Chrome profile sync: what travels and what stays put

Chrome profile sync works one profile at a time. Each Chrome profile can be signed in to one Google Account, and whatever that profile saves (bookmarks, passwords, extensions, settings and more) goes to that account and appears on every other device signed in to the same account. Two profiles on the same Mac do not sync with each other. They each sync with their own account. That single rule explains most of the confusion people run into: bookmarks that "disappear" when switching profiles, a work extension that shows up on a personal laptop, or a second profile that refuses to pick up anything from the first. This guide sets out what Chrome sends to the account, what stays on the machine, and how to arrange profiles so the right things follow you. Everything below was checked against Google's Chrome Help pages on October 18, 2026.

How profile sync is actually wired

Google's help page Manage Chrome with multiple profiles describes a profile as a way to keep all Chrome info separate, including bookmarks, history, passwords and other settings. It names two reasons to use one: sharing a computer with other people, and keeping accounts such as work and personal apart.

Sync sits on top of that. When a profile is signed in to Chrome with a Google Account, new information saved in that profile goes into the account. The help page Get your bookmarks, passwords, and more on all your devices puts it plainly: when you sign in to Chrome, you can save info in your Google Account and use it on all your devices where you are signed in with the same account.

So the unit of sync is the pair of profile and account, not the Mac and not the Chrome installation. A setup with three profiles, each signed in to a different Google Account, has three independent sync streams. A profile that is not signed in to Chrome has no sync stream at all. Its data lives only on that computer.

This has a practical consequence for anyone hoping to sync every profile to a new machine at once. There is no single switch for that. Each profile has to be recreated on the new Mac and signed in to its own account, and then each one pulls down its own data.

What a signed-in profile sends to the account

The same help page lists what you can find on all your devices once signed in:

• Bookmarks
• Reading list
• Passwords
• Payment info
• Identity docs, contact and travel info, and more
• Extensions
• Web apps
• Settings and preferences

Two items are not on by default: browsing history and open tabs. To include them, open Chrome, select More at the top right, then Settings, then You and Google, select your account name, and turn on History and tabs. Once that is on, the History page gains a Tabs from other devices section on the left, which lists tabs open on your other signed-in machines.

There is also a limit worth knowing. Google states that you can save up to 100,000 bookmarks in your Google Account. Few people reach it, but anyone who has imported years of bookmarks from several browsers into one profile can.

Choosing what goes up

Sync is not all or nothing. From the same You and Google screen, selecting the account name shows the list of data types, and each can be turned off separately. A common arrangement for a work profile on a personal Mac is to keep bookmarks and passwords syncing while leaving extensions off, so that tools installed by an employer do not appear on other devices signed in to that account.

Saving things you made before signing in

If a profile was used for a while before signing in, its existing bookmarks and other info are only on the device. Google's help describes a way to move them up: sign in, select Profile at the top right, choose Save x items in Account, pick which kinds of info to save, and select Save in account.

What stays on the Mac

The sync list is as useful for what it leaves out as for what it includes. Cookies and website sign-ins are not on it. That is why a fresh profile on a new Mac arrives with all its bookmarks and saved passwords, but every site still asks you to sign in once. Saved passwords make that fast. They do not make it automatic.

The profile's own files also stay local. According to the Chromium documentation page User Data Directory, Chrome on macOS keeps its data in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome, with each profile in a subfolder, often named Default for the first one. To find which folder belongs to the profile in front of you, type chrome://version in the address bar and look at the Profile Path line.

Signing out changes what is on the device. Google's help says that when you sign out of Chrome, your info is kept in your Google Account and removed from the device, and that while signed out, new bookmarks and other info are saved only on the device. Deleting a profile from Manage Chrome profiles removes that profile's bookmarks, history, passwords and other settings from the computer. If the profile was syncing, the copy in the Google Account remains. If it was not, the data is gone.

Item	Synced with the profile's Google Account	Stays on this Mac only
Bookmarks, reading list	Yes	If not signed in
Passwords, payment info, addresses	Yes	If not signed in
Extensions, web apps, settings, themes	Yes	If not signed in
Browsing history, open tabs	Only with "History and tabs" on	Otherwise
Cookies, website sign-ins	Not on Google's sync list	Yes
Profile folder and local cache	No	Yes

Passphrases: more privacy, fewer features

Chrome offers an optional passphrase that encrypts synced data so that Google can store it without reading it. Google's help notes that synced data is always protected by encryption even without one, and that payment methods and addresses from Google Wallet are not covered by a passphrase.

