Import & Export passwords in Google chrome

I recently switched profile in chrome. The default account I used to have in chrome was a Google ID I seldom use. I have a Google Workspace account & have logged into chrome with the same account. Just like you can export & import bookmarks in Google Chrome, you can import passwords in a new Google account as well.

Why import passwords in Google chrome?

The problem with the default Google chrome profile is that all the Google applications would open in with the default Google account. I get to use Google drive a lot and every time I open any of the apps, I had to switch accounts which were friction in my workflow. I was forced to switch default account in Google chrome to reduce the friction & that’s exactly why I had to find a way to import passwords in chrome from one Google account to another.

I tried to switch accounts a couple of months ago but didn’t find it pleasing. I was able to export bookmarks to the new profile, but the saved password was a bottleneck. The previous Google account has been in use since 2008-09 & all the passwords, usernames were saved in the previous account. There was this gap that I couldn’t bridge until I discovered a solution.

If you too aren’t switching accounts in chrome because you can’t have all your passwords in the new account, I’m going to solve this right now in this post.

How to export & import passwords in Google chrome to switch account?

• Go to password managaer by Google
• Log in with the account you want to import the passwords from
• Click on setting icon as shown below

• Then click on export button as shown below

• Upon exporting the .csv file, you will get all the password you had saved in your account. This is the file that you will importing in your new account in Google chrome. Make sure url, username & password columns are present in the .csv file.
• Now, switch account in Google chrome. This is the new account you want to use henceforth.
• After you’ve switched the account, again go to Password manager & open settings like previous steps. This time, click on import as shown below.

• Select the file from the import menu

• Once the passwords are imported in your new account you will have to login for the first time. Since you’ve imported the passwords already, you will see the imported passwords in the auto-fill once you click on the respective field.
• After you’ve imported the passwords in your new Google account/Chrome profile, it’s best to delete the .csv file you exported from the old Google account. Anyone who can access the file will be able to import all your saved usernames & passwords into their account.

Note: You can additionally do a manual password check-up of all your saved passwords. The checkup will tell you if any of your passwords were compromised so that you can change them then & there.

Other way to export passwords in Google chrome

For some reason, if you don’t want to go to Password manager to export passwords, you can do that from chrome itself.

• Switch the chrome profile to the account you want to export passwords from
• Go to setting > Passwords three dot menu to see export passwords as show below

Note: If you can’t see the “import passwords” menu, check if password import is enabled in the chrome flags menu. Search for “password import” in the chrome internal pages & enable the passwords import feature from the dropdown.

Final thoughts & FAQs

Importing passwords has many usecases. You might be retiring an old Google account, or like me, might be switching the default profile in Google chrome. Either way, Google password manager comes in handy in such situations.

However, I could find some common questions at the time of writing this post. Let’s have a look at the QnAs: