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I have seen many similar questions and read all the answers, but all of them are outdated, so I posting the question again with present situation.

What I want to do is transfer a chromium profile from my old pc to new one 'without using Google account'. Both Windows 10 same version.

Following were tried with both Chromium v90 and Brave 1.23

  1. Simply copy pasting the User data folder - When 'Some settings were reset' popup comes, press 'Ok', not 'Reset all settings'. (Important - Don't use 'Reset all Settings') Don't Work

Following things get ported succesfully

  • History
  • Download History
  • Most settings
  • Bookmarks
  • Profile icon and name
  • Addresses and more
  • Search Engines
  • Extension's settings

Following don't

  • Passwords
  • Extensions and their state (settings that can be configured under chrome://extensions)
  • Default search engine
  • Cookies

  1. Copy pasting User Folder and also restoring PreferenceMACs registry key - Don't work, same as 1st.

  2. Renaming new pc and user same as old one, and setting the same password, then copy pasting User folder and restoring PreferenceMACs - Don't work, same as 1st.

Now to restore passwords, I exported the passwords from old pc and then imported in the new pc, it worked. (Require enabling of flag chrome://flags/#PasswordImport)

Changing Defuault Search Engine is not a big issue, as all old serch engines restore successfully.

Extensions can be installed again using crx file or extension folder from old profile, their settings persist. But whether the extension was enable or disabled, to what sites the extension had access to are not ported, so need to be manually done.

So now only cookies are left to be restored. I couldn't find any way to transfer cookies.

Please suggest what can be done.

Possible Solutions I need help for

  • Disable the security of the chrome profile using gpedit or registry on both pc, and then copy paste User Data folder to new pc. Is this possible? How?
  • Make changes to new pc, such that it can decrypt files from older pc. For this possibly some changes to Window's encrption/cryptography system will be needed in new pc, to make the keys same as old pc. Is it possible? How?

Thanks

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  • I have never had any problems simply copying the entire profile directory. In my personal experience of using Chrome and Chromium that strategy has never failed me on any version.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 13:58
  • @Ramhound If you do this on same pc it work, but if you transfer it to another pc or reinstall windows, it don't.
    – TontyTon
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 18:10
  • IIRC passwords are secured using DPAPI encryption. It is tied to a Windows account. They cannot be easily copied. I suggest using a different password manager.
    – Daniel B
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 18:30
  • @TontyTon - I don’t store my passwords in my browser for this reason thus allowing me to transfer my browser session across multiple devices without using an account to do it
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 2, 2021 at 22:42
  • @DanielB I can try difficult and not very promising solutions too. One of the profile have important cookies.
    – TontyTon
    Commented May 3, 2021 at 8:28

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
-2

take a look at Backup and Restore Google Chrome Offline, it does all, https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9N0LRCXDW2ZM

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  • 1
    Welcome to SuperUser! Please do not post links only as the linked site might change or get removed in the future, rendering your answer useless. Instead quote the most important parts from it and provide the link as reference only.
    – DarkDiamond
    Commented Jan 29, 2022 at 13:19
  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review
    – bad_coder
    Commented Jan 29, 2022 at 14:14
  • 2
    The link you provided has now been removed so the answer is actually useless.
    – graham
    Commented Dec 5, 2023 at 13:12

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