Topic: Why do people forget their passwords? (Read 1260 times)

What makes people to easily forget password is when they open an account or something that has password that doesn't mean so much but if it is something that is very important to them they will try their best to make sure the password is written ina note which they can always go back to it but if it is something that does not have much value for them,  they may not even decide to copy the password because it is not very important to them.

Probably because not all people on Earth are educated

How many passwords do you use? I'd assume one with a few variations [which you type every time not knowing your actual password].

I think it's normal to forget the password because it's not your priority, I also often forget my passwords to all my accounts including wallet maybe because the passwords are already saved on my pc so when I reset I forget them.
All I do is put all my accounts in notepad in case I forget they're all there.

Mostly users didn't save their phrases at a safe place and they even didn't know where there phrase was. And also users are present which forget to have the phrase key of their wallets. Also some users may be in a hurry through which they loss didn't save their key and thus this may be an area of losing the phrases of wallets.

It should be kept in a safe place like I can say we have to make some hardware wallets which are even best for the funds and our funds will be very safe in these wallets at any place.

People forget their passwords for lots of reasons. One common one is they have too many passwords to remember especially with the increasing number of online accounts. If a password is not regularly used or is too complex it becomes more difficult to remember. Human memory also naturally fades over time making it challenging to remember specific combinations of characters. Stress, distractions or a lack of concentration can contribute to forgetting passwords.

Most of the reasons why I think people do forget their password is due to the feature of fingerprint in most of this platforms that gives room for log in through fingerprints. Most platforms and apps make provision for fingerprints more especially on mobile devices and android phones and moreover auto log in is also a factor that leads to one forgetting their password because when you automatically login to platforms without imputing password definitely as time goes on the password can easily be forgotten, then as for seed phrases the words are many such that not everyone can really recall their seed phrases except they store it in a safe place of which it can even be misplaced if you don't check it up frequently.

Indeed, the loss of passwords or keys from cryptocurrency wallets is a common problem among cryptocurrency users.
This can happen if the user did not write down their password or key in a safe place or forgot it.
Forgotten password or key, if a cryptocurrency wallet was stored on a device that was lost, stolen or damaged, then the user may lose access to their wallet.
Fraudsters may use various methods such as phishing attacks to gain access to personal informationusers, including data for access to cryptocurrency wallets.
If a cryptocurrency wallet has been stored on a non-secure device or in an insecure location, the user may lose access to the wallet due to damage or loss of the device.
Cryptocurrency wallets can be compromised as a result of cyber attacks, which can lead to loss of access to accounts.
In order to prevent losing access to cryptocurrency accounts, you must use strong passwords and keys, keep them in a safe place, keep your devices safe, be careful on the Internet, and be sure to back up your keys or passwords in a safe place.

I'm always asking me why I forget the  password. But after some time they disappear. No one knows.

Password is the most important and personal thing. One never shares one's password with anyone else because passwords are strictly private. Because only through password people can access their personal account and wallet. But many times it is seen that many people forget or lose their password. For those who have gone through such situations in life, today I will say to always use some familiar words or letters while giving passwords. Use words or symbols that you are very familiar with and that you remember in your daily life as your password. And if there is a risk of forgetting the password, you can keep a note of your password in a safe place so that you can collect the password from there when you need it later. And always use some hint while giving password so that you remember your password when you see them.

To prevent forgotten passwords or keys for cryptocurrency investments, there are several common causes that should be addressed, including

• stress and anxiety
• complex passwords 
• lack of organization
• carelessness

To mitigate these risks, use a

• password manager to generate and store strong, unique passwords in an encrypted database 
• enable two-factor authentication
• backup keys in a secure location, and keep passwords and keys in a safe   
• password-protected file 

By implementing these best practices, individuals can protect their cryptocurrency investments from potential loss or theft.

If the password, seed phrase, or private key is forgotten, it is clear that this is negligence, not focusing 100% on what is being done.

