How do I transfer saved passwords in Edge to a new PC?

If you’ve bought a new PC or laptop, it’s easy to transfer saved passwords and other settings in Microsoft Edge from your old machine. Microsoft Edge is built on Chromium, which may sound familiar, as it’s the technology which underpins Google Chrome. Chromium gives you a great advantage when transferring passwords, favourites and other settings to a new PC.

How to transfer saved passwords in Edge

Our browsers can store a phenomenal amount of data and the synchronisation tools built into Microsoft Edge allow us to move this to various devices, including new PCs. Although it is possible to manually migrate some of the information, the process is complicated and will goose the browser if it goes wrong. Instead, it’s much easier to sync the data using ‘cloud computing’ services.

This synchronisation process requires a Microsoft Account. If you already have a login for Xbox, Hotmail email or an Office 365 subscription, then this will work just fine. If somehow you’ve avoided signing up with Microsoft, then visit https://signup.live.com and create an account.

Open Microsoft Edge then click the circular icon (highlighted in green in our screenshot) towards the top right-hand corner. This launches Edge’s profile tool. Click Sign in to sync data.

Microsoft Edge will display a sign-in box. Use your Microsoft account details here.

You must be signed into the same Microsoft account on both your old PC and the new one for the synchronisation process to work correctly.

How to change Edge’s sync settings

Now that you’re signed it, your new PC will begin synchronising your Microsoft Edge settings. You can select exactly which settings are synchronised by typing edge://settings/profiles/sync into the address bar. There’s a simple on/off toggle for each sync element: History, Passwords, Favourites, Open tabs, etc.

Synchronisation is much more than transferring the settings from Microsoft Edge to a new PC. It’s a useful tool to ensure the same data is mirrored across all of your Edge installations. This included phones, Macs, tablets and consoles. It’s a powerful feature.