If you’re unsure, it’s altogether possible that you didn’t actually forget a password, but only forgot that a certain password corresponded with an account. Don’t forget to try out old or out-of-date passwords as well if the account you’re trying to access is fairly old.
Some of the most common passwords include ‘123456’, ‘abc123’, ‘qwerty’, and ‘iloveyou’. Birthdays are also common. [1] X Research source If you think you may have been sneaky enough to add a twist on an otherwise weak password, try out testing some basic encryptions. For instance, if you may have used your name or your birth year in the password, try spelling them backwards. Most passwords today require at least one number. The most common numerical addition is to add a ‘1’ at the end of the password; the second most common addition is to add one’s birthday (e. g. 1992).
Other examples include your hometown, your favourite sports team, or the name of your best friend. Stressing yourself out while trying to remember will have the opposite effect you want it to. The human brain has a much harder time retrieving information while under duress, so make sure to relax, breathe, and remind yourself that nothing is the end of the world.
This is especially important when you’re making a password for the first time. If you accidentally confirm a typo in your password, you’ll stand very little chance of retrieving it in the future.
While true relaxation cannot occur if you’re simply going about it as a way to remember, it’s possible you’ll remember it once you’re in a clearer state of mind. Going for a run or working out helps a great deal as well. The mind tends to function much better when the body is in motion!
Password crackers are only designed for cracking OS passwords, like a Windows user account. Online accounts like emails cannot be retrieved this way. Although it’s perfectly legitimate to try cracking your own password with this kind of software, using it to hack the accounts of others can get you into serious trouble and isn’t recommended.
If it’s a non-email password (like Facebook), resetting a password will be fairly easy. An automated confirmation will be sent to your email, from which you’ll reset your password and start a new one. Some email services (like Hotmail) offer the possibility of connecting them with another email account for the sake of password resetting. If you have another email account and have done this, resetting the password will be just as easy as it would be with any other non-email account.
While this won’t bring you back your password, it stands a good chance of helping you reclaim your password. Unfortunately, many people don’t take secret questions seriously, and some may forget their answers sooner than the passwords themselves!
Keep in mind that the process of verification can take a while even in the best circumstances, so patience is a must should you decide to take this route.
Try combining a few individually memorable words. For instance, your pet’s name is a weak choice on its own, but pairing it with something completely unrelated, like your favourite food or comic book character, is a strong way to send hackers for a loop. When you’re making a password, most sites will have an indicator that tells you how strong your password is. While these are vague tools at best, you’ll want to aim for an average strength at least. Adding symbols and numbers to your code is a smart way to improve security. Another common trick you can use is to invent a mnemonic acronym. Write the first letter of each word of a memorable sentence, thereby creating a gibberish word. For example, the sentence “Friday is my favourite day of the week” would become ‘Fimfdotw’. Likewise, “Free jazz is my favourite kind of music” would become ‘Fjimfkom’. This can be applied to virtually any sentence imaginable, so long as it has enough words to satisfy the password’s minimum character count– usually 8.
If you’re really concerned that you’ll lose the envelope, you might consider giving the envelope to a trusted friend or a loved one. This is not recommended, however, as it means giving up the sole control over your passwords and, by extension, your personal information.
Because a password manager essentially does the legwork of password for you, you can afford to have more complex passwords without worrying about remembering them yourself. As a free alternative, you could create an encrypted file on your computer with all of your passwords on it. That way, you’ll only have to remember one of them off the top of your head.
At the same time, while byzantine symbols or numbers can make a password harder to guess, it can also make them harder to remember. The trick is to strike a balance between complexity and memory. Don’t write a password you don’t think you’ll be able to remember on a whim, and if you do, make sure to keep it written down on paper somewhere it does not stand any chance of getting misplaced or seen by someone else. [5] X Research source
