Passwords · Keyboard layout
My keyboard layout changed (Spanish/English): the mistake that locks wallets
If you created the password on a computer with a Spanish keyboard and now type on an English one, or the other way round, some symbols are no longer where your fingers think. You make the same movement as always and a different character comes out. The wallet says the password is wrong, and it is right: the one you typed is.
The symbols that move
The letters are in the same place, so if your password was only letters and numbers, this article isn’t for you. The problem is the symbols, and they are exactly the ones people used to «make it stronger».
- The at sign, which changes key and key combination between layouts.
- The opening question and exclamation marks, which don’t exist on an English keyboard.
- Brackets, quotation marks and the apostrophe.
- The underscore, the slash and the euro sign.
- The letter ñ, which simply isn’t on an English keyboard.
How to check in a minute
- Open a text editor where you can see what you type.
- Type your password exactly as you always typed it, same fingers, same keys.
- Look at it. If any symbol isn’t the one you expected, you have your cause.
- Then type the correct password, hunting for the symbols one by one, copy it and paste it into the wallet.
The phone variant
The same happens between phone keyboards. If you created the password on a computer and type it on a phone, or vice versa, check there isn’t an extra space at the end — touch keyboards add one on their own — and that autocorrect isn’t changing anything.