How to Sync ICloud Passwords With Chrome and Edge Chromium

Living the dual-platform life of macOS and Windows – or even just “Apple and everyone but Apple” can be annoying. But if you save your passwords to Keychain and then upload them to iCloud to sync with your Apple devices, you can now extend this functionality to Windows systems. (Sort of, sort of, sort of.)

Apple has launched a new browser extension that lets you load Keychain passwords in Chrome (and with a little tweak to Edge Chromium). You will also be able to sync any new passwords you create in these browsers with the iCloud Keychain, and then you can use them on your connected Apple devices.

Yes, that means Firefox users are left in trouble for this, and it also means that you can still only access your passwords through a browser; Keychain is still not built into good old icloud-dot-com, and there is no Apple app to use on Windows like 1Password or LastPass .

To get started in Chrome, launch your browser and go to the Chrome Web Store to get the iCloud Passwords extension. Install it and then proceed to install iCloud for Windows if you haven’t already. You will need version 12 of the application for the extension to do anything. Apple seems to have pulled the update from the Microsoft Store for now, but it is possible that you already updated to it last week (or may be able to update soon).

I don’t have it, but I know you need to check that little passwords box so your browser extension can sync passwords back and forth with iCloud. So if you already have version 12.0 of iCloud for Windows installed – or when it comes up – make sure you check that option, otherwise your extension won’t be able to do anything. Otherwise, working with the iCloud Passwords extension is as easy as with any other password manager; you shouldn’t have a problem there.

However, you may run into a problem if you try to sync your extension with iCloud for Windows while using Edge Chromium. The extension installs fine, but you need to specify that you are syncing with Internet Explorer and not Chrome, which may require you to change your Bookmarks settings. I will test this as soon as I get an updated version of the app, but this quick fix I read seems to have worked for others. Imagine Edge Chromium is Internet Explorer, not Chrome, although it has much more in common with the latter.

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