Windows Internet Explorer Won't Remember a Password

By default, Internet Explorer is configured to automatically remember passwords for websites you visit that require you to log in. Once you enter your username, the password should appear automatically in the password field if you've previously logged in to the website and did not delete your passwords in IE's settings. When this doesn't happen, the problem could be with your computer settings, the website or a mistake on your part the last time you logged in.

If you have turned off IE's option to automatically remember passwords, turn it back on by clicking the gear icon, selecting "Internet Options," clicking the "Content" tab, selecting the "AutoComplete Settings" button, and then enabling the "User Names and Passwords on Forms" option. If you don't want to save passwords on every site you visit, click the "Ask Me Before Saving Passwords" option too.

IE's inability to remember passwords is often caused by the code in the page itself. For security purposes, a page may use the "autocomplete=off" attribute to disable AutoComplete, or it may forbid caching, which prevents the browser from saving your password on your computer. Both of these are common on security-conscious websites used by banks, for example. In addition, if a page is not coded properly, IE may not recognize that the page contains a login form requesting a password. Until the Web designer changes the code, there is nothing you can do in these cases but type your password manually.

Another situation that can cause IE to not save your passwords in a Web form is when you don't actually type the password into the form. If you copy a password from a text document, for example, and then paste it into a site's password field, there is no data entered for IE to save. Of course, if you mistype a password or change it on another computer or another Web browser, IE will use the old, incorrect password rather than the new one until you enter the correct password again.

It is never a good idea to let any Web browser on a public computer that can be used by others to remember your password. In fact, many public computers, like those in a library, have AutoComplete settings disabled. Network administrators also have the ability to turn off AutoComplete settings on all computers using Group Policy settings on a network's server. In this case, you won't be able to turn on AutoComplete in IE unless the administrator grants you permission to do so.

Information in this article applies to IE 11 and Windows 8.1. It may vary slightly or significantly with other versions of the browser and Windows operating system.