Sync Google Chrome Extensions, Settings, Apps, Passwords And Bookmarks With Your Google Account

It’s finally here, Google Chrome has added support for extension sync along with synching browser bookmarks with your Google account. If you are using the developer channel of Google Chrome, here are the steps to enable extension sync in Google Chrome.

After activating extension sync in Google Chrome, all the installed extensions and their preferences will be automatically synced with your Google account. This is immensely useful, you can enable extension sync in multiple computers and use the same set of extensions in your home, office or at any other computer you are working on.

Following are the steps involved to enable Extension sync in Google Chrome developer channel:

1. Right click the Google Chrome desktop shortcut and choose “Properties”.

2. In the Target text box enter —enable-sync-extensions at the end, as shown below:

3. Next, start Google Chrome and click the wrench icon. Select the option “Synced”

4. Now you will see the option to sync Google Chrome extensions with your Google account, along with bookmarks, themes and browser preferences. Select all the check boxes and hit “Ok”. You are done.

If you enjoyed this tip, you might also be interested in backing up Google Chrome or syncing Google Chrome tabs across multiple computers

Update: A Better Way to Sync Google Chrome Extensions

The above method works fine but there is now an easier way to sync Chrome extensions with your Google account. There is no need to modify the shortcut key or use any other hacks, as Google Chrome natively supports extension sync along with your browser preferences, bookmarks, passwords, apps and auto-fill data.

1. To start the sync, click the “wrench” icon and select “options”.

2. This will open a new browser tab, go to the “Personal stuff” option and select “Enable Google Chrome sync”

3. Next, sign in with your Google account with which you want to sync the extensions, apps, preferences and passwords. Note that you can use different Google accounts with the Chrome sync option. It’s not that you earlier used a particular Google account and you have to always use that particular Google account to sync Chrome data across multiple computers.

However, it is important to note that you should only use the Google account which can be safely used from other computers without any problems. I would advise to use a personal Google account with the Chrome sync option and avoid using your work email address or Google Apps email address. Why? Because some office and corporations impose restrictions on which email accounts are accessible on office so if you choose your work email address for the Chrome extension and password sync, your data might be accessible in that office computer. Just to be safe, use your personal Google account.

4. While setting up sync, you have two options to consider. Either use your Google account password or choose your own sync passphrase.

Using Your Own Sync Passphrase With Chrome Sync

There are two situations when should you use your own sync passphrase and ignore using your own Google account password.

First, when you would access the same data on another shared computer. It might not be safe to use a shared computer’s keyboard and login with your Google account username or password. So if you plan to use Chrome extensions and settings on a public computer, you should choose “Choose my own passphrase”. Although, Google encrypts your password and makes sure it isn’t accessible to anyone in the same network, but why take a chance?

Related reading: Create password protected user profiles in Google Chrome