{"id":24048,"date":"2021-05-14T12:26:43","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T06:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=24048"},"modified":"2023-08-09T23:16:08","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:46:08","slug":"transfer-chrome-profile-another-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/transfer-chrome-profile-another-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Transfer Chrome Profiles to Another Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google Chrome&#8217;s synchronize feature stores a copy of your entire browser settings in the cloud and synchronizes it with your other devices. It can sync your Apps, Bookmarks, Extensions, History, Settings, Themes, Reading List, Open Tabs, Passwords, Addresses, phone numbers, payment methods, etc. With sync, all you need to do is install the Chrome browser on a new computer and log in to the same Google account. This transfers all of the above settings to the new device.<\/p>\n<p><strong>But if you don&#8217;t prefer logging into a Google account in Chrome browser, you&#8217;ll need to backup and restore your data manually, as the synchronize feature requires a Google account.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This post tells you how to backup Chrome profiles manually and restore them on another computer. The instructions would be helpful if your old Windows user profile has been corrupted and you want to restore the Chrome settings to the new profile.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>How to Transfer Chrome Profile to Another Computer<\/h2>\n<h3>Backup Google Chrome Profiles<\/h3>\n<p>Google Chrome stores the user data (for all profiles) under the <code>%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\<\/code> directory. The profile folders are named &#8220;Default,&#8221; &#8220;Profile 2&#8221;, &#8220;Profile 3,&#8221; and so forth &#8212; depending upon the number of browser profiles you created.<\/p>\n<p>To transfer the Chrome profiles to another computer, backup the data to a USB flash drive and restore it on the new computer or user account. Follow these steps:<\/p>\n<h4>Profile folders<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Close all instances of Chrome.exe. You can check the Task Manager Details or Processes tab to see if Chrome.exe is running.<\/li>\n<li>Next, assess the total disk size occupied by the <code>User Data<\/code> directory. It can be in several Gigabytes. Be sure that your external\/USB flash drive has sufficient space.<\/li>\n<li>Copy the <code>%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\<\/code> directory to your USB flash drive.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24050\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/chrome-transfer-profile-userdata.png\" alt=\"chrome transfer profile to another computer\" width=\"702\" height=\"142\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"newline\">Note that the <code>User Data<\/code> folder includes all the user profiles in it. If you want to copy a particular profile, say &#8220;<code>Default<\/code>&#8220;, then copy the following subdirectory only:<\/div>\n<pre>%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\Default<\/pre>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4>Tips:<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>To know the profile path for your Chrome profile, visit <code>chrome:\/\/version<\/code> in your browser.<\/li>\n<li>To reduce the total size of the backup, you may exclude the folders named <code><strong>Cache<\/strong><\/code> and <code><strong>Service Worker<\/strong><\/code> present under each profile folder. This will save you gigabytes of disk space when copying.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Passwords<\/h4>\n<p>Passwords need to be exported manually for each profile. For more information, check out the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/export-saved-passwords-google-chrome-file-password-import-export\/\">Import or Export Google Chrome Passwords to a File<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20238\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/chrome-export-passwords.png\" alt=\"chrome export passwords to csv\" width=\"680\" height=\"289\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>Registry settings<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Start the Registry Editor (<code>regedit.exe<\/code>)<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to the following branch:\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Google\\Chrome\\PreferenceMACs<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24049\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/chrome-transfer-profile-registry.png\" alt=\"chrome transfer profile to another computer\" width=\"751\" height=\"275\" \/><br \/>\n<em>The above key stores some settings or hashes pertaining to individual Chrome extensions (for every Chrome profile), along with other preferences.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>From the File menu, click Export and save the branch to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/how-to-use-reg-files-registration-entries-windows\/\">.reg file<\/a> &#8212; e.g., chrome_prefs.reg.\n<div class=\"newline\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> If you want to export the settings of a particular profile, then select that subkey (e.g., &#8220;Default, &#8220;Profile 2&#8221;, or &#8220;Profile 3&#8221;) and export it.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Restore Google Chrome Profile(s) to Another Computer<\/h3>\n<p>To restore Chrome profiles from backup, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<h4>Profile folders<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Install Google Chrome on the new computer or user account.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure all instances of Google Chrome are closed.<\/li>\n<li>Using File Explorer, rename the <code>User Data<\/code> folder located at:\n<pre>%LOCALAPPDATA%\\Google\\Chrome\\User Data\\<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> If you&#8217;re transferring only a specific Chrome profile from backup, then rename only the appropriate profile folder &#8212; e.g., &#8220;Default,&#8221; &#8220;Profile 2&#8221;, or &#8220;Profile 3,&#8221; etc., on your hard drive.<\/li>\n<li>Copy the User Data folder (or the specific profile folder) from your USB drive to the above location in the hard drive.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>Registry settings<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to the following branch:\n<pre>HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\SOFTWARE\\Google\\Chrome\\PreferenceMACs<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Rename <code>PreferenceMACs<\/code> to <code>PreferenceMACs.Old<\/code><\/li>\n<li>From the File menu, click Import&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Browse to select the registry file (e.g., chrome_prefs.reg) you exported earlier (to your USB drive), and import it.<\/li>\n<li>Exit the Registry Editor.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>Passwords<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Launch Google Chrome.<\/li>\n<li>If you see the following prompt, click OK. <strong>Don&#8217;t<\/strong> click Reset All Settings.