Hi.
When inserting the Wi-Fi password on the Raspberry Pi Imager program, I noticed that sometimes it will add an extra character that is not visible. That will prevent your board from connecting to wi-fi because the password has one extra character.
After inserting the password, press the backspace key. If the password remains the same, it means it had an extra character, if it deletes any character insert it again—this is probably not the problem your’re facing.
 
Can you try that?
Regards,
Sara
 
 

Maybe not but worth the try. Thanks for the quick response. I will say this is driving me a bit crazy. FYI I also did some of this image creation on my HP laptop with the same result.

That happened to me some time ago and it was actually that “hidden” character on the password field.
Regards,
Sara

That did not work. I found out the following the image file I select is in my cache so no mater what I do to i when I select the image file in image it does not use that file but one that is in my computer cache which has wrong information, so all I do is make a copy of the incorrect image. How do I know this, is when a examine the new flashed image the configure goes to date 3/12/2024. The firstrun and cmdline show current dates. A second problem when I set pi user id and password and network id and password and go to flash, I go back to edit settings  the password to pi changes along with the network password. And some times the network ssid. The wireless country always reverts to GB o matter what!
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That did not work. I found out the following the image file I select is in my cache so no mater what I do to i when I select the image file in image it does not use that file but one that is in my computer cache which has wrong information, so all I do is make a copy of the incorrect image. How do I know this, is when a examine the new flashed image the configure goes to date 3/12/2024. The firstrun and cmdline show current dates. A second problem when I set pi user id and password and network id and password and go to flash, I go back to edit settings  the password to pi changes along with the network password. And some times the network ssid. The wireless country always reverts to GB o matter what!
(more…)

Correction! The user id of the pi changed to froeh which is my windows users id. I have never entered that on that line. I have used pi and frolic but never froeh!
Of course the instructions in Smart Home Raspberry pi show a different imager.

And another is that in some cases the ssh reverts to disable. It must be my two machines are at fault since no other complaints are registered by other users. 

That seems to be a problem with the Imager.
I don’t know how to fix it.
You can try following the suggestions here: https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-imager/issues/707
It seems to be a similar problem.
 
Regards,
Sara

It is three days later and I took your suggestion and followed the link. That problem is very similar tomine and none of the suggestions which I tried produced no result. So, I removed the hard drive from my d\Dell, and replaced it with a clean SSD. This is after I created a boot jump drive to install Ubuntu. All went smoothly. I then downloaded the pi image maker and created a flash id card. I used the same SD card that failed but I forgot to erase it. So when I went customize behold, instead of pi and hidden password was my windows 11 used id froeh and blank for pw. The country reverted to GB. SSH not enabled. The lan was my router and its password. My router supports multiple users and as in the past when it worked my SSID is Frolic so a replace NOKIA-C8F1 and my pw. I enabled the SSH and flashed  the SD. It was much slower in flashing  but verified. Made no difference, the router does not see raspberrypi. Putty cannot connect. Also FYI I could not use NOKIA-C8F1 in Ubuntu to connect to the internet but could connect using Frolic. This ilink is how I downloaded PiImager. I will now call my provider for I suspect it is a router problem. I also will start with the fact that my Ubuntu will not connect. Reason, once you say you are installing node red in a raspi all communication ends!. 

It is three days later and I took your suggestion and followed the link. That problem is very similar to mine and none of the suggestions which I tried produced no result. So, I removed the hard drive from my Dell, and replaced it with a clean SSD. This is after I created a boot jump drive to install Ubuntu. All went smoothly. I then downloaded the pi image maker and created a flash id card. I used the same SD card that failed but I forgot to erase it. So when I went customize behold, instead of pi and hidden password was my windows 11 used id froeh and blank for pw. The country reverted to GB. SSH not enabled. The lan was my router and its password. My router supports multiple users and as in the past when it worked my SSID is Frolic so a replace NOKIA-C8F1 and my pw. I enabled the SSH and flashed  the SD. It was much slower in flashing  but it verified. Made no difference, the router does not see raspberrypi. Putty cannot connect. Also FYI I could not use NOKIA-C8F1 in Ubuntu to connect to the internet but could connect using Frolic. This ilink is how I downloaded PiImager. I will now call my provider for I suspect it is a router problem. I also will start with the fact that my Ubuntu will not connect. Reason, once you say you are installing node red in a raspi all communication ends!.

Ok.
Then, let me know the results.
Regards,
Sara

No it did not work but the technician did a lot of clean up and organized it. I then used the original home automation $100 method and placed a blank ssh file into the root. The magic part is after booting in the pi, the file disappeared as from my reading it would. I used angry ip to search for an ip for raspberrypi local. No luck., My next plan is to get my old NetGear Router stand alone and tr to connect to it. 

Still looking for NETGEAR, not found. I created a new image for my B+ but for unknown reasons it is no longer with us. Ordered a new Pi 4, cables and whatever. If NETGEAR shows up I will continue with zero.

Hi again.
I suggest burning an OS with desktop support and then boot up your Raspberry Pi with a monitor and keyboard connected and see if you can add the wi-fi and password manually using the desktop.
 
