Recover Chrome passwords

[Pedro3]

Hello, I've a friend that had an electric problem with his computer, the board was toasted! The hard drive is well but he can't remember his gmail password, and guess why, it was automatically signed in, so he didn't had to remember it.

He was using chrome to enter gmail.com

The recover option is for an old number that he no longer has it.

I tried to read the file that contains the passwords but they're encrypted.

Tried to connect the HD to another computer (Windows), all goes well, but Chrome asks for the password, it's not automatically anymore.

Is there anything else that I can do to try to recover the e-mail?

Thank you

[Nick H. Supervisor]

If you still have access to the HDD you could try copying the user data folder from C:\Users\<username>\App Data\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data and then putting it in the same location but for the new user account. But for security reasons I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't work for local accounts, the system would possibly recognize that it isn't the same account and would prevent you from accessing the data. Otherwise you could do this for any account and gain access to someone else's passwords.

 

This is one of the reasons that we use LastPass in the office. If the computer dies then they will still have access to all their saved passwords...so long as they remember their master password, which seems to be more difficult for some to do than others...

[Pedro3]

17 hours ago, Nick H. said:

If you still have access to the HDD you could try copying the user data folder from C:\Users\<username>\App Data\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data and then putting it in the same location but for the new user account. But for security reasons I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't work for local accounts, the system would possibly recognize that it isn't the same account and would prevent you from accessing the data. Otherwise you could do this for any account and gain access to someone else's passwords.

 

This is one of the reasons that we use LastPass in the office. If the computer dies then they will still have access to all their saved passwords...so long as they remember their master password, which seems to be more difficult for some to do than others...

Didn't work 😞

It showed no passwords, no e-mails. I got access to the file with the passwords with another program, but the passwords were encrypted and there was no google password!

Any other suggestions?

[briango]

you could try https://www.isunshare.com/chrome-password-genius/    I've never used it, but I heard about it once.   It's worth a shot.

 

 

[Pedro3]

3 hours ago, briango said:

you could try https://www.isunshare.com/chrome-password-genius/    I've never used it, but I heard about it once.   It's worth a shot.

 

 

Tried it, but it only show other passwords of other sites, not the google account.

[SnoopZ]

Your friend doesn't have a backup email address linked to Gmail for recovery? If not then your friend won't be making this mistake again anytime soon.

 

Have they not logged in via a mobile phone?

[Peresvet]

He has to follow the Google Account Recovery procedure:

 

https://accounts.google.com/signin/v2/recoveryidentifier?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin

 

Quote

The recover option is for an old number that he no longer has it.

There should be another option saying "I no longer have access to this phone number" and maybe try use another e-mail on the account or provide an answer to a  security question.

 

 

 

[+Warwagon MVC]

After helping numerous people this get back into accounts they forgot their password for, your friend sounds normal.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Did he have a windows password? I'm wondering, what if you hook the hard drive up to anther computer, boot into recovery enter his windows password to get to a command prompt and try running some apps from there. Just a long shot.

 

Maybe also try running https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/internet_explorer_password.html from there too. Who knows. I doubt it works, but try running chrome from there to. If you need some kind of GUI, in the command prompt type notepad.exe and press enter. Then go to file / open and tell it to show all files (*.*) then you can browse the file system.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I tested out everything I mentioned in my last post. Those will not work.

 

What you could do though is try booting that install on a differnet system. If it's windows 10 it will usually adapt to the new hardware and boot right up allowing you to access chrome and see the passwords.

[Pedro3]

5 minutes ago, warwagon said:

I tested out everything I mentioned in my last post. Those will not work.

 

What you could do though is try booting that install on a differnet system. If it's windows 10 it will usually adapt to the new hardware and boot right up allowing you to access chrome and see the passwords.

Already done that, no success 😞

Chrome doesn't show the google account password.

4 hours ago, Peresvet said:

He has to follow the Google Account Recovery procedure:

 

https://accounts.google.com/signin/v2/recoveryidentifier?flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin

 

There should be another option saying "I no longer have access to this phone number" and maybe try use another e-mail on the account or provide an answer to a  security question.

 

 

 

Tried that, no success 😞

5 hours ago, SnoopZ said:

Your friend doesn't have a backup email address linked to Gmail for recovery? If not then your friend won't be making this mistake again anytime soon.

 

Have they not logged in via a mobile phone?

He only has a mobile number attached to it, and he no longer has that number.

[+Warwagon MVC]

10 minutes ago, Pedro3 said:

Already done that, no success 😞

Chrome doesn't show the google account password.

Tried that, no success 😞

He only has a mobile number attached to it, and he no longer has that number.

Try looking in the windows credentials manager by clicking start and typing cred (should see it at the top).

 

Also see if he has firefox or any other browser that he may have saved that password in.

 

If he didn't have a browser "Remember his password" and it's a good chance he didn't, then there is no way to find this password.

 

"Always being signed in" gets A LOT of people in trouble. At least your friend admits he has a password just doesn't know what it is. I have customer swear up and down that they DON'T have a password for their email and NEVER have 🙂

[+Warwagon MVC]

Also depends on how important this email address is to him. If it's life and death, call his old number and see if anyone has it. If nobody does, maybe try to go get it back even if it requires paying for a differnet Cell provider for a month or so.

[Peresvet]

8 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Also depends on how important this email address is to him. If it's life and death, call his old number and see if anyone has it. If nobody does, maybe try to go get it back even if it requires paying for a differnet Cell provider for a month or so.

I second that.

 

Also, if he has any actual bills/statements of that phone number on hand, he could try his chances by contacting the Google Support.

[+Warwagon MVC]

3 minutes ago, Peresvet said:

I second that.

 

Also, if he has any actual bills/statements of that phone number on hand, he could try his chances by contacting the Google Support.

Or call that number, and if they do get an actual person .Explain the situation and how they would really like to send a code to their phone and if they would be so nice as to give it to them.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

You can't call Google to recover your account (which this basically is).  If you are unable to recover the account through ...

 

https://accounts.google.com/signin/recovery

 

... than ouch.

 

Maybe ChromePass?  

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromepass.html

 

I was able to pull my current Chrome passwords with it ... so it seams to work on the latest version of Chrome.  This program "allows you to get the passwords from your current running system, or from a user profile stored on external drive."

 

You'll have to disable your anti-virus while running (as noted in the release notes) since they flag it as malicious (since it would allow you to extract passwords from computers).  I just temporarily turned off "Real-Time Protection" in Windows Security to run it.  It is from NirSoft so it is legitimate.

[+Warwagon MVC]

16 minutes ago, Jim K said:

You can't call Google to recover your account (which this basically is).  If you are unable to recover the account through ...

 

No, I mean call his old phone number. The one he no longer has. if someone picks up tell them  the situation and ask them if they would be so kind as to give him the two-factor code when it is text messaged to their phone.

[Peresvet]

47 minutes ago, warwagon said:

No, I mean call his old phone number. The one he no longer has. if someone picks up tell them  the situation and ask them if they would be so kind as to give him the two-factor code when it is text messaged to their phone.

Most people will freak out at the request to share a code they've just received (or going to receive) in a text message - gotta be prepared for that - but it's still worth a shot imho.

[+Warwagon MVC]

11 minutes ago, Peresvet said:

Most people will freak out at the request to share a code they've just received (or going to receive) in a text message - gotta be prepared for that - but it's still worth a shot imho.

Yep! Exactly! But he is pretty much out of options at the moment. I just hope he doesn't have an Indian accent. lol