Most teams that eventually adopt a dedicated password manager start with passwords scattered across browser autofill, sticky notes, and the occasional shared spreadsheet. Migrating to a proper password manager is straightforward in principle, but done carelessly it can leave plaintext credentials sitting around in export files, or leave gaps where old browser-saved passwords remain active and unmanaged after the “migration” is technically complete. This guide walks through doing it safely and completely.
If you have not yet chosen a password manager, start with our comparison guide before following the migration steps below.
Why browser-saved passwords are not a real solution
Browser password managers have improved significantly in recent years, but they remain fundamentally tied to a single browser and device ecosystem, with limited team-sharing capability, no meaningful audit trail of who accessed what, and generally weaker organizational security features (like enforced two-factor authentication on the vault itself) compared to a dedicated password manager. For an individual with no sharing needs, browser-saved passwords may be an acceptable starting point; for any team sharing access to shared accounts, it becomes a genuine liability fairly quickly.
Step 1: Export existing passwords from your browser
Every major browser supports exporting saved passwords to a CSV file through its settings menu. This file will contain every saved username, password, and associated website in plain, unencrypted text — which is exactly why the next several steps matter as much as they do.
Export this file to a location you control directly, and treat it as sensitive from the moment it is created, not after you have finished importing it elsewhere. Do not email it to yourself, save it to a general cloud storage folder, or leave it in a Downloads folder for longer than absolutely necessary.
Step 2: Import into your new password manager
Every major password manager supports importing from a CSV export, typically through a dedicated import tool in settings that maps the browser’s export format to the password manager’s own structure. After importing, spot-check a handful of entries — log into a few actual accounts using the newly imported credentials through the password manager’s autofill — to confirm the import worked correctly before proceeding to delete anything.
Step 3: Securely delete the export file
This is the step most commonly skipped, and it defeats much of the purpose of migrating in the first place if skipped. Once you have confirmed the import worked correctly, delete the CSV export file completely — not just to the recycle bin or trash, which typically does not actually remove the data from your storage device, but using a proper secure deletion method or by emptying the trash/recycle bin immediately afterward and confirming it is gone.
If the export file was ever copied to more than one location (a backup drive, a cloud sync folder, an email draft), track down and delete every copy, not just the original. This step is tedious but genuinely important — a forgotten plaintext password export sitting on a backup drive is a real, if often forgotten, security gap.
Step 4: Clear saved passwords from the browser
Only after confirming the password manager’s autofill works reliably should you clear the browser’s own saved passwords. Clearing them too early, before confirming the new tool works across your team’s actual devices and workflows, can leave people locked out of accounts with no working autofill in either location.
Disable the browser’s own password-saving feature going forward as well, not just clearing existing entries, to prevent the browser from silently re-accumulating saved passwords alongside your new password manager, which creates exactly the fragmented, unmanaged situation you migrated away from in the first place.
Step 5: Rotate passwords that were weak or reused
Migration is a natural opportunity to address any weak or reused passwords that get carried over unchanged, since simply moving a bad password into a better tool does not fix the underlying weakness. Most password managers include a built-in security audit feature that flags weak, reused, and breached passwords across your imported vault — run this immediately after import and prioritize changing the flagged entries, starting with any account that is reused across multiple services, since a single breach at one of those services would compromise all of them simultaneously.
Handling browser sync and multiple devices during migration
If your browser syncs saved passwords across multiple devices — a work laptop, a home computer, a phone — exporting from one device only captures whatever is saved on that specific device’s browser profile at that moment. Before assuming your export is complete, check whether any device-specific saved passwords exist that may not have synced everywhere, particularly for older accounts saved before sync was enabled, or entries saved directly on a mobile browser that sometimes handle sync differently than desktop.
A reasonable practice is exporting from your primary, most-used device first, then separately checking your other devices’ saved password lists against the export to catch anything that did not carry over, rather than assuming a single export from one device captured everything across your entire browsing history.
Dealing with duplicate and outdated entries
Browser-saved passwords accumulate over years of use, and it is common to find multiple saved entries for the same website — an old password that was later changed, with both the old and new version still saved separately, or duplicate entries created by browser autofill quirks. Migration is a natural point to clean this up rather than importing every duplicate and outdated entry into your new password manager, where they will otherwise sit indefinitely as clutter that makes finding the actually correct credential harder.
After import, before treating the migration as complete, spend some time reviewing entries for obvious duplicates and testing whether older-looking entries still work, removing any that are clearly outdated or superseded by a more recent version of the same login.
Migrating a whole team, not just yourself
For a team migration rather than an individual one, coordinate the process rather than letting each person migrate independently and inconsistently. Set a specific migration window, provide clear step-by-step instructions (this guide can serve as that reference), and designate someone to confirm completion — including the secure deletion step, which is the one most likely to be skipped under time pressure without a clear owner following up.
For any genuinely shared team accounts (a shared social media login, a shared vendor account), migrate these into properly shared vaults within the new password manager rather than having one person hold the credentials and manually share them with others as needed, which reintroduces the exact lack of access control and audit trail that motivated the migration.
What to do about credentials stored outside the browser
Browser exports only capture passwords saved through the browser itself. Many teams also have credentials scattered in other places — a shared spreadsheet, a note-taking app, sticky notes, or memorized passwords never saved anywhere formally. Treat the browser export as one input to a broader migration rather than the entire scope: ask each team member to specifically inventory any credentials they know of outside the browser and add those manually to the new password manager during the same migration window, rather than assuming the browser export captured everything.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a typical migration take for a small team?
For an individual with a modest number of saved passwords, the technical steps take well under an hour. For a small team with shared accounts and inconsistent existing password practices, budget more time for coordination and for the password-rotation step, which is often the most time-consuming part if a significant number of weak or reused passwords are flagged.
Is it safe to import passwords directly between two password managers if we are switching providers later?
Yes, this follows the same export-import pattern described above, and the same care around securely deleting the intermediate export file applies just as much when moving between two dedicated password managers as it does when moving away from a browser.
What if some team members resist migrating and keep using browser-saved passwords?
Treat this as a policy question rather than purely a technical one — make the password manager a requirement for accessing shared company accounts, and provide hands-on help during the migration window for anyone who finds the process intimidating, rather than leaving it as a purely optional recommendation that quietly does not get adopted.
Should we worry about the password manager’s own import feature seeing our plaintext passwords during the process?
The import happens locally within the password manager’s own encrypted environment in virtually all reputable tools, and the resulting vault is encrypted immediately after import. The bigger practical risk is the intermediate CSV file itself sitting in plaintext during the process, which is why securely deleting it promptly is the step to focus on.
Can we automate any part of this migration for a larger team?
Some business-tier password managers offer bulk import tools and admin-assisted onboarding that reduce the manual coordination burden compared to each person migrating individually, though the secure-deletion and password-rotation steps generally still require some individual attention regardless of team size. Check your chosen provider’s business documentation for team-onboarding features before assuming every step needs to be fully manual.
For more on choosing and configuring your team’s password manager, see our full comparison guide and tool reviews section.