Google Chrome loses (does not show) stored password after an upgrade

Google Chrome loses stored passwords after an upgrade.

The situation is different from the one described here.

A few days back, at one point, no remembered passwords were being offered during a login. I found that no passwords are stored in Settings -> Manage passwords either. However, Google Dashboard was showing that it has n passwords stored.

As advised in Google product forum (can not find the exact link now), I purged Google Chrome from my computer and deleted the config files, and installed Google Chrome again, and stored passwords could be used.

This morning, after a regular upgrade (where an upgrade of Google Chrome occurred), the Settings -> Manage passwords is empty, but the count is nonzero in Google Dashboard.

I am using Ubuntu 15.04.

Masroor

Posted 2015-06-12T03:50:25.793

Reputation: 1 097

Can you see them at https://passwords.google.com/?

– user1686 – 2015-06-12T06:44:33.270

@grawity Yes, I can see. All of them. Did not know that such a site exists. – Masroor – 2015-06-12T13:23:46.167

Are you using Chrome for iOS, and do you have sync enabled? In any case, I advise using another password manager than Chrome, for example LastPass.

– harrymc – 2015-06-15T18:16:15.687

@harrymc I am using Chrome in Ubuntu as indicated in the last paragraph of my question. And of course Sync has been enabled. – Masroor – 2015-06-15T23:16:29.260

I meant are you syncing with an iPhone or similar? – harrymc – 2015-06-16T05:30:02.623

@harrymc Sorry, I misunderstood. Not at all. I have four active devices, all of them run Ubuntu. – Masroor – 2015-06-16T06:08:07.653

@harrymc And while we are on the issue. I have read the third party reviews on LastPass. Looks like more or less an acceptable alternative. You already recommended it, but I am asking again, do you recommend it considering safety/security issues? – Masroor – 2015-06-16T06:44:31.160

Yes, I use it myself for all my devices. The encrypting is done on your side using your master password for protection. Their site was hacked lately, but the most that the hackers managed to get were the password hints, since the encrypted passwords were useless to them. It works. – harrymc – 2015-06-16T08:13:35.340

Answers

Querying for this problem on Google finds several millions of articles and posts about the problem of missing passwords in Chrome. Narrowing the Google search to the Chromium bug-list website of code.google.com finds "only" 11,000 results (!!).

Here are the latest three issues :

Issue 268361: All my stored passwords are lost (Aug 5, 2013)
Issue 351343: saved passwords disappeared (Mar 11, 2014)
Issue 468275: Saved passwords missing in chrome (Mar 18, 2015)

This is not one bug that appears and reappears, but very many bugs, each one alone capable of destroying the stored passwords. As such, I believe that letting Chrome manage your passwords is rather like playing Russian roulette.

You would be much better off using a third-party password manager. Using a specialized product is much safer, with the added benefits that your passwords are available across multiple computers and devices, as well as multiple browsers, so you are not captive of just one browser.

The best one I have found is LastPass, where the passwords and the contents of all the fields in their containing forms are encrypted and saved on their servers. The encryption is done on your side and using your master password for protection, so the LastPass website has no idea of what is stored on their servers.

The power of this concept was proven lately when the LastPass website was hacked. The results were rather minor for the users, as the most that the hackers managed to get were the password hints, since the encrypted passwords themselves were useless to them.

For more info about how LastPass was designed to stand off such attacks, see the article :
LastPass Is Breached: Do You Need To Change Your Master Password?

harrymc

Posted 2015-06-12T03:50:25.793

Reputation: 306 093

I just had the same problem, And this solution worked for me:

I figure it out whatever happens in my computer is just happened now so it wouldn't able to sync anything. So, I disconnected my account in Settings and check the option Also clear your history, bookmarks, settings, and other Chrome data stores on this device. Then, chrome will autoclose. I opened, click in settings, Login and I enter my credentials. It sync and voila, everything is there again :)

If this doesn't fix your problem I suggest to do the same and Uninstall Chrome, and Install again.

I'm using Ubuntu 14.04

titusfx

Posted 2015-06-12T03:50:25.793

Reputation: 161

clearing history or reinstalling works. But it still happens everytime I log out from ubuntu 18.04. How can we make this solution permanent? – m-ric – 2018-07-17T15:05:57.680

Make sure it says your name next to the minimize button at the top right of Chrome. I was logged in to Google but was browsing as a guest.

Daryl Van Sittert

Posted 2015-06-12T03:50:25.793

Reputation: 109

This is really a comment and not an answer to the original question. You can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. Please read Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead?

– DavidPostill – 2016-12-06T10:30:58.173

If you were signed in, all your passwords were automatically synched and accessible at https://passwords.google.com/ website. To sync them back, just sign in to your Chrome account at chrome://settings/.