Forgot Gmail Password? Use your browser to recover it!
If you forget or otherwise lose your Gmail password under certain circumstances you might well be able recover it on your own, courtesy of your own web browser.
What you'll need to recover your Gmail password is:
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Your Google account name or email address.
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Access to a computer on which you've recently logged into your Google account (any Google service that uses your Gmail account as your login ID), and on which you've selected "remember my password".
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A (free) downloadable tool that will display that saved password, or a browser that will do so.
The key to this technique is all in that second item: if you've instructed the computer to remember your password, you can get it back.
Internet Explorer
If you forgot your Gmail password and you're running Internet Explorer as your browser, download the free "IE PassView" (iepv) from nirsoft.net.
When you run IE PassView it scans the Windows Registry and other locations that Internet Explorer may have used to store your remembered password. It then presents a list containing:
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Entry Name: typically the URL of the site - look for any of the Google sites that you may have logged into.
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Type: IE can store entries for several different functions, like auto complete, that may save your password. This column indicates which of these features resulted in this information being saved.
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Stored In: the location in which that the information is stored; often this is the registry but may include locations as well.
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User Name: the user name to which the password applies. Look for your Gmail address in this field.
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Password: the password.
Firefox
If you forgot your Gmail password and you're running Firefox as your browser, you don't need to download anything at all.
In Firefox:
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Click on the "Tools" menu.
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Click on the "Options" menu item.
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Click on the "Security" tab.
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Click on the "Saved Passwords..." button.
Firefox should now present you with a list of all the accounts and passwords that you've asked it to remember for you. Your Gmail account should be included, if you had asked for it to be remembered.
In either browser, using either technique to recover your lost password, if you cannot find your account, or if your account is listed but no password is included, then this technique will not work for you. The computer has not remembered your password for you.