How To Import Chrome Data To Firefox: History & Bookmarks

If you use Google Chrome as your main web browser and want to switch to Firefox (or use both), you will probably want to import Chrome data to Firefox.

The most common things to import are History, Bookmarks and Passwords – perhaps also Cookies if you want to retain your logged in session info.

Fortunately, since the launch of Firefox Quantum in 2017, it is now very simple to automatically import everything from Chrome to Firefox.

[Prior to Quantum, passwords saved in Chrome could not be automatically imported – if you still use a very old version of Firefox, see the sections lower down on how to import them manually]

Import Chrome Data To Firefox: History, Bookmarks, Passwords, Cookies

This method to transfer Chrome data to Firefox applies since Firefox 57, released in November 2017.

  • Make sure Google Chrome is closed
  • In Firefox, press CTRL+SHIFT+B to open the Library window (OR, in the Firefox Menu, click the Library button then click ‘Bookmarks’ then click ‘Show All Bookmarks’ at the bottom)
  • In the Library window menu bar click ‘Import and Backup’ then click ‘Import Data from Another Browser’
  • The Import Wizard will open as shown below – select Chrome then press ‘Next’

Firefox import from chrome

  • Tick which items you want to import from Chrome – History, Passwords, Bookmarks or Cookies. You can import everything into Firefox at the same time if you wish, as shown below:
Firefox import wizard
Importing everything at the same time
  • Now press the ‘Next’ button
  • A message should appear, confirming that the import has completed successfully – press Finish and close the Library window

The imported Chrome Bookmarks should now appear within your Firefox Bookmarks Menu in a ‘From Chrome’ folder – you can rearrange them or move into other folders if required.

Imported Passwords appear in Firefox Saved Logins. Imported History is available from ‘History’ in the Firefox menu bar and imported Cookies are saved within Firefox.

That’s all there is to it :-)

Import Passwords Manually (only required for very old versions of Firefox!)

Note: the methods below to import Passwords from Chrome to Firefox only apply to versions of Firefox prior to version 57 (released in November 2017). A simpler solution would be to just upgrade Firefox to the latest version so you can use the automated process described above to import Chrome data…

But the following may help if, for some reason, you can’t update Firefox or if Chrome does not appear as an option in the ‘Import Data from Another Browser’ step in the automated process above.

Chrome passwords are encrypted using your Windows login password whereas, before Quantum, Firefox passwords were stored in plain text. They also stored passwords in different types of databases so there wasn’t an automated way to import passwords.

To workaround this, you have a couple of options:

1. Use a password manager – if you have lots of saved passwords, install a password manager extension (e.g. LastPass) into Chrome to save your passwords there, then install the same password manager as an add-on into Firefox to migrate them across – as long as you use the same account details for the password manager in both browsers this is the easiest option.

2. Manual input – if you only have a few passwords, you could just input them into Firefox manually. First, you need to retrieve your saved Chrome login usernames and passwords – you can do this in a couple of ways but we recommend the second (automatic) method:

Retrieve Chrome passwords manually

  • Open the Google Chrome password manager – click the Chrome ‘3 vertical dots’ icon / Settings / Autofill / Passwords. This contains a list of your saved Passwords.
  • Click on the ‘eye’ icon next to the first Password – you will be asked to enter your Windows login password.
  • The first Chrome Password should now be displayed in clear text.
  • Open a new blank text file in Notepad then copy/paste into it the first website address, username and Password.
  • Repeat this process for each Password saved in Chrome until the text file contains a list of all your stored login details.

Retrieve Chrome passwords automatically

Use Nirsoft’s free program ChromePass to generate a full list of all your saved website addresses and usernames/Passwords which you can save directly to a text file.

  • Download ChromePass here and unzip it
  • Close Chrome then run ChromePass.exe to produce a list of your URLs (websites), User Names and Passwords
  • Select all of the rows of data (manually or via Edit/Select All) then click ‘File \ Save Selected Items’ in the ChromePass menu
  • In the ‘Select a filename to save’ window, type in a filename and choose where you want the text file to be saved then click ‘Save’. Now close ChromePass

Both Methods – Now use the text file to paste passwords into Firefox

  • Open Firefox and navigate to the first website address in your text file – the easiest way to do this is to copy the website address from your text file and ‘Paste & Go’ (right click in address bar) it into the Firefox address bar
  • Enter your username and password (copy and paste them from your text file to save time) and login to the site
  • When Firefox prompts you to save the password and login details, choose yes
  • Now repeat the process with the next website address on your list until you have visited, logged into and saved all your login passwords in Firefox.

Tip: to stay secure, delete the text file from your computer when you have finished with it and also secure your saved passwords in Firefox by using a master password.

9 thoughts on “How To Import Chrome Data To Firefox: History & Bookmarks”

  1. Great method, but I won’t be using firefox after all. i was going to, but my list of 250 passowrds is in the way. I like the way that chrome is automated.

  2. hey thank you for this fix, i was tired of chrome (too many bugs and crashes) and i wanted to move to firefox so thnx for the post

    • False positive – AVG warns against it and identifies it as a password ‘Tool’ simply because of the type of program it is i.e. a tool to retrieve your personal passwords…

      Most AV do not flag it or else they label it more correctly as a password (PSW) tool e.g. Kaspersky call it “not-a-virus:PSWTool” which is a better description – not spyware

  3. I need to move all chrome usernames and password to firefox i have above 400+ username and password.. so i cant do manually…

    • Wow, 400+ is a lot. With that many passwords you would be better off using a password manager e.g. LastPass so you can just sync them across multiple browsers and/or computers

  4. Would be nice if Firefox and Chrome work together to devise a method or tool that allows users of both browsers to import/share data interchangeably with each other. Not just bookmarks, cookies, and history, but also usernames and passwords for sites instead of using 3rd party applications.

    -Henry

  5. I like the way firefox displays the history, I have a complete copy of my history on google since my first internet days but I can’t find a way to import it into my firefox History menu which I deleted as a suggestion by a so called IT no it all to trouble shoot a problem I was having

    • If you only have a copy of the actual History file from an old Chrome, why not reinstall Chrome then replace the new History file with your old saved one (while Chrome is closed) – the new History file can be found at:
      xp = C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\
      vista = C:\users\USER\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\

      Once done, import the Chrome history into FF as shown in the article above

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