked. I had, back alone given them one of my email accounts (the one I use for doctors). DH entered that name (and permutations — just the handle, the handle and the ”@blahblah.com” , but with no luck.

The medical office has been closed. All staff gone. Even if I got in touch with my former doctor, he wouldn’t know the PW and the staff is gone and they would not remember what they entered.

Maybe the spelled the email handle incorrectly. Maybe instead of typing ”horseshoe” they entered horseshoo, or houseshoo, whatever.

No emergency or pressing need and I have a lot of other things going on right now that need my attention. Maybe, maybe, I can log into the online medical chart system for that former practice, if it’s still online. Who knows if I will even be able to log into that.

Anyone ever get locked out of a flash drive, or encounter my situation?

Before 24/7365 pain and fatigue, and a few other life changes, I used to be able to be organized. Now, chaos.

Well, at least I have come upon a handful of helpful doctors in the past few months, so that’s a good development.

I'm probably the only person on the planet that keeps my passwords in a notebook. I can picture the page in my mind and can find them quickly. I don't trust having them on any device.

I'm glad you got your problem solved. It's probably time to try doing it differently.

I keep my passwords in a spreadsheet. listed alphabetically. About once a month, or whenever an important password is changed, I attach the file to an email and send it to myself. So wherever I am, I have access to the file. The name of the file and the folder where kept could of course be found by someone with patience and time to spent but they're mundane and seem to be what they're not. I'm not worried about their security.

I'm not a believer in having passwords that are a jumble of mess and impossible to type, like

$5Wm%>\hZ+)

Paranoid nonsense to me. I have a couple of made-up words that make sense to me and those used randomly and with other changeable components are it.

Using software to store passwords doesn't interest me, it would be an added complexity with no added value.

I travel, I spend time in different places, and I always have access to all of them.

Just skipped down and sorry if this was asked and answered already, but isn't there a 'forgot password' link to click?

petalique, you need time and patience. Try whatever permutations you can think of.

This is actually when I learned that everyone should write down and hide your passwords (or your vault password) for others to get in to your stuff should you be unable to access them yourself (death or disability). We spent a lot of hours trying different permutations and different 'favourite' passwords from years past after my father died. One of his favourites was A1B2C3D4E5, but sometimes they were lowercase and sometimes they were backwards.

petalique, I feel your pain. As I was reading your post I was thinking I would respond "I'm probably the only person on the planet that keeps my passwords in a notebook" and scrolled down to murraysmom's reply who said exactly the same thing, first!! LOL! Sort of along the line of what elmer said, I don't need to complicate my life unnecessarily. I also think it's funny that my little notebook looks eerily similar to marie-cates, but mine is all black. I keep it in a bedside "pocket" and am religious about putting it back immediately after use, so I always know where it is. I've had password issues in the past, and have dealt with the stress and frustration too many times until I decided on this system-the one that finally works well for me. Good luck!

I keep a running list of my passwords that I email to myself when I add or change a password. I encrypt them with my own code that no one else will understand...like: first address directions caps 2 of bonnie's. So that would be easy for me to de-code with 4229NE21!! My friend Bonnie said she hates how many exclamation points some people use, so I know what that means. Or I use a pet nickname...so if my cat's name is Barney, and I use it in part of the password, I will write it Fluffybutt and I know that means Barney.

It's a nice way to keep them because I can access them from my phone as well as my computer and when I'm away from home. I love how easy it is to edit, add, delete from the list I wrote a decoded list for my heirs I keep in the safe.

I happened to hear this on the radio and laughed out loud as I was driving because he just hits the nail on the head for how I've chosen passwords...I had no idea.