\n<pre><strong>Some settings were reset<\/strong>\r\n\r\nChrome detected that some of your settings were corrupted by another program \r\nand reset them to their original defaults.<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-24051\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/chrome-corrupt-data-reset-prompt.png\" alt=\"chrome transfer profile to another computer\" width=\"750\" height=\"401\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<p>Due to the change in Machine ID and hash (HMAC) value, Chrome resets some settings found in the <code>Secure Preferences<\/code> file for that profile. Settings that might automatically get reset are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Default search engine<\/li>\n<li>Homepage<\/li>\n<li>Startup pages<\/li>\n<li>Pinned tabs<\/li>\n<li>Extensions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Note: Despite Chrome&#8217;s reset notification, none of the extensions were disabled during my testing. Also, most of the extension settings were successfully imported. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamf.com\/jamf-nation\/discussions\/32534\/google-chrome-settings-from-user-template-some-settings-were-reset\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Enterprise users<\/a> seem to use the <code>Google Chrome Master Preferences<\/code> file to deploy the settings.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Enable the following password import flag in Chrome via this link:\n<pre>chrome:\/\/flags\/#PasswordImport<\/pre>\n<p><em>(Full instructions are available in the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/export-saved-passwords-google-chrome-file-password-import-export\/\">Import or Export Google Chrome Passwords<\/a>.)<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Then, open the Passwords page directly without going through Settings. The URL is below:\n<pre> chrome:\/\/settings\/passwords<\/pre>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-20239\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/chrome-password-import-option.png\" alt=\"chrome import passwords from csv\" width=\"679\" height=\"291\" \/><\/li>\n<li>Import the passwords from the CSV file in your USB drive.<\/li>\n<li>Close all instances of Chrome.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Start Google Chrome now. The bookmarks, extensions, extension settings, cookies, history, passwords, and most of the other settings should have been imported correctly. However, note that you&#8217;ll need to re-login to each website manually for the first time. You can use the password autofill, though.<\/p>\n<p><em>[Tested on Chrome browser version 90.0.4430.212. Windows 10 OS Version 2009 or 20H2 (Build 19042.985)]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google Chrome&#8217;s synchronize feature stores a copy of your entire browser settings in the cloud and synchronizes it with your other devices. It can sync your Apps, Bookmarks, Extensions, History, Settings, Themes, Reading List, Open Tabs, Passwords, Addresses, phone numbers, payment methods, etc. With sync, all you need to do is install the Chrome browser &#8230; <a title=\"How to Transfer Chrome Profiles to Another Computer\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/transfer-chrome-profile-another-computer\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to Transfer Chrome Profiles to Another Computer\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-24048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-google-chrome"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8615,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-google-chrome-does-not-open-fails-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":24048,"position":0},"title":"How to Fix Google Chrome if it Fails to Launch in Windows","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Occasionally, Google Chrome may not start correctly due to Chrome user profile corruption, a rogue extension or even due to malware. When you launch Chrome, the Task Manager may show chrome.exe as running but no user interface may be visible. This post tells you how to fix Google Chrome web\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"recovery chrome bookmarks and cookies from old profile folder","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/chrome-recover-bookmarks-old-folder.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/chrome-recover-bookmarks-old-folder.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/chrome-recover-bookmarks-old-folder.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/chrome-recover-bookmarks-old-folder.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4785,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/completely-reset-google-chrome-defaults\/","url_meta":{"origin":24048,"position":1},"title":"How to Reset Google Chrome to Default","author":"Ramesh","date":"December 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You may occasionally want to reset Chrome to the factory default settings for performance, or in the aftermath of malware attack and removal. This post tells you how to reset your Google Chrome settings and data. Contents Reset Google Chrome via Settings Reset Google Chrome completely by renaming its data\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"chrome welcome screen first run","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/chrome-welcome-first-run.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/chrome-welcome-first-run.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/chrome-welcome-first-run.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3633,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/clear-chrome-history-cookies-per-site\/","url_meta":{"origin":24048,"position":2},"title":"How to Clear Chrome History and Cookies for a Particular Site","author":"Ramesh","date":"July 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes, it may be necessary for you to clear the Chrome browser history and cookies for a particular site or domain. You may need to clear the cookies and site data for a specific site either when designing websites or troubleshooting website login issues etc. And, as a privacy measure,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/chrome-local-storage-clear-site-data.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/chrome-local-storage-clear-site-data.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/chrome-local-storage-clear-site-data.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/chrome-local-storage-clear-site-data.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8502,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/chrome-managed-by-your-organization-policy-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":24048,"position":3},"title":"[Fix] &#8220;Managed by your organization&#8221; in Chrome or Microsoft Edge","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, some users see the message \"Managed by your organization\" when they click the \"More\" menu. The message indicates that the browser (Microsoft Edge or Chrome) is being managed. 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Many users reported \"high disk usage\" problem on their systems when Google Chrome is launched. 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