     Why did I say? Because we know in ourselves that we will invest it with assets that can provide profit in the future, etc. Then you don't put it in a safe place, even on a USB flash drive. It's no different from when you open a bank account and then you don't remember or write down your password or pin, of course, you will remember because how will you release it if you don't know the password you made, it's just common sense, it's the same with Bitcoin or cryptocurrency industry if you are storing any cryptocurrency in the wallet address that has a password, private key and seed phrase.

I think this lot doesn't want to remember their password because they know there's a way to have it recovered. Trust me, if there isn't an alternative, then these defaulters wouldn't even take the risk.

Reasons why people do forget their passwords are numerous in number and also reasons differs from one another. So many are so forgetful that they forget their passwords over time probably after some certain period of time, why some people are battling with depression and some more health/mental issues which may affect their thinking and forgetfulness of some important values, digits and passwords. While some people are naturally forgetful in nature, they get to jot down their important information and personal security details such as passwords on some certain and secret notes or desktop where no one can easily access or find out. One of the disadvantages of noting passwords or personal details on a secret note or laptop is that once this platform(booknotes and laptop/note pad)is lost or damaged, then that is the end of all the contents. That is why I don’t advise people choosing a very long digits or alphabets for their passwords in order to easily remember even if it is almost forgotten or lost, you can always have an idea of your password at a point.

Elaborated password is one of such aspect to forgetting password in it's format, maybe a letter case of number in it's position. Another is by putting your password in auto saver where you don't need to key in the password yourself each time you wanna log in but rather by virtue of auto save you're allow access with just a click. In a situation where you loss your device or it got demage in anyway, you tend to forget your password as you're not familiar anymore with it due to auto save action you took from initial.
Password is something we should regularly familiarize ourselves with especially when it's an elaborated one, else we may lose insight of it unknowingly to us.

One of the most common problems nowadays is forgetting the password or private key. One of the reasons for this is indifference to the account, not regularly monitoring passwords or using multiple passwords. Many times it is seen that we use multiple passwords in multiple accounts, as a result of which after some time when we want to login to the account, our password is shown to be incorrect. Simply put, we should use the same password for all accounts and make the password strong and monitor the password regularly and login the account regularly so that the chances of forgetting the password are very low. But one more important thing is that we often lose our devices due to various accidents, as a result of which we lose all the passwords saved in the devices, so we should keep the important passwords of our devices recorded somewhere so that we never forget the password. However, the account can be recovered later.

Having a lot of websites that required login information would be a problem if you set it differently and the worse scenario would be not able to access also the email that is linked to it.

Auto-saving the login information using the browser is useful and you don't have to save it on your phone or notepad which I am using too.

People forgets their password because they use multiple passwords for their  logins in different  platforms , perhaps it's due to security reasons

 but if they have one password for all their logins it won't be so easy to forget such password except in the case of amnesia which is a health condition for memory loss which may occur naturally in old age or in the event of an accident that affects the side of the  brain that is responsible for memories.
Thanks

I think maybe, because they have complicated and hard to remember passwords. Or maybe because they are so busy with the situation that they forget it completely. I suggest that when creating a password, write it down in a book, to make it easier, and if you forget you can look back at the notes in the book. It makes you less anxious if you forget about your password.

the silly thing is most websites that store passwords store them "as received"
where by if someone used 'password123' the website stores 'password123'

thus requiring people to be creative with P455w0Rd.wh0n!Tu#Fr33
which if people forget where the # or ! is they can not gain access to the website

other mechanisms could be that
instead of typing in password123
they could SHA it
and type in password123 into a encoder and paste in
ef92b778bafe771e89245b89ecbc08a44a4e166c06659911881f383d4473e94f
to the website. so that the website stores and waits to see
ef92b778bafe771e89245b89ecbc08a44a4e166c06659911881f383d4473e94f
yo give the sender access

that way a bruteforce hacker trying to just start at
password1-password100000
would not get access in 123 tries. because he would need a few millenia to try all the tries to start from ascii trying all possible combinations to a answer that is 64characters long

..
the other option.. much preferable. is a password that changed with each entry..
take for instance a login prompt that has a message
"say open sesame 31/08/2022 morning"

and the website has a known public key registered by the user at signup
you sign the message using your key. and so they can validate only you had access to that key and the signature is unique to that morning session. which the message changes at afternoon, evening and night

where by a brute forcer cannot just spend 6 hours trying every combination that matches a signature that matches the message of that session. because the length of a signature. has soo many combinations that no one can brute all of them in 6 hours(it would take a few millenia)

plus.. as the topic shows.
it makes it easier by not having to remember a password.
and instead learning how to backup a private key

where by the one key can be used to make many access results for many websites.

where the ultimate answer is dont just remember a password/phrase. back it up securely!

