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In today’s digital world, keeping your passwords close in case you need them and likewise keeping them current is essential. Sure, the autofill feature handles this for you per website, but there are times when you either don’t have that enabled, that password isn’t correct or up-to-date, so it autofills incorrectly, or perhaps you just want to perform a password checkup using Google’s security tools.
As a Chromebook user, you have several ways to access the passwords you’ve saved and synced to your Google Account. Today, I’m going to show you three methods and reveal which one is the best. Oh, and I’ve already covered how you can use the Password Checkup tool to find compromised, weak and duplicate passwords, so be sure to check that out as well!
Accessing your passwords via the web
The first way to access your saved passwords is by visiting them on the web. To do this, open the Chrome browser, type in https://passwords.google.com and hit Enter. While this method works, turning this website into a shortcut by visiting the three dots ‘more’ options menu at the top right of the browser and going to ‘more tools’ > ‘create a shortcut’ only produces a generic Google logo icon that’s not very descriptive for your use case. Again, this works, but it’s sloppy.
Using the Google Password Manager from Chrome’s menu
For the second method, you can go to the top right of the browser using the same three dots ‘more’ menu and select “Google Password Manager.” This menu option may not be available to everyone yet, and though it offers quick access, there’s an even better way. Let’s treat your passwords like an app on your Chromebook instead!
Turning your passwords into a unique app for quick access
Google Passwords did used to be available through the Settings app on ChromeOS, but for security reasons, Google took it out. Now, you can visit chrome://password-manager/ in your browser URL bar or in your Chromebook’s launcher search box. Once there, you’ll see a custom, Chromebook-focused Google Password Manager themed after the browser.
What’s more is that if you turn this website into an icon on your Chromebook, you’ll get a unique Google Password Manager logo that looks like a skeleton key complete with the company’s signature colors. Once you’ve done so, you can simply type “passwords” into your Chromebook’s launcher via the ‘Everything button‘ and click the icon to launch it. This makes your passwords feel local and places them within the closest reach, as well as the Password Checkup, which I recommend you do every so often.
I hope this guide helps, and in the future, I hope Google places this password manager web app on Chromebooks out of the box. Let me know in the comments if you use this method, or if you just go to Password Manager on the web. Alternatively, let me know if you use Last Pass or some other manager instead of Google’s own and why.
I just want the steps!
1. Visit chrome://password-manager/passwords in Chrome or via your Chromebook’s launcher
2. Tap the three dots ‘more’ options menu at the top right of the browser
3. Go to ‘more tools
4. Select ‘Create a shortcut’
5. Confirm the dialogue box
6. Open your Chromebook’s launcher search and type in ‘Passwords’ for now on
7. Click to open the Google Password Manager app icon that looks like a key
8. Be sure to perform a Password Checkup periodically!
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