Wifi password backup

Hi everyone!

Due to trouble with Google Play (“no connection” error msg.) it seems that I’ve have to reinstall Kola Nut 1.8 on my FP1U. As I read in other forums, on Android devices the wifi passwords are stored in /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf but this file is located at /system/etc/wifi/ and did not contain anything regarding known wifi networks and passwords. But before the reinstall procedure I want to backup my saved wifi password but how to do it?

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It does contain a lot info, if you open it with a root browser or via a terminal window. Since it is a system file it needs root permission to be viewed.

There are also some apps out there that allow you to backup/restore wifi passwords such as this (not used this one so don’t know what it is like).

I use Go Backup which among other things backs up and restores wifi passwords.

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@Chris_R
As I merntioned in my first post I currently can not use Google Play (“no connection” error msg.). Perhaps there’s another way to install the app ‘Go Backup’ but why to install this app when I only want to backup the file with stored wifi passwords?

@Stefan
My wpa_supplicant.conf is only 283 bytes and contains the following:
—8<-------------8<-------------
ctrl_interface=DIR=/data/misc/wpa_supplicant GROUP=wifi
update_config=1
manufacturer=MediaTek Inc.
device_name=Wireless Client
model_name=MTK Wireless Model
model_number=1.0
serial_number=2.0
device_type=10-0050F204-5
os_version=01020300
config_methods=display push_button keypad
—8<-------------8<-------------
That’s all, 283 bytes total.

Is there any other file containing wifi passwords or is this file the only right one and did not contain any password or known wifi’s respectively? If it is so I will be confused…

Because Google Play is not accessible I wanted to use Wifi-Key-View which I have installed from F-Droid. but this app does nothing because it uses /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf (take a look into the sources, file MainActivity.java, line 52) which is not available.

Apologies, I forgot the google bit when I posted!

Anyway, have you tried to view the file stored in /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf? I’ve just tried it myself now with Root Explorer and it’s a plain text file and has all my wifi connections and passwords in it.

I have also navigated to /system/etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf and found the same file which is like the one you have posted.

Thnaks for yor help! Now I’ve found out what was wrong.

At first I tooked a look with X-plore into /data directory but it was empty.
Now I’ve used Terminal Emulator to list the directory and this only can be done by using the “su -c” command otherwise it’s still empty. Then it was shown that this directory contains misc/ as subdir and that wpa_supplicant.conf is located in misc/wifi/ and in my case it’s 2004 bytes long. I’ve now copied this file to my external sdcard.

If someone want’s to do the same and has Terminal Emulator installed, can use the following command to backup/copy this file.

u0_a125@android:/ $ su -c "cat /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf > /storage/sdcard1/wifi-networks.txt"

[x] solved

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I used Terminal Emulator from F-Droid.

First type su. You have to grant superuser rights to Terminal emulator.
Then type cat /data/misc/wifi/WPA_supplicant.conf. This will display the content of the mentioned file.

Edit: I see you found out yourself. :slight_smile: would be interesting, if and how restoring this file works (after the reset).

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Restoring the passwords by copying the file back works!
For restoring I’ve used:

u0_a125@android:/ $ su -c "cp /storage/sdcard1/wifi-networks.txt /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf"
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