How to export LastPass passwords and move them to Barside

Leaving LastPass means exporting your vault from its browser extension as a CSV file. Barside reads that file and imports your website logins into its free, local password manager. This guide covers the export, the import, what LastPass leaves out, and the few things to set up again.

Before you start

Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. Its password manager keeps logins encrypted on your own computer and never puts them in backups, sync or AI features. It fills logins into Chrome, Brave and Edge on Windows, copies them on Linux, makes two-step codes and checks for leaks.

Three things to know before you start:

• LastPass does not export two-step codes. If you keep authenticator codes in LastPass, write down which websites use them; you will add them again in Barside.
• Barside Passwords is for one person on one computer. It has no shared folders and no phone app.
• You need Barside 1.50 or newer for the importer.

Step 1: Export your LastPass vault

These steps come from LastPass's own help article. They work only in the LastPass browser extension.

1. Select the LastPass icon in your browser's toolbar.
2. Select the Account tab, then go to Fix a problem yourself > Export vault items > Export data for use anywhere.
3. Enter your master password if LastPass asks.
4. Select Continue.
5. A CSV file with your data downloads.

In LastPass for Safari, the file opens in a separate tab instead: right-click and choose Save Page As... to save it.

LastPass lists what its export cannot do: attachments are not exported, TOTP codes for password items are not exported, and custom item types and custom fields are not supported. Business admins can also block exports with the "Prohibit export" policy.

The file's columns include url, username, password, extra (notes), name, grouping (folder), fav and sometimes totp, in an order that has varied between versions. Barside reads columns by their names, so the order does not matter.

Step 2: Import the file into Barside

1. Open Barside Passwords: the key icon in the title bar, or type pw in the search bar.
2. Choose Import from another password manager.
3. Pick the CSV file.
4. Barside shows what it found, for example Import 310 logins from LastPass, and how many items it leaves out, such as secure notes.
5. Choose Import 310 logins.
6. Choose Move the file to the Recycle Bin (the Trash on Linux) and empty it.

Barside reads the file in its main process; the Passwords window only ever sees the counts.

What comes along, and what stays behind

When Barside already has a login for the same website and username, it takes the password from the file and keeps its own name for the login, so importing twice does not create duplicates.

Add your two-step codes again

For each website where you used LastPass for authenticator codes:

1. Sign in to the website and open its two-step settings. Most websites let you set up a new authenticator, which shows a QR code.
2. In Barside Passwords, edit the login, choose Add two-step code, then Scan QR code on screen, or paste the setup key.
3. Choose Save login. Barside shows the six-digit code with a countdown, and can fill it into the code box on Windows.

Do this website by website, and keep LastPass until each one works.

If something looks wrong

• The export button is missing. Exports run only from the LastPass browser extension, not from the website alone. If the menu item is greyed out in a work account, your admin has blocked exports.
• "This file is not a password export Barside can read." Your browser may have saved the page instead of the CSV file. Open the file in a text editor: the first line should start with url,username,password. If it does not, export again.
• Fewer logins than you expected. Barside imports website logins with a username and a password. Secure notes, logins for apps, and entries without a username are counted and left out; add the few that matter by hand with Add login.
• Odd characters in names. If you opened the CSV in a spreadsheet and saved it again, the spreadsheet may have changed its encoding. Export a fresh file from LastPass and import that one without opening it.

A safe order for the switch

1. Export from LastPass and import into Barside on the same day.
2. Move the export file to the trash and empty it.
3. Use Barside for a week while LastPass stays installed but unused.
4. Add two-step codes in Barside as you sign in to each website.
5. When nothing is missing, remove the LastPass extension, and delete your account if you no longer need it.

After the move

• Check the leak report. In Password health, choose Check now. Barside checks each password against Have I Been Pwned without sending it: only the first five characters of its hash leave your computer.
• Change reused and weak passwords first, with the free password generator.
• Delete your LastPass account once everything works, if you no longer need it.

Daily use after LastPass

LastPass fills from its browser extension. Barside fills from the desktop: on a login page, open Barside Passwords, choose the account and press Fill (Windows), or copy the username and password (Linux; Barside clears the clipboard after 45 seconds). For everything else Barside's password manager does, read the password manager guide; for a comparison with paid managers, the 1Password alternative.

Moving from another app too? See Bitwarden, 1Password and every format Barside reads.