How To Manage Saved Passwords In Chrome

Since most websites today save your information into personalized accounts, you often need to access them using a username–password combination. It’s crucially important for your passwords to be complex and unique. Again, you should never use the same password twice on any website! Given all the password leaks and hacker attacks, this has become a foundational online security measure.

You might wonder how you’re supposed to remember all the passwords you create. The answer is in using password-saving features in your browser. It’s likely that you’re already using Chrome heavily, so it might come to you as a pleasant surprise that this browser includes a Google Chrome password manager as one of its default features. 

Let’s see how to use Chrome passwords to keep your web life easy and secure at the same time.

How To Save Passwords In Chrome

Before you start savings passwords Google Chrome needs to activate the “Offer to save passwords” feature. To turn it on: 

1. Open Chrome settings (⌘ + ,)
2. In the sidebar, switch to Autofill ➙ Passwords
3. Toggle “Offer to save passwords” on

Now, when you log in to any of your accounts on any website, the password manager Chrome has built in will ask you whether you want to save the credentials for future use. You can choose between Save or Never. If you select Save, your account credentials will be added to the saved passwords Chrome page and auto-filled every time you visit that website — no typing! If you select Never, Chrome will not save your credentials and will never ask whether you want to save them on this website again. 

How to view saved passwords in Chrome

While most of the time the Chrome password manager works seamlessly, automatically entering your username and password combinations, occasionally you need to see your actual credentials for certain websites. Maybe it’s to share with a friend or coworker, or maybe it’s to use it in another browser. Luckily, it’s easy to manage passwords Chrome has saved before. 

To see Chrome saved passwords: 

1. Click on your avatar in the top-right corner
2. Select the key icon
3. See all usernames and passwords in the Saved Passwords section 

   

By default (for your security), all passwords that are displayed are hidden. To see them, click on the eye icon and enter your admin password. You can also click the three dots and then select Copy Password if you need to use it somewhere else. You’ll be prompted to enter your admin password there too. 

How to remove passwords from Never Saved

Mostly, the Google Chrome password manager helper asking you to save passwords is appropriate and useful. But for certain websites you might not want to save your credentials. It could be that the password is too sensitive and you’re better off keeping it in your head, or maybe it’s someone else using your computer to log into something just once. 

In some rare circumstances, however, you might’ve intended to save the password but missed the button and picked Never. Now you might feel stuck, filling out the password over and over again.

Worry not, deleting websites from your Never Saved list is actually quite easy:

1. Go to your avatar in Chrome and select the key icon
2. Scroll down to the Never Saved section 
3. Click the X icon to remove the website from the list 

   

Now, when you visit a previously Never Saved website, password manager Chrome is going to ask whether you want to save the credentials again. 

How to remove Chrome saved passwords

The websites you frequent and use change constantly. Besides, you should also regularly (once in six months) update all your passwords to keep your security at the top level. All that to say your passwords in Chrome should be occasionally removed and refreshed to keep all the information up to date. 

Here’s how to get rid of passwords Google Chrome no longer has to store: 

1. With Chrome opened, go to your avatar
2. Click the password key icon
3. Select the three-dot menu next to the website you want to remove in the Saved Passwords section
4. Choose Remove 

   

How to export Chrome passwords

If you want to share a single password, simply copying it is enough. However, when you need to share many, it might make sense to export a whole list to give to someone else. Saved passwords Chrome stores can be exported at any time. 

To export Chrome passwords: 

1. Open Chrome
2. Click on your avatar ➙ password key icon
3. Select the three-dot submenu next to Saved Passwords header
4. Choose “Export passwords…”
5. Enter your admin password ➙ OK
6. Pick the folder to export your passwords to and then Save

All your passwords will be saved as a single .csv spreadsheet, which you can share with anyone as an email attachment. This is also why it’s not recommended to export passwords from Google Chrome unless you absolutely need to — while your passwords are in a .csv file they are unencrypted and thus could be read by anyone.

How to manage passwords with a pro-level organizer

One good reason for exporting passwords, however, is when you want to import them into a standalone password manager. While saving passwords in Chrome might seem like good enough for casual browsing, going to the next level of security can offer you so much more. 

First of all, when you manage passwords Chrome-style, it’s likely that you’re reusing some, compromising your security. This is because Google Chrome password manager doesn’t have a built-in password generator that would make it easy to create complex combinations no human can remember. Ideally, you should only know one password to log in to your password manager and every single credential should have its own unique one. 

Second, there are different types of data you might want to secure, from credit cards to identity to bank information to secret notes, and Google Chrome doesn’t handle such information well at all. Besides, what if you want to use Safari for some time or your smartphone to log into your services? 

Secrets handles all the above problems and more easily. This simple and intuitive password organizer gives you the exact level of protection you need, with AES-256 encryption standard, without making your life complicated. Use it in Chrome or Safari, Mac or iPhone — it just works. You can save any passwords, notes, credit card information, and more with no problem, and generate as many complex passwords as you need. 

So learning how to manage passwords Chrome-style is quite easy, whether it’s viewing, saving, removing, or exporting them. The problems, however, start when you want to take things a little further and make them a little bit more secure. That’s when you need Secrets and all the great features it has to offer. 

Best of all, Secrets is available to you absolutely free for seven days through the trial of Setapp, a platform with nearly 220 best-in-class Mac and iPhone apps for all your needs, including many apps that help ensure your security, such as Ohtipi, Pareto Security, and CleanMyMac X. Try every app at no cost right now and see what else can improve your life greatly!