Yes you're right it's worldwide issue forget password and loss own self.
Paying not attention when they're setting password and depression anxiety mental problem.
Suggestions:
People's should give First priority to write their password in physical form.

It very  important for password to be documented,  having it stored on devices is not the ultimate,  because the device can get damage and the password can't be gotten back if their is no other place it is been stored. The way you can easily forget it that's how the person close to you can forget it and it can't be retrieve again.

This is very common these days. One of the reasons is our devices saves the info and we need not to put the password again and again that might be one of the reasons one forgets their password. In our region - most of the people have their family golden number which is mostly password of every device.
My father was allotted a service number and we all use that - my nephew who is 12 - has the same password so we don't forget those digits.

Password is a digit which most times people don't even think of it, they only try to remember when it is to be use and if the password is something difficult it can skip the mind . That's is why it is advisable to write password where it is safe that one can get it at anytime.

One can't easily loss or forget a password they use regularly, so in other words, it's the act of irregular usuage of the password an activity that could mostly cause the loss, or a lengthy characters_filled password is another issue to, especially when Its seldom used.

People don't intensionally forget their password or bitcoin phrase number, the one thing i reasoned like human being that make so people to for their things and especially password is emotional Truman and emotional tension, when somebody is having challenges, problems that is troubling your heart and also that is eating the person up, it can be easily forget about he or her password, another thing that also cause easy way to forget a password is when you create a password that did not relates with your document and your daily mentioned.

For me in my case, every time there is something that I need to create an account whether in the cold wallet, apps wallet or exchange, I never
forget to save it on my notepad first before I save it into my usb or flash drive. Because, I know it is very important. Now if someone lost or forget it that is simply they don't value what they are doing here in cryptocurrency business industry.

In an approach to something new or inventing something new people always go for trying some unique things.
Similarly, if we talk about forgetting passwords, it's very common in the current ERA.
As people try to make a unique combination of passwords (Which they do believe would be difficult for anyone to guess) they try to choose some difficult or unique combination.
Mostly using their short-term memory or less likely events i.e: license number of nearby passing bike. DOB birth of friends or any celebrity name whichever appears on their first (Or present) thoughts. Which usually results in forgetting their passwords.

Forgetting your Password password is attributed to several factors from my own experience
and the nature of work I do, therefore some of the reasons why people forget their password
and inturn lose their investment are;
1. Inconsistency in password, (i.e not having a particular string of familiar passwords by the person)
2. No documentation of the password been used on relevant and protected places like emails)
3. Not using a particular gadget (phones and laptops) as this will help you save them and will be
    easier to retrieve them when the need arises.

I think that this is a good argument, where age and capacity to remember things become a serious constraint in keeping passwords in mind. In the context of crypto details being stored on computers, I have come across a serious situation where hackers where able to navigate the account of an owner through hijacking the owner’s Mac. Thus, this indeed put details in danger. Now, I am curious to what solutions are you going to suggest with regards to this situations.

Some crypto holders are above 60 years old, and their memories are not as good as they used to be, so they are more inclined to forget versus the younger bunch of crypto users.

If the older bunch are tempted to write down their crypto details inside of their computers on a notepad, then they are putting their crypto holdings in danger.

There are solutions though.....

The reality in the effect of that OP question, lies not in a problem in forgetting the password, but in how easy it is to have forgotten it, which consequently without forgetting it continues to be a security problem.

Then people do not precisely forget the password unless they use mnemonics, which in effect is forgetting it, but for other people, it is something like not remembering where they wrote it, not having written it, not using a correct backup.

There are some reasons for forgetting passwords.
1. The user is a noob. He is new and inexperienced in this business. He does not know the importance of passwords and someone is not there to guide him.
2. The second is that today life has become very fast. Some people are so confused with the routine of life that . They are not focusing on their task. They are often absent mind. they are not giving proper attention to the work that they are doing at the time.
3. Thirdly can be that someone has misplaced it and not coming to remember it.

1) Too many different passwords.
2) Not securing them offline.
3) Not taking security seriously.

I can remember passwords from 20 years ago for obscure sites I used 1 time, but often forget a password for something important that I set last week. I know I need to take password management more seriously, but I still just keep putting it off to another day.

IT IS BECAUSE THEY CREATE DIFFERENT PASSWORD FOR DIFFERENT LOGIN PLATFORM which make them difficult to REMEMBER and also in most platform there is login password/fund password which make the people even more confused other reason will be leading stress number in our world people are stress frustrated which also make them forget their password according to me
These is some problem that i found

SOLUTION
 IF WE WANTED TO REMOVE  PROBLEM FOR FORGETTING PASSWORD then we should make a technology in which your fingerprint , tongue print will be your password for all website and transaction it is secured and easy to use

Maybe because passwords require symbols, uper and lowercase.

To me its okay for passwords to be forgotten but its unforgivable to forget keys. We even write it down 12 wors on papers to secure it that its safe if the computer crashes because its saved on a peice of paper. Wallets even didnt allow us to take a screen shot. If you often use the wallet in recieving and sending, forgetting password is not good.

I can't remember my login password either. We often have the thought that if we set a complex and long password, the password is safe and difficult to be stolen. But it also makes me unable to remember, the best way is to backup and keep it safe.

I think life is going very fast and due to lack of time we are stuck in the rush of time and because of that, we can't remember everything. At that time it has become a common thing to forget but It is very important to save these passwords in a dairy at the same time.

I think is best practic is to write in a diary as well save it electronically on memory stick but never save it on computer hard disk that is not secure. I follow it since i started using  computer and use the same method while running my  trading accounts in stocks and crypto currencies on Multiple exchanges. We forget password when we are under the influence of alcohol or our mind is busy in Multiple tasks.

I think the main reason when we create a password knowing that it can be autosaved, and so we forget it because of autosaved sometimes and it's a common human thing.Many people struggle with passwords because we need a lot of them nowadays and it won't be wrong to say that our life on digital media on passwords these days. 🙏

I've come across certain number of people who wants to be using a self generated default password for every of their wallets created in the process of not having to forget password but it's quite unfortunate that they can't do the same thing to phrases nor private key. Even though using just one password isn't safe as it exposes your  whole life data from being hacked.

Causes
1. Creating wallet under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
2. Not having the right appropriate cloud app installed on mobile/PC to have your data saved like the interest of Google docs, colornote, Google drive to mention few.
3. Not being in a conducive area while creating wallet. Because at times, background noises easily distract one's attention.
4. Not understanding the exact files to stored (Newbie)
5. Marital issues. This sounds odd and also out of context but it's the truth though. I was once a victim; ike I mistakenly exposed my wallet worth of 2000$ plus while having some sort of arguments on Internet with my girlfriend back then in 2018.

I think the password or private key, is not something we need to remember or memorize, but it needs to be back up. Because this is important for any time to use. However, I experienced something different, not losing my password or private key, but the blockchaindotcom I couldn't access, with the wrong password description. But I never changed it. Even though I have assets in my wallet. The next method is to connect to a smartphone wallet. But the previous Smartphone was broken. Maybe someone can explain why this is happening.

Knowing the ultimate reasons why people forgets their password is vast without numbers which might be based on so many factors which are:
Personality
Environment
Jobs
Illness etc
We don't need to stress ourselves of what the reasons why people forget their password could be, cause It takes a thief to catch a thief. Just try and think why you are keeping your passwords then the reverse would be the case. Having a contrary reason why you keep your passwords will gives you the reason why people forget their password. As simple as this!

