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I would like to sign into Chrome at work. The computers don't save information and it's really helpful to have bookmarks, history and tabs saved. I'm wondering what's the safest way to do this, as to divide my personal email etc. from what I do at work? I think what I want to do is create another profile in Chrome, but when I tried to it said that username (my Gmail address) is already used. Is there another way to create a profile without needing new login credentials? I have two factor authentication enabled in my Gmail so I would like to login using it (for both profiles).

Is this possible?

Jaime Santa Cruz
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JohnD
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  • Please clarify: are you currently logged in as abc@gmail.com *now*, and would like another profile with abc@gmail.com ? Why this is needed? – Vylix May 25 '17 at 21:39
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    @Vylix I log into both my home computer's Chrome, and work computer's Chrome with my one and only abc@gmail.com – JohnD May 26 '17 at 08:29
  • Why don't create work@gmail.com and have two profile work for you? I'm curious as I divide both personal and work email as two separate email address, but I logged in to Chrome as my personal account (so histories of sites I open at work will get saved on my personal account. Though I wonder if *this* is what you really want) – Vylix May 26 '17 at 09:18

3 Answers3

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I'm assuming you want to do basically a work and personal google chrome setup. With bookmarks / historical information different on each account.

Google doesn't allow this. You would be better off having a work email and a personal email setup. I hope they change this, as I use chrome the same way.

I would put down as a comment, but I don't have the 50 point rep.

JustAGrump
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    This is actually the answer to the question : no you cannot create two different Chrome profiles using the same gmail account. – George Erhard May 25 '17 at 22:37
  • Its really weird for me seeing this. but I can actually create multiple desktop chrome profile with same email but the only the first one can sync. I think this is new feature? since @GeorgeErhard hardly stated that it Cannot – Jovylle May 04 '22 at 09:07
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You can download a portable version of chrome and use the two browsers in parallel. Is not the same thing I know, but it can solve the problem.

more info:

Is it possible to have two separate installations of Chrome on one computer?

Filipe Teixeira
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At the time of writing, May 2021, actually you can create multiple profiles for the same google account, it's just that you can't sync them all. One google account can only sync one of the profiles. (See https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/2364824)

You can create different profiles (such as Work, Personal, etc.) using the same google account. Different profiles do not share bookmarks, history, and plugins. For most people working from home with the need to share their screens, this is the most convenient choice to separate work/life contents without switching accounts all the time. If you use any password manager plugin such as LastPass, it would be even smoother because the application data can be shared.

However, among the profiles with the same google account, there is only one profile can be used for sync, which means some profiles will have to stay local, kind of annoying.

Edward Luo
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    My understanding is that you can create multiple profiles on a particular device, but each profile is associated with at most 1 google account, and no two profiles can be associated with the same google account. – Paul de Barros Jul 14 '21 at 14:59
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    Yes exactly, it's not a wise design of chrome when so many people have the need to work from home now – Edward Luo Oct 29 '21 at 18:21
  • It seems you misunderstood how it works. You can have multiple profiles; each of them can be either associated to a Google account, or be accountless. Only those associated to an account can be synchronized. – Pere Feb 09 '22 at 16:35
  • Hey, this answer is perfectly right. you can't sync on the second profile with same email, thats it. – Jovylle May 04 '22 at 09:04
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    I do have multiple chrome profile, this is on desktop. Having same email only the first one I can do the sync. – Jovylle May 04 '22 at 09:05