If you want to password protect bookmarks in Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge on your Windows 11/10 computer, then this post will be helpful. While there is no built-in feature or option in these browsers to set a password to access the bookmarks, you can use some free extensions for that. You can create a list of password-protected bookmarks and access those bookmarks using the main password. You won’t be able to set password protection to browser bookmarks that you have saved already, but you add or copy those bookmarks to the new list. This way, you can have password protection for those bookmarks also.
How to Password Protect Bookmarks in Chrome, Firefox & Edge
We have covered a separate extension/add-on to password-protect bookmarks in Google Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers. And, each extension can be used in private or incognito mode as this is a browser feature. The extensions are:
- Secure Bookmarks
- Private Bookmarks
- Secure Folder.
Let’s check what these extensions include and how to use them.
Password Protect Bookmarks in Google Chrome using the Secure Bookmarks extension
For Google Chrome, you can use a free Secure Bookmarks extension that lets you add bookmarks of your choice and secure them with a master password. You can add new bookmarks, edit them, and also import your Chrome bookmarks to your secured list of bookmarks. All those bookmarks can be accessed when you will log in to this extension using your master password. For each new session of the Chrome browser, you have to log in to this extension to access the saved bookmarks and add new bookmarks. You can also log out and log in to this extension anytime you want.
To use this extension, install it from Chrome Web Store. After installation, click on the extension icon and then you can set a password. Now, open any webpage and click on the extension icon to open its box. It will provide a New Bookmark button that in that box that you can use to bookmark the current webpage. In the same way, you can bookmark more web pages. The list of all the bookmarks is visible in the extension box that you can access whenever needed.
A New Folder button is also present just next to the New Bookmark button that you can use to create a bookmark folder with a custom name. After that, you can drag and drop saved bookmarks to that folder to put them there. For each folder and bookmark, edit and delete icons are also there that you can use accordingly.
Some other useful options are also provided by this extension. To access and use those options, open the Settings page of this extension. There, you will find different sections like Settings, Import & Export, Backup, Reset, etc. Access those sections and then you can use the available options such as:
- Always open bookmarks in the Incognito window
- Show the Save Secure Bookmark option in the right-click context menu
- Automatically log out or sign out to the extension after a defined interval. This is a very useful option that lets you add a time interval in minutes. And, after the specified time of inactivity, the extension session will expire and then you have to enter the main password to access and use the bookmarks
- Change the master password
- Drag and drop regular or Chrome bookmarks to Secure Bookmarks and vice-versa. You must backup your Chrome bookmarks before doing any changes
- Export all secure bookmarks as encrypted data. Use the Export backup button present in the Backup section and copy the encrypted data and save it on your computer
- Import the exported bookmarks. Use the Import Backup button, paste the encrypted data in the given box, and enter your password to add all the bookmarks and folders again
- Erase all data and bookmarks to begin from the scratch.
All the options of this extension work as expected, but do note that as soon as you remove this extension, everything is deleted (including bookmarks and settings). Also, it doesn’t ask for the password set by you before uninstalling the extension. So, you must export your Secure Bookmarks so that you can get them back after reinstalling the extension.
Related: How to search Chrome bookmarks, history, and settings from the address bar.
Password Protect Bookmarks in Firefox Browsing using Private Bookmarks add-on
Private Bookmarks Firefox add-on has some interesting and pretty good options. This add-on automatically creates a secure password-protected folder with the Private Bookmarks name within the Other Bookmarks folder where it will store your bookmarks safely and encrypted. You need to create a main password to lock/unlock this add-on so that you can add bookmarks and access/modify the stored bookmarks. When this add-on is locked, then neither you can add bookmarks to that secure folder nor you can access that folder.
By default, this Private Bookmarks add-on works in the private window only, but you can also turn off this option to let this add-on work in regular windows. Also, it won’t protect your Firefox bookmarks after installation by itself. But you can add those bookmarks to the Private Bookmarks folder to secure them. Before you do that, you must backup your Firefox bookmarks.
To use this add-on, you can install it from addons.mozilla.org. After installation, click on its add-on icon and set up a password (between 8-128 characters). After that, you can use the extension icon to lock/unlock your private bookmarks.
To bookmark a page securely, open a webpage, and click on the Bookmark this page privately icon present in the address bar of Firefox. Or else, you press Ctrl+Shift+8 hotkey to bookmark the current tab and Ctrl+Shift+F8 hotkey to add all tabs to the private bookmarks list. Whenever you have to access your secure bookmarks, just unlock the add-on and access the Other Bookmarks folder that contains the Private Bookmarks folder.
You can also use other features of this add-on by accessing its Options. Some of those options include:
- Disable Private Bookmarks outside of private browsing. Uncheck this option so that you can add bookmarks to the secured bookmarks list using regular windows
- Sync your bookmarks and preferences across the devices (experimental feature)
- Automatically lock the add-on when the system remains idle for more than 1 minute, 2 minutes, 30 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, etc.
- Export all data as encrypted data or plain data (JSON) that is helpful to create a backup of the stored bookmarks
- Import bookmarks using the exported file.
Read: How to restore missing or deleted Firefox bookmarks.
Password Protect Favorites in Microsoft Edge using Secure Folder
If you want, you can use the same Secure Bookmarks Chrome extension (mentioned in this post above) in the Edge browser to password protect favorites/bookmarks. As the Edge browser allows extensions from other stores, you can easily install extensions from Chrome Web Store to Microsoft Edge. Or else, you can use a free Secure Folder extension for Microsoft Edge to password protect your favorites or bookmarks.
The purpose of this extension is straightforward. You can add webpages to a secured list and access that list by unlocking it with the main password. There are no other options or features such as exporting bookmark data, creating favorite folders, favorite a page using the context menu option, editing saved bookmarks, etc., present in this extension. It also doesn’t help you add already saved bookmarks to the protected list unless you do that manually by yourself. So, if you need such an extension for protecting favorites in the Edge browser, then you should try this extension.
You can install this extension from microsoftedge.microsoft.com. Once installed, click on this extension icon to open its pop-up. Switch to the Security tab in that pop-up and set a password of your choice.
Now, to add a favorite, open a webpage and click on the extension icon again to open its pop-up. There, enter your password to unlock the extension, switch to the Bookmarks tab, and press the Add current page option. You need to repeat these steps to add more favorites.
When you want to use the protected favorites, access the Bookmarks tab of this extension, and the list of all favorites will visible to you. For each favorite, a Remove option is also there. And clicking on a favorite will open it in a new tab. That’s all this extension does.
I hope this helps you.
Also read: How to lock the Edge or Chrome browser with a password on Windows.
Can you password protect bookmarks in Chrome?
Chrome browser doesn’t come with any native option to password protect bookmarks. If you are using Windows 11/10 OS, then you can use built-in features of Windows OS to prevent bookmark editing in Google Chrome. But, to password protect bookmarks, you need to use some free Chrome extension. One of such extensions is Secure Bookmarks. You can read this post that covers detailed information about the usage and features of this extension.
How do I make my bookmarks private?
If you want to make your bookmarks private or password protected in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Firefox browser, then you can use a free extension/add-on that comes with such a feature. We have added such extensions in this post for each of these browsers. You can set the main password and then start creating your password-protected list of bookmarks.