Password is something that should been written in a personal diary or saved somewhere you can easily get at anytime. Because the human mind can forget it anytime due to different circumstances. It's nature to forget , but it should be saved in a proper place

While creating passwords, we often overestimate our remembering our capacities and we create a password unique to what we don't use on any other sites and hence when we try to login, we sometimes get confused with the passwords. I think it's solely and purely natural and normal, if you can always remember your password, it simply isn't strong enough I guess

That is what I fear the most if I write down the password on paper. Chances are I might misplace them and whoever gets this will be able to see my password. Specially me that do not have a safe mechanism at home nor anything that would prevent burglary at home. Even my computer I am not confident that it will do the job of saving the passwords. There must be a good solution that one of you can share with us here. So if you know one please do share with us.

The only person I've seen in recent times that happens to lost his private key is actually a friend.  I helped him bought few TRY about a year and half ago only for him to call me few weeks ago asking for how he can recover his wallet without private key.  I think the major reason people usually forget their keys out of negligence is usually because the asset is small in value and maybe some other reasons too

Loss or forgetting their passwords is one of the important thing that need to secure it properly. Especially,  if you store your crypto in a cold wallet like electrum, or you are using any of the exchange whether decentralised or centralised were to this issue you can still recover them for sure but in a cold wallet that would be a big problem, because of the negligent behaviour we have were We shouldn't have this anyway.

The fact is that you cannot use one password for all sites. And many, many passwords are no longer easy to remember. Therefore, we write them down somewhere, and then we forget where we wrote them down. In my opinion, this is the main problem.

In my opinion, the only reason why people forget their passwords would only sum up with one word and that is "value". If you value your accounts and you know the significance of having that account then there is no reason for you to forget the password. That is a common mistake of people who lived with passwords and they tend to remember their email password but forget some like exchange passwords and other crypto related stuff.

There are many reasons why someone forgets or loses a password...
among others, human error = is due to negligence, or accidentally dumped by someone closest to, and natural disasters = it could be due to fire or other things related to nature.

To the early birds, it might be just that they simply never saw Bitcoin going where it is today - or the lack of information regarding cold storage and wallet safety. Most early Bitcoiners played with the currency just for fun. I've lost my passwords to some of my older accounts as well. To some of them it was because I did not care, to others it was because I simply forgot about their existence and others were just too complex for me to remember.

If people care, they spend their time securing their funds. But too many people trust their devices way more than they should.

 intentional brain damage,  we where sold artificial eggs that cause brain damage .

Forgetting passwords is very well-known issue for me. I can say that my memory isn't good, I tend to forget things. I struggle to remember things like phone numbers, I remember how much time it took until I started to remember my phone number . Until it, I always had to look at my phone when someone asked for my number.
When it comes to passwords, I'm trying not to use same passwords on different websites. And offcourse, I don't use simple basic passwords, I'm trying to make it more complicated. I have no idea on how many websites I have accounts, but I think that number is quite big. And different passwords everywhere, well, that's a lot of passwords. It's not easy to remember. Especially when I login to certain website twice a year or even more rarely. I think it's normal thing to forget it. And then I don't even try to remember it, I simply click "forgot password".
There is more factors why people forget passwords. Lack of sleep, stress don't help. Also, we receive so much information every day. Sometimes our brain remember completely useless things, but forget more important ones.

There are a lot of things that could make one forget one's password and that is basically because of an over consciousness on security. Being consciousness is good but, being over conscious could lead you into trouble of you actually forgetting your password. It starts with you changing password often or having too many passwords you work with. It's a bad habit that must be discouraged. A single misunderstanding or confusion is all it takes to loose it.

Though, forgetting your password is very unlikely to make you loose your coins. A simple forgotten password can create the platform for a password reset. Forgetting your seed phrase or private key is where all the concerns lies. It overrides password as it could be used in importing your wallet and as well create another password. Its the most important and like the saying goes,

Not your keys, not your coins.

Well, I started with BTC in 2011 when you could mine 1 BTC a day with a regular mining rig and 1 coin was worth 1 dollar.  It was fun and nothing else.  And if you think about this stuff as fun, you don't really care.  I even did not think about what might happen in 1, 2 or even 10 years now.  I thought just: "well, that password is long enough and I will surely remember it!". Long story short: as it was fun, I didn't care and I've lost a lot of coins to forgotten passwords, scammers, … And in 2011 it was not that common to use password managers or similar, wallet seeds were not yet implemented, …

Getting a sentence out of context and misunderstanding it is the way to go 
If you read further you'll see that it's a list of problems, not a list of credentials.

