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Saved passwords

How to Find Your Saved Passwords on a New Windows Computer

A saved password is a password that your browser remembers and fills in for you when you sign in to a website. When your files were copied from an old computer to a new one, the saved passwords did not come with them. This page explains why, and how to find them again by signing in to your browser.

This page is about Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome on a Windows 11 computer.

Why copying your files did not bring them

Documents and pictures are ordinary files, so a copy on the new computer opens the same way as the original. Your browser keeps its saved passwords somewhere else: in a hidden part of your Windows account, not in Documents or Pictures. Copying your documents and pictures does not copy that hidden part.

Even a copy of that hidden part would not open on the new computer. The browser locks each saved password (the word for this is encrypted) with a key that Windows protects for your Windows account on that one computer. This is why websites on the new computer do not fill in your passwords.

Passwords kept in your account

Both browsers can keep a copy of your saved passwords in your account on the internet: a Microsoft account for Microsoft Edge, and a Google Account for Google Chrome. That copy does not depend on the old computer or its files.

If your old computer kept a copy, signing in to the same browser on the new computer with the same account brings it back. Edge also needs syncing turned on, and the steps below show how. You do not need to know whether your old computer kept a copy. The steps below show which of your passwords the browser has.

Find your saved passwords on this computer

You need the email address and password of the account you used in the browser on your old computer. Click the name of the browser you used on your old computer to open its steps. Windows 11 comes with Microsoft Edge. To recognize the browsers, look at their pictures in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen: Google Chrome is a red, yellow and green circle with a blue center, and Microsoft Edge is a blue and green wave.

Microsoft Edge on Windows 11
  1. Click Start, the Windows symbol at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Click the search box, type Microsoft Edge, then click Microsoft Edge in the results.
  3. Click the three dots at the top right of Edge, then click Settings.
  4. Click Profiles.
  5. If the page shows Sign out, click it, so that you can choose the account yourself. If a box with a check box about clearing data appears, leave the check box empty, then click the button that signs you out.
  6. Click Sign in.
  7. Click your Microsoft account from your old computer in the list, or Add new account if it is not listed, then click Continue.
  8. If Edge asks for the account's email address and password, type them. If a screen asks for a code, or asks you to approve the sign-in on your phone, do what it asks.
  9. If Edge asks whether to turn on sync, click the button that turns it on.
  10. Click Sync. A list of switches opens.
  11. If the page has a button or switch that turns on sync itself, use it.
  12. Find Passwords in the list. If its switch is off, click the switch to turn it on. Edge can take a few minutes to bring your passwords to this computer.
  13. Click Passwords and autofill, then click Microsoft Password Manager. A list of your saved passwords opens.
  14. If a window appears in front of Edge asking you to confirm it is you, do what it asks: type the PIN or password you use to sign in to this computer, or use your face or fingerprint if you sign in that way. If you typed a password, press the Enter key.
  15. In the list, look for the name of a website you know you saved a password for. Scroll down to see more. You do not need to open a password. When the website's name is in the list, the browser has your password for this website. To check another website, look for it the same way. When the name is not in the list, go to If a website is not in the list.

To read one of these passwords, follow How to See a Saved Password in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11.

Microsoft's instructions for finding your passwords

Microsoft's instructions for signing in to Edge

Microsoft's instructions for sync settings

Google Chrome on Windows 11
  1. Click Start, the Windows symbol at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Click the search box, type Google Chrome, then click Google Chrome in the results. If it is not in the results, it is not installed: go to google.com/chrome in Edge by following How to Go to a Website by Typing Its Address in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11, download Chrome by following How to Download a File from a Website in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11, then open the downloaded file and click Yes if Windows asks whether to allow the app to make changes. Chrome opens when the installation finishes.
  3. At the top right of Chrome, beside the three dots, click your profile button. It shows a picture, a circle with your initials, or a person symbol. A box opens.
  4. If the box shows the email address of the Google Account you used on your old computer, and no Sign in to Chrome or Continue as button, Chrome is signed in to the right account. Click your profile button again to close the box, then go to step 11.
  5. If the box has a button named Sign in to Chrome, click it, then go to step 7.
  6. If the box shows a different email address, or a button that begins Continue as, click Add Chrome profile in the box. In the window that opens, click Sign in. Do not click Continue without an account.
  7. If Google asks for the email address and password of your Google Account, type them, clicking Next after each.
  8. If a screen asks for a code, or asks you to approve the sign-in on your phone, do what it asks.
  9. If Chrome shows a screen titled Save time, type less, click No thanks. Your passwords do not need it.
  10. If Chrome opened a new window, use that window from here on. Click your profile button again. The box shows the email address of your Google Account. Click your profile button once more to close the box.
  11. Click the three dots standing one above the other at the top right of Chrome. A menu opens.
  12. Click Passwords and autofill, then click Google Password Manager. A page opens with a list of websites under Passwords.
  13. Click the box that says Search passwords at the top of the page, type part of the name of a website you know you saved a password for, and look at the websites that remain. When the website's name is in the list, the browser has your password for this website. To check another website, look for it the same way. When the name is not in the list, go to If a website is not in the list.

To read one of these passwords, follow How to See a Saved Password in Google Chrome on Windows 11.

Google's instructions for signing in to Chrome

Google's instructions for finding saved passwords

Google's instructions for installing Chrome

If a website is not in the list

When a website's name is not in the list, the browser has no saved password listed under that name. Copying files again does not add one. To get a new password for the website, use the website's own sign-in page. You need access to the email address or phone number that the website has for you.

  1. Type the website's address in the address bar at the top of the browser window and press the Enter key. For help with the address bar, follow How to Go to a Website by Typing Its Address in Microsoft Edge on Windows 11.
  2. Open the website's sign-in page the way you usually do.
  3. Click Forgot password? on that page. Some websites word it differently, such as Forgot your password? or Reset password.
  4. Type the email address or phone number you use for that website, and do what the page asks.
  5. Open the email or text message the website sends within a few minutes. If it has a link, click the link. If it has a code, type the code on the website's page. Ignore any other message.
  6. Type a new password in the boxes on the page, then click the button on the page that finishes the change. The new password works on the website now, whether or not your browser saves it.
  7. When the browser shows a small box below the address bar asking whether to save the password, click Save. Do not click Never, which stops the browser from offering to save passwords for that website.
  8. If you use Google Chrome and no box appeared, open Google Password Manager as in the Chrome steps above and click Add. Type the website's address in Site, your username in Username and your new password in Password, then click Save.
  9. If you use Microsoft Edge and no box appeared, open Microsoft Password Manager as in the Edge steps above and turn on Ask to save passwords and passkeys. Then sign out of the website, sign in again with your new password, and click Save in the box that appears.

Once you have clicked Save or added the password yourself, the next time you open that website's sign-in page the browser fills in your password, or offers it when you click the username box.

For your next computer

While Google Chrome is signed in to your Google Account, and Microsoft Edge is signed in to your Microsoft account with sync on, the passwords you save are kept in that account. On a future computer, sign in the same way, and the steps above show which of your passwords the browser has.