How to export Chrome passwords and import them into Barside

Most people's passwords live in their browser. Chrome, Edge and Brave can all export them as a CSV file, and Barside reads that file into its free password manager on your computer. This guide shows the export in each browser, the import in Barside, and how to clean up safely.

Before you start

Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. Its password manager keeps logins encrypted on your computer: on Windows with Windows' own data protection for your account, on Linux with your system keyring. It fills logins into Chrome, Brave and Edge on Windows and copies them on Linux, and it makes two-step codes and checks for leaked and reused passwords.

You need Barside 1.50 or newer, which added Import from another password manager.

Step 1: Export your passwords from the browser

Google Chrome (Google Password Manager)

From Google's help page, on a computer:

1. Open Chrome.
2. At the top right, select More → Passwords and autofill → Google Password Manager.
3. Select Settings.
4. Scroll to Export passwords and select Download file.
5. Confirm with your computer's password if Chrome asks, and save the file.

Chrome's export is a CSV file with the columns name,url,username,password,note. Older versions had no note column; Barside reads both.

Microsoft Edge

From Microsoft's help page:

1. Open Edge and select Settings and more (…), or press Alt + F, then Passwords.
2. Select the More (…) icon, then Export passwords.
3. Select Export to confirm, and choose where to save the file.

Microsoft adds: "Passwords exported to a CSV are not protected and will be visible to anyone who can see the exported file." It is not possible to export from Edge for Android or iOS.

Brave

From Brave's help center:

1. Open the main menu → Settings → Additional Settings → Auto-fill → Password Manager. You can also go to brave://password-manager/settings.
2. Open Settings at the top left of the Passwords page.
3. Under Export Passwords, select Download file.

Edge and Brave are built on Chromium, the same base as Chrome, and Barside reads their files the same way.

Step 2: Import the file into Barside

1. Open Barside Passwords: the key icon in Barside's title bar, Passwords in the tray menu, or type pw in the search bar.
2. Choose Import from another password manager.
3. Pick the CSV file you saved.
4. Barside shows what it found, such as Import 87 logins from Chrome, Edge or Brave, and how many entries it leaves out and why.
5. Choose Import 87 logins.
6. Choose Move the file to the Recycle Bin (the Trash on Linux), then empty it.

The window shows counts only. Barside reads the passwords in its main process and never sends them to the window, which also asks Windows to keep it out of screen captures.

What comes along, and what stays behind

If Barside already has a login for a website and username, it takes the browser's password and keeps its own name, so you can import from Chrome and then from Edge without duplicates.

If something looks wrong

• Fewer logins than the browser shows. App passwords and entries without a username are left out; the summary counts them. Add the few you need with Add login.
• Two accounts on one website. Both come along: Barside keeps one login per website and username.
• "This file is not a password export Barside can read." The file is not the browser's CSV. Export again and pick the downloaded .csv file.

Browser passwords or a separate vault?

A browser's password manager is convenient: it saves and fills as you browse, and syncs to your phone through your browser account. A separate vault such as Barside Passwords gives you other things:

• One vault for several browsers. On Windows, Barside fills the same logins in Chrome, Brave and Edge.
• Two-step codes next to the login. Barside makes the six-digit codes that authenticator apps show, and fills them into a code box on Windows.
• Logins that stay on your computer. Barside needs no account, keeps the vault apart from your notes, and never syncs it.
• A leak and reuse report for every saved login.

The trade-offs are real too: Barside has no phone app and no browser extension, and it fills from its own window instead of from the page. Many people keep the browser's passwords for everyday fills and use Barside as the main vault, or switch fully once they are used to it.

Two ways to switch

• Side by side: import into Barside, keep Chrome's passwords, and use whichever is closer. Update a password in both places when you change it.
• Fully: after the import, delete the saved passwords in Chrome's Google Password Manager and turn off Chrome's offer to save passwords, so new logins go into Barside only.

After the move

• Try a fill. Open a login page in Chrome, Brave or Edge on Windows, open Barside Passwords, choose the account and press Fill. On Linux, use Copy username and Copy password; Barside clears the clipboard after 45 seconds.
• Run the leak check. In Password health, choose Check now. Only the first five characters of each password's hash go to Have I Been Pwned.
• Fix weak passwords. Test them with the password strength checker and replace them with ones from the password generator.
• Decide about the browser's copy. Keep it for quick fills, or delete it in the browser's password settings and let Barside be your one vault.

Moving bookmarks too? The bookmarks guide shows how. For everything Barside Passwords does, read the password manager guide, and for other managers' files, every format Barside reads.