Consider Slowing Down When Switching Password Managers
Important Note: Although I work at Apple and am deeply involved in the creation of its new Passwords app, in this post I am speaking only for myself and not for Apple. There is no “news” in this post, or any kind of “inside scoop”. My intention is to help the kind of person who would read a blog post about password managers think about and manage their credential data better.
You may find yourself wanting to move your passwords and verification codes to Apple’s new Passwords app from whatever app you’re using right now. If so, awesome! (And you have great taste!)
In this post I’ll discuss two different strategies for doing this: The Bulk Import Method and The Online Method. The Bulk Import Method involves exporting your data from your current password manager and importing it into Passwords, whereas The Online Method involves moving credentials over one-at-a-time by signing in to their associated accounts, cleaning up your collection in the process.
As you read through this post, I challenge you to consider slowing down when moving your data. Rather than expect the process to take ten minutes, use the once-every-ten-years event of switching password managers as an opportunity to scrub your data, create some passkeys, enable two-factor authentication, and touch base with old websites and apps that might have something to offer you. By using this process, you’ll have a clean start with your beautiful new app, prove to yourself that all of your data made it over, and expedite the process of actually, finally, for real, ditching your old password manager.
