How to Delete Bookmarks, Passwords, and Other Data from Major Browsers

If you’ve recently switched web browsers and are happy with your choice, it’s a good idea to consider removing all data saved in your old browser. This is especially important if you use the syncing feature that’s built into most browsers these days, as this means sensitive data like history, bookmarks, passwords, etc., might be stored in the browser vendor’s servers.

In this post, we will cover steps to scrub data from major cross-platform browsers – Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, and Opera. The steps will be similar for all browsers. If you’ve already stopped using the old browser and deleted it from all your devices, you’ll just need to login to the browser account and remove the synced data (or delete the account altogether). If you still have the old browser around on one or more of your devices, you’ll need to remove all data from them, stop syncing, and then login to the browser account to remove the synced data (or delete the account).

Google Chrome

If you no longer use Chrome on any of your devices, start with step 3.

1. Open Chrome and go to ⁝ > More tools > Clear browsing data, and delete everything. You can refer the screenshots in below gallery for help.

2. Next, go to ⁝ > Settings, and turn off syncing to your Google account. You will need to do steps 1 and 2 on all the computers, phones, and tablets where you have Chrome installed.

3. Lastly, open the Chrome Sync website, scroll down to click the button that says “Clear Data”, and follow on-screen instructions.

Microsoft Edge

Synced data in Edge can only be removed from within the browser. If you are no longer using Edge, you will need to reinstall it on a PC, sign in with your Microsoft account, and follow the below steps to remove the data from Microsoft’s servers.

1. Open Edge and go to ··· > History > ··· > Clear browsing data, and delete everything.

2. If you have Edge on multiple devices, you will need to sign out of your Microsoft account on all of them except the device you’re currently using to delete sync data. To do so, open Edge on your other devices and go to ··· > Settings > Profiles, and click the “Sign out” button next to your account name. Ensure you do this only on other devices and not the one from where you are going to delete all sync data.

3. Finally, open ··· > Settings > Profiles > Sync, scroll to the bottom and click the “Reset sync” button. Uncheck the option to “resume sync on this device” and confirm to reset sync.

Mozilla Firefox

Skip to step 3 if you no longer use Firefox.

1. Open Firefox and go to ≡ > History > Clear recent history… Delete all data as shown in the below screenshots.

2. If you have saved any passwords in Firefox, go to ≡ > Passwords > ··· > Remove all logins.

3. Once you do this on all devices where you use Firefox, the data should get removed from your Firefox account via syncing. You can force a manual sync through ≡ > your account name > Sync now. You can also go a step further and delete your Firefox account altogether – open the Firefox account settings page, scroll to the very bottom, click “Delete Account”, and follow the instructions.

Brave

Brave is unique in the regard that it doesn’t upload your synced data to its servers. Syncing happens through peer-to-peer technology, i.e. only between your devices where you use Brave. Since nothing is uploaded to Brave’s servers, you can just uninstall Brave to delete your data. If you’d like to carry over your bookmarks to a different browser, follow the steps in this article.

Vivaldi

Skip to step 2 if you no longer use Vivaldi.

1. Open Vivaldi, go to Tools > Delete Browsing Data, and delete everything.

2. Next, login to your Vivaldi account online, scroll to the bottom, click the “Delete Account” link, and follow instructions to delete your account

3. Uninstall Vivaldi from all your devices.

Opera

Skip to step 2 if you no longer use Opera.

1. Open Opera and go to ≡ > Browsing data > Clear, and delete everything.

2. Now login to your Opera account, scroll down, and click the link to “delete your account“. Follow on-screen instructions to remove your account and all its data.

3. Uninstall Opera from all your devices.


If you have any questions regarding these steps, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

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