How do I transfer my Google Chrome profile to a new PC?

39

10

Now that I have Google Chrome all set up, I got myself a new laptop. Does anyone have any idea how to transfer my settings, cookies, favorites, etc?

I checked documents and settings\me\application data, and found nothing.

Danimal

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation:

I tried both ways, but my OLD PC settings of CHROME donot show up in new install on new laptop. OLD = WinXP New = Win7. Used CMD> %APPDATA% to discover the hidden Path and all. I copied in RAR format and unzipped, to recreate the files like original. What am I missing ? Also tried to SYNC but there is no explicit SYNC-to-ACCOUNT-from-current-PC. It seems you can only ENABLE and DISABLE a continuous SYNC process. How to SYNC your PAST HISTORY/ Bookmarks etc. RIGHT NOW --- its not clear at all. Probly I erred -- signed in on new laptop first; but I shud hav signed in FIRST on OLD one. Now I have – None – 2012-05-18T12:44:58.130

Answers

18

This link should help you out - basically:

  • On XP - C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data
  • On Vista - C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data

ConroyP

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation: 326

4Warning: While this generally works, you will lose all stored passwords since they are encrypted using a Windows API that uses a machine/account specific key, which obviously will be different on any other machine/account. – ThiefMaster – 2017-08-20T14:06:44.817

I guess your link has got infiltrated by Tramadol – Danny Lo – 2018-03-11T13:19:15.957

1@ThiefMaster but in chrome://settings/passwords you can hit those three vertical dots and choose Export Passwords as a way to migrate passwords. – AndrewHarvey – 2019-01-24T06:15:54.930

@AndrewHarvey not anymore. – Hellreaver – 2020-02-01T18:59:15.747

11

  1. While logged in to the profile you wish to migrate (normally named Default if you didn't add additional profiles) enter the following URL in the address bar:

    chrome://version

  2. Copy the path listed under Profile Path

  3. Shut down chrome and then zip the folder and transfer it to the same location on the other machine.

Exclude the Cache folder under your profile folder to reduce file size. For example, you can copy the profile folder to a temporary location, delete the Cache sub-folder and then zip it.

ccpizza

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation: 5 372

Works for Windows 10 version 1909. – John McGehee – 2019-12-15T06:13:03.070

10

On your old computer:

  • Go to Google Chrome, and then type in the address bar: chrome://settings/personal (or just navigate to Settings).
  • Click "sync to my account" (or something like that) to sync it to your Google account.

On your new computer:

  • Click the wrench icon.
  • Click sign in to Chrome.

As soon as you sign in to your synced Google account, all of your settings, bookmarks, etc. are transferred.

Dave

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation:

@Izap, And that's the most important..... – Pacerier – 2015-05-03T23:18:32.480

1Browsing history can also be synched. Nowadays this is the best answer. – jiggunjer – 2016-02-02T02:14:06.540

Anyone know if this will miss anything that would be gotten if the profile folder itself was just moved directly? – jinglesthula – 2017-12-22T17:36:03.260

9Uhhh, in 7 years nobody brought up the obvious glaring privacy issue of uploading your entire browsing history to an internet advertising company? This is not "nowadays" the best answer. – Brian Gordon – 2019-01-31T05:44:36.967

2If you use Chrome unironically, you're already uploading all your personal data to Google anyway. – Quolonel Questions – 2019-06-16T18:13:16.797

3But browsing history is stored in a local database. You will loose that. – lzap – 2013-08-29T16:54:31.770

3

C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\RA.N.DO.M Numbers

copy this folder and replace only the contents inside the Random Numbered Folder this is where all of your contents are held.

C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\23.0.1271.91

Click inside the folder and a list of files will be there this is what you need to copy and move over to another computer

When moving this file over to a new computer you must first install google chrome and establish a new profile number ( that's why the number is random )

delete the contents in the newly created profile and paste over the contents from the old profile.

Open chrome up and you are back in business.

Windows 7 to Windows 8 machine

If you wish to do a folder migration from XP to Windows 7 or 8 it is going to be

C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\RA.N.DOM Numbers

Abet Computers

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation: 31

2I tried editing this, but I cannot figure out what it is trying to say. Those “random numbers” are not random, they are the version of Chrome. After you update it a few times, you will have several folder where each one is named for the version of Chrome installed in it.     (For some reason, Google decided that it is a good idea to keep every version of Chrome you have ever used—my folder is currently >700MB.) – Synetech – 2012-11-27T04:09:57.723

1

You can to override the User Data Directory. To check where is located, navigate to: chrome://version.

Or you can start Chrome with the existing User Data, e.g.

Example:

  • [Windows] chrome.exe --user-data-dir=c:\foo
  • [Linux] google-chrome --user-data-dir=/path/to/foo

On Linux, you can also set CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR environment variable pointing to the user data directory.

Check also: Where are the user profile directories of Google Chrome located in?

kenorb

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation: 16 795

Please do not post the same answer to multiple questions. If the same information really answers both questions, then one question (usually the newer one) should be closed as a duplicate of the other. You can indicate this by voting to close it as a duplicate or, if you don't have enough reputation for that, raise a flag to indicate that it's a duplicate. Otherwise tailor your answer to this question and don't just paste the same answer in multiple places.

– DavidPostill – 2019-03-15T13:12:48.553

1

Its all there in Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome

Prakash

Posted 2008-09-10T13:19:05.643

Reputation:

1Not always. Looking at chrome://version showed this profile to be in C:\Users\Public\Data\LocalAppData\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default – Underverse – 2017-10-23T23:14:06.173