I am usually afraid of making a list with my Various login details because i am scared that someone will somehow run into the list and have a hard access to all my accounts and informations.

weed.... xD

Sry just be honest, but often people keep smoking Mary and did not sleep a good amount of hrs. In kombination you start to forget things..

Only those who are giving care to sites instructing " use different passwords for different sites " , are mostly forgetting their passwords. Otherwise majority of users not forgetting.

Yes if someone is using too much bad sites or badly coded sites , for sure their passwords are compromised due to lack of coder skill to hash passwords before storing into database. Once those sites are compromised their passwords too got compromised. On such sites its better to use random passwords and store them in Chrome and take Chrome password backup by Exporting Passwords.

I am usually changing my passwords with new sets every 3-4 months. Making my own 3-4 set of passwords which i memorise first and then started changing them on those sites which have valuable asset. Rest all have same passwords from ages. 

I'll make a list, not only for passwords, instead for losing access to various means of storing the coins.

1. Carelessness, especially from the days the coins worth much less.
2. Overly complicated storing methods.
3. Over-confidence on their capabilities (eg. thinking that they can keep in mind a complicated password for 10s of years).
4. Accidents (from spilling coffee onto the paper wallet to car crash or stroke and brain injury).
5. Storing the wallets on exclusive IT related supports (HDD/USB/whatever) and those getting destroyed or declared obsolete and thrown away.
6. Storing the wallet info in only one place.
7. Lack of understanding crypto, computers, web/services.

The order is.. what came into my mind.
I don't see a proper solution for them. Using/keeping only seed should be basically it, but if one keeps it "in clear", then he won't forget it, but others may understand what it is and steal the coins.

Human brains can store more data than any computers but it is not possible to retrieve the exact data when we wanted after a long time like reading data on a hard drive. So if you are about to set password for something then use an offline password manager or just store it in a paper then keep it in a safe box.

I don't think there's anything wrong with "forgetting" your password.  I don't even know my bitcointalk password at the moment.  I personally think if you don't know your password, then it would be difficult to use it unsafely.

I would be worried if my memory was the only thing keeping my logins safe.  I've learned over many years that it is best to have a solid means of recovery.  Being reliant on any one thing, memory, piece of paper, electronic file; will likely end up causing you problems.  

So while you ask why people forget their passwords, I wonder why they ever knew them at all...

Most of their bitcoins and other altcoins was definitely hold on a cold wallet way back when it was first issued or on it's early stages. It was never their priority since it may be just given or just a whimsical approach on a new mode of payment. However, since the hype and current spotlight on cryptocurrency, most of this holders are trying to remember their own account and their wallets. More often than not, they are unable to recover due to lack of backup for password and unable to trace where did they place those wallet.

Here are some examples:

https://news.bitcoin.com/man-accidentally-threw-away-hard-drive-with-7500-bitcoins-million-landfill/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/130047/i_have_384_bitcoins_in_a_wallet_which_i_lost_the/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/technology/bitcoin-passwords-wallets-fortunes.html


Clear causes:

1. It was never a priority at first.
2. The lack of backup and alternative.
3. Oversight.

I don't think it is so common nowadays to lose their seed, although it is inevitable that little by little some of them will continue to be lost. But I think it was more typical years ago, when Bitcoin was just starting and people didn't know if it was going to become a thing yet. Back then people were more careless. Today, however, even if you have only $1k, you try to have the seeds well guarded, not just because of the current value, but because in the future that $1k may be worth $10k or $50k. That wasn't so clear in 2010 for example.

Recently, i have been coming across more stories of person's that have forgotten their passwords or keys, and because of that, have lost their investments (btc and other coins) in the process.

Let us enlightenment ourselves, What could be some causes of this?
Could it be stress, elaborate passwords or something else (please state what you think is a cause).

From identifying the causes, i believe we will be able to get solutions.