How To Transfer Chrome Profile to a New Computer

Want to transfer all your Chrome profiles to a new PC manually? Here’s how you can do it easily and perfectly in simple steps.

Without a doubt, Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers, and it is used as the default browser by a vast majority of Windows users. One of the best features of Chrome is the ability to create multiple profiles. Each profile can be synced to your Google account, making all its settings, browsing history, and extensions available to you on other PCs. However, what if you don’t want to sync them to your Google account but want to back up or transfer those profiles to a new PC? Thankfully, all the profiles created in Chrome are saved locally to disk. That means you can copy those files and related settings whenever you want to transfer the Chrome profile to a new PC manually.

For example, apart from my main profile, I have several others for specific use cases that I don’t sync with Google. Whenever I reinstall Windows or set up a new PC, I simply back up those profiles and transfer them as needed.

In this quick and straightforward guide, let me show you the steps to copy all your Chrome profiles to a new computer. Let’s get started.

Before You Start

• Have a USB drive plugged into your PC and ready.
• The steps below have been tested to work on both Windows 11 and Windows 10.
• When you transfer Chrome files to the new PC, any existing profiles in it will be overwritten.
• Before proceeding, install the Chrome browser on the new computer.

Transfer Chrome profile to a new computer

There are three significant steps to transfer Chrome profiles to a new computer. They are exporting Chrome profiles to a folder, exporting the relevant registry keys, and importing them on the new computer. Here’s how:

Simple Steps

Copy the profiles folder to the USB

1. Open the File Explorer.
2. Go to the “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome” folder.
3. Copy the “User Data” folder.
4. Paste it into the empty USB drive.

Export the registry file to the USB drive

1. Press “Windows key + R” to open Run.
2. Type “regedit” and press Enter.
3. Go to the “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Chrome\PreferenceMACs” folder.
4. Right-click on the “PreferenceMACs” folder.
5. Choose the “Export” option.
6. Please give it a name and save the .reg file on the USB drive.
7. Unplug the USB drive.

Transfer Chrome profiles to the new computer

1. Plug the USB drive into the new computer and open it.
2. Copy the “User Data” folder.
3. Go to the “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome” folder.
4. Paste the “User Data” folder.
5. If prompted, choose the “Replace” option.
6. Back in the USB drive, double-click the .reg file.
7. Click “Yes“.
8. Press “Yes” when prompted.
9. Close the File Explorer.
10. Reboot the computer.
11. With that, you have successfully transferred your Chrome profile to another computer.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

Copy the Chrome profiles folder to the USB

First, we must back up or export the folder (User Data) containing all your Chrome profiles to the USB drive.

To do that, open the File Explorer by pressing the “Windows key + E” shortcut. Next, paste the “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\” path in the address bar and press “Enter“. It takes you to the Chrome folder.

Here, copy the “User Data” folder and paste it into the USB drive.

Export the registry file to the USB drive

Next, we need to export relevant registry keys. Without these registry keys, the transfer is not complete. So, open the “Registry Editor”. To do that, open the Run dialog box by pressing the “Windows key + R“. Next, type “regedit” in the Run dialog, and click “OK“. This opens the Registry Editor.

Once the Registry Editor opens, go to the following folder. To make things easier, copy the path below, paste it in the editor’s address bar, and press “Enter”.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Google\Chrome\PreferenceMACs

Here, right-click the “PreferenceMACs” folder on the left panel and select the “Export” option.

Go to the USB drive, give the file a name of your choice, and click the “Save” button.

With that, you have successfully exported the Google Chrome profile in Windows.

Import Chrome profile in Windows

Note: If Chrome is running, close it.

Once you’ve exported, it’s time to import or transfer the Chrome profiles. Here’s how to do it.

First, plug the USB drive containing your Chrome backup into the new computer. Open File Explorer with the Windows key + E shortcut and navigate to your USB drive. You should see the “User Data” folder you backed up earlier.

Next, open a second File Explorer window by pressing Windows key + E again. In this new window, paste the following path into the address bar and press Enter:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\

Now, go back to your first File Explorer window (the one showing the USB drive). Right-click on the “User Data” folder and select “Copy” (or select it and press Ctrl + C).

Next, switch to the second File Explorer window (the one showing the …Google\Chrome\ folder). Then, right-click on an empty space inside this folder and select “Paste” (or press Ctrl + V).

If you see a prompt, select the “Replace” option.

After that, go back to the File Explorer window that shows your USB drive and double-click the “.reg” file in the USB drive.

When prompted for confirmation, click the “Yes” button. This action merges the Chrome registry keys.

Once done, reboot the PC. With that, you’ve transferred all your Chrome profiles from one PC to another. After rebooting, open the Chrome browser on the new PC, and you will see all the profiles ready to use.

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That is all. It is that simple to move, copy, or transfer a Chrome profile to another computer. If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.