Chrome Password Manager will add notes to password exports
Google Chrome’s password manager has been under an overhaul for quite some time now. And the latest feature to come relies on adding custom notes that you can add. If you are currently exporting your passwords from Chrome, these notes do not come with you. This changes, however, as the Chrome Password Manager will add notes to your password exports.
I found a bug reported internally to Google last month asking for this addition. And of course, exporting notes is kind of useless without the ability to import them, so this is also in progress:
Currently only “username”, “ulr” and “password” are exported and the same fields can be imported. With the launch of notes for passwords, import and export flows should be updated to include the new field.
Just for fun, I exported a test file from the Chrome password manager and of course the fields mentioned above are the only ones there.
Note, no pun intended, that I manually added the Notes field to the file for illustration purposes.
The code change to implement support for importing and exporting notes in the Chrome password manager is relatively straightforward.
Google adds a column in the file for import and export to save notes. And as the import or export function loops through each password record, the data for the new Notes field will be captured or written.
I’m sure a lot of people will be happy to see this implemented. You certainly don’t want to lose all those notes you added if you migrate your passwords.
While this is a personal choice with no “wrong” approach, I feel better off using a trusted third-party password service. And I still use 1Password on Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS.
In addition to keeping my data outside of the operating system, I already have the ability to save notes or just about any other information I want to associate with a password.
And you? Do you rely on Google or Apple to securely manage your passwords? Or are you in the “third party” camp instead of using the Chrome password manager?