The trade-offs are listed clearly. With a passphrase:

• You need it to sign in to Chrome with that account on a new device.
• You need to enter it on devices already signed in.
• You cannot check saved passwords on passwords.google.com.
• Not all history is synced. Only web addresses typed into the address bar are.

To set one, go to Settings, You and Google, select your account name, choose Encryption options at the bottom, and pick Use your own passphrase to encrypt all the Chrome data in your Google Account.

Changing or removing a passphrase is more disruptive than setting one. Google explains that it deletes the passphrase-encrypted data from Google's servers and signs you out on all your devices. The removal step happens on the Chrome data page of your account dashboard, under Delete data. Google recommends exporting passwords before resetting so they can be imported again. Anyone who has forgotten their passphrase ends up on this path, so it is worth writing the passphrase down somewhere safe on the day it is created.

Setting up two profiles that sync the right things

A typical goal is a work profile and a personal profile on one Mac, each following its owner to other devices. The setup takes a few minutes.

Step 1: create the second profile

Following the Google help page on multiple profiles: open Chrome, select Profile at the top right, then Add Chrome profile. If you sign in with a Google Account at this point, the profile name becomes the account name automatically. Then choose a name, photo and color scheme. A distinct color matters more than it seems, because two Chrome windows otherwise look almost identical.

Step 2: sign in each profile to its own account

Each profile should be signed in to Chrome with a different Google Account. Signing in to Chrome is separate from signing in to Gmail. Google's help on signing in to Chrome notes that when you sign in through a Google service like Gmail, Chrome may ask whether you also want to sign in to Chrome, and that this is optional. It is easy to click through that prompt in the wrong profile. Check the account shown under You and Google in each profile before trusting it.

Step 3: choose the data types per profile

In the work profile, decide whether extensions and history should travel. In the personal profile, decide whether payment info should. These are separate decisions for separate accounts, which is the main benefit of using profiles in the first place.

Step 4: decide how Chrome opens

Under Other Chrome profiles, Manage Chrome profiles has a Show on startup option. With it on, Chrome opens the profile picker every time, so you choose before you start. With it off, Chrome reopens the profile you used last.

Moving to a new Mac

On the new machine, repeat steps 1 and 2 for each profile. Each profile then downloads its own bookmarks, passwords and extensions. Expect to sign in to each website again, because cookies did not travel.

When sync looks broken

Most "sync is broken" reports come from one of four situations.

The profile is not signed in to Chrome. It may be signed in to Gmail in a tab, which is not the same thing. Look at the profile icon at the top right. If it offers Sign in to Chrome, nothing has been syncing.

The data type is switched off. History and tabs are off until turned on. Extensions may have been switched off months ago and forgotten.

The two devices use different accounts. A personal laptop signed in to a personal account will never see bookmarks saved under a work account, even if the profile names match.

A passphrase is set on one device but not entered on another. Google's help says the passphrase must be entered on devices where you are already signed in. Until it is, those devices cannot read the encrypted data.

If none of these apply, the help page on signing in suggests that when your Google Account is in an error state you can select Remove account from Chrome and sign in again.

When the real problem is the number of accounts

Profiles and sync are a good fit for two or three separate lives: work, personal, perhaps one client. They get awkward when the same service needs many accounts. Three Gmail accounts means three profiles, three windows, three sets of extensions to maintain, and three places a notification might come from. Sync does nothing to reduce that. It only makes sure each of the three windows has its own bookmarks.

An app aggregation browser takes a different approach. Instead of separating whole browser profiles, it gives each web app its own sign-in storage inside one window. One macOS example gives every app its own cookie container, so several Gmail accounts can stay signed in side by side, and it syncs workspaces, bookmarks and settings through your own iCloud or Google Drive rather than through a vendor account, with passwords and sessions staying on the device, as described on its Features page. It can import bookmarks from Chrome along with their folders. Its free plan covers one workspace with up to three apps, and multiple accounts per service is part of the paid plan.

What to change first

Open chrome://version in each profile and note which folder and which Google Account it uses. If a profile is not signed in to Chrome, decide now whether it should be, then set its data types under You and Google. If what you really need is several accounts on the same services rather than separate lives, look at a browser built around per-app sign-ins, such as SpaceDeck.