How to Recover Microsoft Edge Passwords

Have you lost all passwords saved in the Microsoft Edge browser, and do you need them back? No wonder, since Edge has shown great improvement after becoming Chromium-powered in mid-January 2020. Although its predecessor wasn’t terrible, it lacked compatibility, features, and support for extensions that Firefox and Chrome had. Additionally, not everyone had a Microsoft account while many had a Google one. Nonetheless, today’s browser handles things excellently, which led to an increase in the user base numbers. That brings us to how to recover Microsoft Edge passwords. They represent a key step in ensuring user account privacy and security, and many people rely on the browser to save them.

1. Recover passwords from the Microsoft Edge password manager

Since moving to a Chromium base, this browser began using a nifty password manager that saves all your credentials in your place. That feels familiar since the same feature exists on Chrome, Opera, and other browsers. With all that said, follow these steps to use a password manager to view and rescue Microsoft Edge passwords:

1. Click the menu icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right corner.
2. Select Settings from the drop-down menu.
3. You will now be in the primary settings window and will be in the “Profiles” tab. Click on Passwords below your profile or Microsoft account. You can also enter edge://settings/passwords in the browser to access it directly.
4. If you reinstalled your operating system and just logged in, make sure Sync is enabled (“Sync is on” below the profile name) and click the Sync option above the one from above.
5. You will now see a list of all passwords saved in the browser but obscured by dots. The website they belong to and the username or e-mail address is in plain text and visible. Click the eye icon to view the password.
6. Pass the authentication check. Enter your Windows user account password, PIN (Personal Identification Number), Windows Hello verification method, or whichever security measure your system uses. Password for that website will be shown afterward.
7. Optional. You can click the three horizontal dot icons on the far right side to erase the password for each website from Microsoft Edge storage.

Restoring passwords on pre-Chromium versions of Edge

The versions of the Microsoft Edge browser before it used Chromium also had a password manager. Although we recommend upgrading as soon as possible, we realize some people like the old look and feel. The procedure is a lot less beginner-friendly because the manager is a tad difficult to find without instructions. Getting to saved passwords in the old versions of Microsoft Edge requires you to:

1. Click on the three horizontal dots in the top right corner of the browser.
2. Choose Settings from the drop-down menu.
3. Make sure the “Sync” toggle is turned on. Click the View advanced settings button.
4. Ensure “Save form entries” and “Offer to save passwords” is enabled. Click the Manage my saved passwords link.
5. You can now see entries for each website URL alongside the e-mail address or username. Clicking it opens a separate small tab that lets you uncover the password.

2. Use Credential Manager to view and restore Microsoft Edge browser passwords

Windows operating systems use a feature called Credential Manager to keep track of login information and certificates of their users. Luckily, it also saves data from this browser and even Internet Explorer on older computers. Follow these steps to recover passwords from Microsoft Edge via Credential Manager:

1. Open the Start menu by clicking the logo in the taskbar or pressing the Windows button on your keyboard.
2. Search for Control Panel, then open it and go to User Accounts → Credential Manager → Manage Web Credentials. You can also search for “credential manager” and open it from the Start menu.
3. You can now see the website URL or the title of the website (Lenovo Corporation, for example), user account names, and passwords under the “Web Passwords” section. To see more details for each entry, press the down arrow icon to expand it.
4. You’ll now see a “Saved By: Microsoft Edge” bit of information, and the password hidden below by dots. Click on Show then provide the same type of authentication to unveil it.
5. Optional. Pressing the Remove link below the password deletes that entry.

3. Using third-party software to restore Edge passwords

Although the two methods above should be sufficient for most users, sometimes the browser fails to load passwords. Also, the second method isn’t intuitive and requires extra effort. Luckily, several third-party software solutions will scan your system for browser user data and show it in a presentable format. Although we have no affiliation with any, two examples include IE PassView and WebBrowserPassView, both by NirSoft. Although highly efficient, and free their user interface is old-fashioned. If you don’t mind paying, a modern representative is EaseUS Key Finder, which works on Windows 7 through Windows 11. Regardless, we’ll show how WebBrowserPassView works for Edge:

1. Download WebBrowserPassView by NirSoft.
2. Install and run the software. You can also download a portable version for single use without installation.
3. By default, the tool shows passwords in all web browsers it detects and can find information on. To narrow down the search, go to Options in the top menu, then select Advanced Options.
4. Uncheck everything but Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge under “Load Passwords From…” and click OK.
5. You can now see a list of all URLs, usernames, e-mail addresses, and passwords. Exporting them requires you to click on File → Save selected items → pick a file path for the XML, CSV, TXT, or HTML file.