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I am currently trying to migrate my Google Chrome profile from my PC to my new Macbook. I have done the following:

  1. Backed up the "User Data" from the PC to a network share;
  2. On the Mac I installed Chrome (same version), opened and initialized a Profile;
  3. In Finder (with Library display turned on), renamed the Default folder to Default.orig;
  4. Extracted the "Default" folder from the ZIP created in Step 1 to the directory on the Mac. Specifically this folder is ~/Library/Application Support/Chrome

I restart Chrome and it almost works! I see all my open tabs and my history looks fine, however here's the kicker: All of my Extensions show as place-holders and don't actually load (or work).

I am wondering if there is a way to get this to work or if I should just stick to building a new profile under OS X.

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2 Answers

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I have reinstalled Chrome multiple times, on Windows and Linux, in my case, and other than the history and closed tabs (and not even this), there is no need to do that. Google Chrome Sync keeps everything pretty much identical on any OS or computer, extensions, theme, passwords, and pretty much all the configuration.

Opened tabs can be accessed with the Other devices feature that you find at the bottom right corner of the New Tab Page, this lets me see the tabs I had opened on my other computer or on the other partition, even on my android phone.

So the only thing missing would be fonts (Hard to reconcile that between Windows and Mac anyways) and the history. But I think that they have plans to integrate that into sync soon (if they hadn't already).

So if you are using Chrome, and not using the Sync feature, you are missing out.

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Great post, thanks! I am using the sync feature it is just that I wanted to bring all of Extension settings along with me :) – StanD Jan 19 at 8:01
Ah, well, extensions configuration are saved on local storage which are files saved on the Local Storage folder. Each extension (that has any configuration saved) has 2 files called chrome-extension_XXXXXX_0.localstorage and chrome-extension_XXXXXX_0.localstorage-journal where XXXXXX is the name of the folder where the extension is, inside the folder Extensions. Try just replacing those. – Martín Canaval Jan 19 at 8:35
Again, thanks! Will try that out and follow up. Thanks Martin! – StanD Jan 19 at 17:59
up vote 1 down vote accepted

To close this out for posterity and for those Googlers to come after me, I ended up logging into Chrome on the Macbook and letting it download all of the extensions.

After that complete I then wrote a quick script and migrated the settings from the old profile. I sure with Chrome backed up the settings or there was an extension to do this :/

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