How to use your iCloud password Keychain with third

May 20, 2024

With the release of macOS Sonoma, you can now use passwords saved in your iCloud password Keychain with Chrome. Here's how.

For Apple users, iCloud serves as one of the best password managers out there, as it's free and integrated right into the company's products and services. However, once you stretch outside of Apple's ecosystem, the functionality of iCloud wanes. For example, if you wanted to use a third-party browser on your new Mac instead of the default Safari browser, you'd lose the ability to pull saved logins from your iCloud password keychain. This was a pretty big frustration for Mac users who weren't satisfied with Safari or just preferred Chrome's cross-platform functionality.

But with the upcoming release of macOS Sonoma, users will now be able to pull from their iCloud password keychain in third-party browsers.

The ability to use your iCloud passwords while in third-party browsers has actually been around for a while. But up until macOS Sonoma was unveiled, this feature was limited to Windows devices. There, you can set up the iCloud for Windows app and enable your iCloud password keychain. After that, enabling the iCloud Passwords extension in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge would allow you to access your saved process in those browsers.

Starting with macOS Sonoma, which is currently in beta, this functionality will come to Mac users as well. If you don't want to install a beta version of this software, it'll debut worldwide sometime this fall.

Once you're running the macOS Sonoma operating system, using your saved passwords in Chrome is simple. Here's how to do it:

The process of adding the iCloud Passwords extension for Microsoft Edge is similar to adding the Chrome extension. Here's how to do it.

There's really no reason to start using Chrome or Edge if you're completely happy with Safari. After all, it's a great desktop browser with integration for saved passwords. However, if you're a Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge user who has wanted to use your iCloud passwords in your third-party browser of choice, you can now do that with macOS Sonoma. Since the iCloud password keychain is a free and secure way to store your login information, it's great that this feature has finally come to the Mac.

Brady Snyder is a technology journalist that has written about mobile devices and computers for multiple publications. He graduated from St. John's University in 2023 with a B.S. in Journalism and a minor in English. Prior to joining XDA Developers, Brady wrote over 500 articles for Screen Rant's tech team, where he covered an Apple beat. Based in New York City, he reviews consumer technology, software, and services. Brady is an expert in iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS — but experiments with Android and Windows as well.