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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.

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Masroor
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    Can you see them at https://passwords.google.com/? – u1686_grawity Jun 12 '15 at 06:44
  • @grawity Yes, I can see. All of them. Did not know that such a site exists. – Masroor Jun 12 '15 at 13:23
  • 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](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lastpass-free-password-ma/hdokiejnpimakedhajhdlcegeplioahd). – harrymc Jun 15 '15 at 18:16
  • @harrymc I am using Chrome in Ubuntu as indicated in the last paragraph of my question. And of course Sync has been enabled. – Masroor Jun 15 '15 at 23:16
  • I meant are you syncing with an iPhone or similar? – harrymc Jun 16 '15 at 05:30
  • @harrymc Sorry, I misunderstood. Not at all. I have four active devices, all of them run Ubuntu. – Masroor Jun 16 '15 at 06:08
  • @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 Jun 16 '15 at 06:44
  • 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 Jun 16 '15 at 08:13

4 Answers4

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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
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7

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
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  • 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 Jul 17 '18 at 15:05
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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
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  • 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](https://superuser.com/help/whats-reputation) you will be able to [comment on any post](https://superuser.com/help/privileges/comment). Please read [Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead?](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/214174) – DavidPostill Dec 06 '16 at 10:30
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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/.

See also:

kenorb
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    Thanks for the answer. But I have started using [LastPass](https://www.lastpass.com/) and very happy with it. – Masroor Feb 02 '18 at 01:43
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    @Masroor My friend is using it, I've decided to go with [Dashlane](https://www.dashlane.com/). As I'm not confident to keep all my passwords at Google's Passwords website where all of them has been uploaded there without my knowledge, and it's not clear how much it is secure. – kenorb Feb 02 '18 at 11:08