You should not save your passwords in Chrome. But before you delete them from Chrome, you need to save them so that you can refer to them.

I’ve said it many times – don’t store your passwords in your web browser. Yes, it makes things easy. You go to a website, and Chrome just automatically inserts your login information (email address and password) for that account, and you’re in. That’s fine, until your laptop gets lost or stolen, or someone hacks into your computer. If anyone ever gets control of your computer, all of your passwords are stored in Chrome in plain text. Now they don’t just have your computer, they have ALL of your online accounts. Think it will never happen? So did the people who have actually experienced it.

So – the way I recommend you store all your passwords is by using LastPass (I’ve written about it here before). But that’s not what today’s tip is about.

What we want to do today is create a nice spreadsheet that contains all of the passwords you currently have saved in Chrome – BEFORE you delete them from Chrome. This makes a nice reference sheet to have, in case you ever need it. And there’s another handy use for it, which we’ll cover in a minute.

Here’s how you do it –

First, open Chrome and click the 3 dots up in the top right corner. In the drop down menu, click on Settings.

In the Settings window, look in the “Autofill” section and click on “Passwords” –

At the top are two options: “Offer to save passwords” and “Auto sign in”. I recommend turning both of these off.

Now, under that, you’ll see your list of saved passwords. Directly to the right of the words “Saved Passwords” you’ll see 3 dots. Click on those 3 dots, and choose “Export Passwords”.

You’ll get a warning that anyone who sees this file will see your passwords. You probably already know this. Click on the button labeled “Export passwords”.

You will be asked for your Windows password. This just means the password you type in each time you boot up the computer. Type your Windows password and click OK. If you don’t have a Windows password, just leave it blank and click OK.

Now you will get a window that will let you choose where you want to save the list of passwords. It will probably default to your Documents folder, but you can choose to save it anywhere you want. Just pay attention to where it gets saved, so you know where to go find it.

The file name will be: Chrome Passwords.csv

Click Save, and you’re done. You’ll just be back at the list of Chrome passwords in Chrome settings (this isn’t the file you just saved). Close Chrome and any other windows.

Now just go to where that file was just saved (probably Documents unless you designated a different location). Find that file called “Chrome Passwords” and double click it.

If you have Excel, the file will open up in an Excel spreadsheet. If you use LibreOffice, it will open up in the spreadsheet program called Calc. If you don’t have a way to open the file, you can get LibreOffice for free at LibreOffice.org.

So there you have it – all of your passwords that were saved in Chrome are now listed there on that spreadsheet. From here, you can go back and delete all of them from Chrome (using the same list where you exported them). Or even better, you can use that list to import all of them into LastPass – which is a much better and safer way to store your passwords.

As always, if you need help with any of this, just contact me by phone or email.