What To Do When Chrome Is Not Saving Passwords

With the amount of online accounts and passwords that we must keep track of, Google Chrome’s built-in password manager is a convenient tool that allows us to quickly log-in to our favorite websites. It works by prompting you to save your login credentials in Google Chrome, so that the next time you visit the website the information will be auto-filled in. Unfortunately, sometimes this feature will fail to remember the account sessions, leading to a variety of annoying situations. If Chrome is not saving passwords for you, read on to find out the causes behind it and how to fix it.

What Are The Causes Behind Chrome Not Saving Passwords?

While this problem is commonly reported on Windows versions 7/8.1/10, it is also reported on Apple Mac computers as well. It appears that this annoying issue is not related to your computer’s operating system as previously thought but is a problem isolated to Google’s Chrome browser. There are several known triggers that can cause the feature to fail.

• An outdated Google Chrome client can cause the feature to fail.
• Your Chrome profile is corrupted.
• You have previously disabled the “save passwords” feature in Chrome.
• You have prohibited Chrome from saving local data.
• You have installed a conflicting Google Chrome extension.
• Mac Users: your Google Chrome’s cache folder is corrupted.

If you are struggling with Chrome not saving your passwords, any of the above issues could be the root of the problem. We are going to address these causes through several methods below, listing them out in the order they should be completed in.

6 Methods for Resolving Chrome Not Saving Passwords

1. Manually Updating Google Chrome.

The first solution is one of the easiest to complete and should fix the problem if you have an outdated Chrome browser. By updating Chrome, you ensure that you have the latest build version which patches out previous bugs and glitches. While your Google Chrome should update automatically, if you’ve recently configured your computer to use a custom power saving setting or are using extensions that optimize Chrome, it may not update properly.

1. Open up Google Chrome on your computer and click the 3 dots in the upper-right hand corner of the browser window.
2. Click on the “Help” option and choose “About Google Chrome”.
3. This will open up a new tab window in your browser.
4. At the top of the page, you will either see a section that says your Chrome is up to date or that it is updating.
5. If your Chrome is updating, wait for it to finish and then install the update when prompted.
6. Once the update is installed, close down your browser and refresh it.

See if the saving passwords issue still persists.

2. Check Chrome Settings for Local Data Saving.

Your Google Chrome browser should be saving local data by default, but this is an option that can be disabled. In addition to this, when Google Chrome is closed it doesn’t save any local data, so this could be the root of your problem. Here is how to fix Google Chrome so that it will save local data.

1. Open up Google Chrome on your computer and click the 3 dots in the upper-right hand corner of the browser window.
2. Click on the “settings” option which is just above the “help” option you used in solution 1 above.
3. In the Chrome settings window, scroll down until you see the privacy and security section.
4. Click on “cookies and other site data” and under the general settings make sure that the “clear cookies and site data when you quick Chrome” isn’t enabled.
5. If it was enabled, disable it and restart your browser.

3. Enable Auto-Fill & Save Passwords.

The next possible culprit behind Chrome not saving passwords is a disabled auto-fill feature. If the auto-fill feature is disabled in your Google Chrome browser, then Chrome won’t offer to save your passwords, which means you’ll be required to sign in manually to every website you visit even if you’ve visited it before. Here is how to check to see if this feature is disabled.

1. Open up Google Chrome on your computer and click the 3 dots in the upper-right hand corner of the browser window.
2. Choose settings from the context menu.
3. Scroll down a bit until you see the auto-fill section.
4. Choose passwords from the list.
5. Toggle on “offer to save passwords” option.
6. Make sure that the option below it, to “auto sign-in” is also enabled.

Restart your browser and see if the issue is resolved.

4. Log Out of Your Google Account & Back In

Sometimes the simple action of logging out and logging back in can fix the issue. This method works if you are experiencing a temporary glitch with your Google Chrome browser.