Regards,
Sara

That is what I was doing with my B. I connected the otherness cable and the lights flashed. Attached a USB keyboard and hdmi monitor. Otherness stopped flashing. HVe 5 volts on board but zero volts on 3.3 pin. No smoke and no smell! But no work. I see the schematic shows  a switching regulator buti don’t see it and doubt  I could replace it. Order a pi 4 and cables and continue to persu with your advice. Then go back to the zero which I had working in past. My inventory is now 2 zero W and pi 4 on order. One final note, the raspberry zero shows on router but is labeled inactive.

Ok. That’s weird.
Let’s wait to see the result with your pi4.
Regards,
Sara

FYI went back to the link you sent which is identical symptoms. A reference is made to a cache that resides in C:\froeh\AppData\Local\Raspberrypi\Imager. I made all files visible and no such path exists to this cache. Still no ip showing up on my router. I hope the pi4 arrives today or tomorrow.

The 4 arrived and the saga continues. With Image a created a desktop SD boot. Used a 64G card and erased it with PiImage on Dell PC. I booted on the 4 and it was a success. But very slow. If I waited enough I got the mouse to move and could enter text with keyboard. I noticed that the PiImage was preloaded and I decided for one more tr to get m zero programmed. I choose Zero and in OS chose erase. Than I choose 32 lite. Moved on to select SD card. Then edit, to set up LAN and pi log in. Opening the page, there was froeh as LAN and 10-15 number digit for password. pi was used for pi name with raspberrypi local host name, however the blacked out dot password was way longer than raspberry. I did not change localhost name and left it as raspberrypi. I did change pi to frolicpi and also used Happy4643 as the password instead of raspberry. The LAN my SSID Frolic and again I used Happy4643.
Next to SSH set up. The key block was filled with both numeric and alphabetic characters. I erased this and choose SSH with PW. I proceeded flash the card.
Card flashed in the zero, plugged a power source looked at router IP’s and rasberrypi did appear. I have seen this in the past but I did now have a IP of 192.168.18.26. With PuTTy to m surprise I was able too boot use the terminal program with frolicpi as user and Happy4643 as PW after 4 weeks was able to load both Node-Red and MQTT.
I was able to use Node-Red but after shutting down the IP changed to 192.168.18.6 where for a least a day it has remained.            ON WITH THE SAGA!
I read it is wise to backup the SD card once you have a working card. As the last 4 weeks has demonstrated I felt I should make a backup.

I have tried to copy image using Win32DiskImager.exe and then
https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher
Took better than 5 hours for both and image and image failed to boot in zero.
Back to the 4. Slow process but same story. When I choose Zero and lite, proceeded to Edit it did have frolicpi but the password was a long series of black dots. It did have LAN as Frolic but back to a 15 -20 digits PW. I changed both back and flashed the SD and used my other 2nd zero card. The card would not boot. I repeated the process using a different 32Gb SD. Again no boot. In desperation I used in PuTTY raspberrypi.local and it did boot, but no password recognition and I could not sign in!  So here I am again, have a working zero, a slow pi 4 and NO BACKUP. And I repeat, am I the only one in the world that experiences these problems. I would like to get back to writing applications  
 

Hi.
I’m not sure what might be the problem.
I always use the Raspberry Pi Imager to burn the firmware and it usually works first time without any issues.
You always have to insert the passwords every time you go through the process because it will automatically fill them with something random.
 
I don’t know how to help at this moment. Or you’re doing something wrong without noticing or there is something wrong with your network??  It’s hard to tell…
 
I think it’s best to try to get help on the Raspberry Pi forum: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/
 
Let me know if you make any progress.
 
Regards,
Sara

You are right but it took this reply to acknowledge that it fills the pw with random values. So why ask to SAVE where CONTINUE would be more appropriate. Of course it is the pi organization who wrote the software. In all documentation I read it is implied that I can flash several copies and this may be in fact true.  I Have learned to distrust that my names and passwords would be preserved  so I also used the EDIT route. 
The slow pi 4 is most likely caused by the 64GB SD. Since I only have one, I am going to reflash the pi 4 using a 32G SD and may switch to a128G or 256G  SSD in one of the two USB 3.0 ports.
To create backups, I changed local host to NodeRed, just a name to let me know a change was made. PW was Happy4643. LAN Frolic and PW same. Enabled SSH with PW. Flashed. Proceeded as before. This time used NodeRed.local in PuTTy. It did boot and ask for password as before, and no password recognition. The change I made was to exit PuTTy and then reboot with IP the router provided for NodeRed. When the terminal opened I was ask for a User ID! I entered frolicpi and PW and I was now up and running. For unknown reasons the other boots had blank as user and no matter what I entered it would be incorrect. So that mystery is solved.
This leaves me with 2 working zero’s, 2 backups (made the long way in that I had to install node-red and MQTT) and 1 slow pi 4. I appreciate all of your efforts and quick responses. Envy your vacations in Thailand (which I have visited as well as Lisbon). I am a happy camper with the 4 books purchased. Keep up the good work and you may now close the blog.
Sincerely,
John Paul
 
 

Hi again.
I’m glad the issue is finally resolved.
I’ll mark this issue as resolved. If you need further help, you just need to open a new question in our forum.
Thanks for your patience.
Regards,
Sara