1. Open up Google Chrome on your computer and click the 3 dots in the upper-right hand corner of the browser window.
2. Find settings and click into it.
3. Then turn off the “sync” option which sits next to your username.
4. This will cause you to be signed out of your account and it will prevent passwords, bookmarks, and history searches from being synced to your account.
5. Confirm the turn off and make sure you get signed out of your account.
6. Then re-log back in and turn on the sync button.
7. You will be required to confirm your login and the sync prompt.

Restart your browser and see if you can now save passwords.

5. Clear Your Google Chrome’s Cache & Cookies.

If you haven’t cleared out your browser’s cache in a long time or the cookies that are tracking you, they may be conflicting with Chrome’s password manager. You can easily clear these out and see if it fixes the issue.

On Windows Computers:

1. Open up Google Chrome and click the 3 dots in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Hover over the “more tools” option and choose “clear browsing data” from the menu that pops up.
3. Click onto the “advanced” tab from the basic and check mark: browsing history, cookies and other site data, and cached images and files.
4. Under the “time range” drop down menu, click “all time”.
5. Clear the data.

On Mac Computers:

1. Head to your “username” library folder.
2. Delete the main Google folder that is found inside the library – application support.
3. Then delete all associated folders with the library – caches.

Restart your computer and see if the issue persists.

6. Disable Chrome Extensions.

If none of the fixes have worked so far, consider disabling all extensions that you have installed to see if these are causing issues with the password manager.

1. Open up Google Chrome and click the 3 dots in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Hover over “more tools” and choose the extensions option.
3. A list of extensions will pop up that you’ve installed onto your browser.
4. Disable all of these extensions and restart Chrome.

If the problem is fixed, turn your extensions back on one by one until you find the conflicting extension and uninstall it. If it doesn’t fix the problem, move on to the next fix below.

7. Remove Harmful Programs from Your Computer.

Google Chrome has the ability to detect harmful programs on your computer that may be conflicting with the browser. You can identify which ones these are and remove them by using the “clean up” feature in Chrome’s settings.

1. Open up Google Chrome and click the 3 dots in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Click on the settings option.
3. Scroll down until you see the advanced options and click it.
4. Scroll all the way down until you see “reset and clean up”.
5. Choose to “clean up” the computer.
6. Wait until it finishes scanning your computer.
7. If it finds harmful programs, remove these and restart your computer to see if Chrome will save your passwords.

Please note: after harmful programs are removed, you may need to toggle on the save passwords feature.

8. Restore Google Chrome to Default Settings.

Before completing this method, make sure that you backup important bookmarks and passwords to the cloud by syncing them. Otherwise, they will be lost when you revert Chrome back to default settings.

1. Open Google Chrome and click on the 3 dots at the top right-hand corner of the page.
2. Choose the settings option from the menu.
3. Scroll all the way down until you see “advanced options” and click it.
4. Under the “reset and clean up” section, find “restore settings to their original defaults”.
5. Click this and restart your browser.

9. Create a New Google Chrome Profile.

One of the issues that causes the Chrome not saving passwords issue is if your Chrome profile becomes corrupted. Essentially, if the profile file document in your Google Chrome folder becomes corrupted, it can cause Chrome to stop saving your passwords entirely. This can be solved by creating a new Google Chrome profile.

Please note: this isn’t the best resolution as it will cause you to lose any previous user preferences that you had customized or set.

1. Open up Google Chrome and click on your account avatar in the top right-hand corner of the web page.
2. In the context menu that pops up, look under “other people” and click “add”.
3. Choose a name and avatar for yourself and click the add button.
4. A new Chrome window will open with a welcome message.
5. Turn on the “sync and personalize Chrome across your devices” request.
6. Sign in to your new Google account username and password.
7. Restart your browser and check to see if the problem still occurs.

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If Google Chrome is still not saving your passwords after going through the above solutions, the final step would be to reinstall Chrome. To uninstall, you will need to head to your control panel, find the “programs and features” option and uninstall the software. Once uninstalled, you will need to use another built-in browser like Microsoft Edge or Safari to navigate to Google Chrome’s website to re-download. Follow the on-screen instructions to get it set up.