How to export your LastPass passwords and switch to an alternative

LastPass has more than 10 million users, but after recent attacks in which encrypted password vaults were stolen, we expect many of them to consider switching to another password manager. Obsolete.

No matter how many passwords, forms, protected entries, and other items you have in LastPass, the process for exporting and moving to another password manager is the same.

It’s not difficult either, so the idea of ​​changing password management might seem like a big deal, but it’s not.

LastPass’s reputation has not only been tarnished by recent breaches, including reports that hackers were able to steal user data, some encrypted and some not, but it has also hampered its free tier in 2021.

Before, it was the obvious choice for anyone looking for a free password manager.

Now, whether you want a good free alternative or are happy to pay for a password manager, it’s time to move your credentials, and we’ll tell you how to do it.

We will also show you how to import these passwords into Bitwarden. We think it’s a good choice because it’s open source, so anyone can test its code, which makes it reliable. It has a free tier, very similar to LastPass, which allows you to use unlimited devices and access passwords and other data from any device.

But if you want the full feature set, you can pay for that too. The Premium tier costs just $10 (around £7) a year and offers more storage space for encrypted files and additional two-factor authentication for devices like the Yubikey.

Here we’re using a web browser on Windows because it’s the easiest way.

1. Export your LastPass credentials

First, you need to export your credentials from LastPass. To do this, you need to go to the password vault.

Click the shortcut in your web browser (as shown below in Chrome), then click “Open My Vault” or go to lastpass.com and sign in. Both go to the same place.

At the bottom left, click Advanced Options, then Export. At this point, you will be prompted to enter your LastPass master password, and then the logins should be saved to your downloads folder with the file name lastpass_export.csv.

*** WARNING *** This is a plain text copy of your bank and credit card and ID logins with all the passwords listed, so safe delete it after importing it into Bitwarden (or your password manager of choice). This is a valuable file that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands.

2. Save your credentials

If possible, open the file in Excel or another spreadsheet application. This is a good way to view and process credentials instead of using Notepad or a word processor where each field is comma separated (csv stands for: comma separated values).

If you’re like us and aren’t good at deleting duplicate logins, or deleting logins for long-gone accounts or services we no longer use, you’ll want to go through the list and do some homework.

You will find several entries where the password is ••••••• or *********. This is an unfortunate LastPass bug that breaks some passwords, and you should either remember the password for this login or reset your password by going to the site’s login page and clicking “Forgot Password” or similar.

For each login, you’ll need to enter a website URL, email address (or username), and password, as well as any ratings and categories in LastPass.

Don’t forget to save the file to update it with changes

3. Create a Bitwarden account

Go to bitwarden.com and click Download from the menu at the top. Then click Create Free Account.

Enter the email address you want to use with your account, followed by your master password. This is a unique password that you must remember, so remember it gets keep it in mind and it’s at least “Powerful”. When you type the password, the indicator shows whether it is weak or strong.

Check the box to confirm that you agree to the terms and conditions, then click submit.

You can log into your account immediately using the email address and password you entered, and you should confirm your email address immediately. So click the Send Email button, go to your email and click the blue Confirm Email Now button.

4. Import into Bitwarden

Now you can import your neat csv file containing all your LastPass logins into Bitwarden.

On the Bitwarden website, click the Tools button at the top, then the Import Data button.

Use the drop-down menu to select LastPass, then click Choose File and navigate to the saved lastpass_export.csv file.

Now click on the blue Import Data button and after a short wait you will see all your credentials appear in the list.

5. Export completed forms from LastPass

Just when you think the job is done, there’s still a lot to do. If you use LastPass to store form data (such as name, address, and other information automatically entered into online forms), you must export it separately.

Again, open the LastPass web browser extension and click Account Options > Advanced > Export > Form Fills.

Re-enter your master password and the form fill data will be saved as lastpass_formfill_export.csv.

You can verify this file just like your credentials, then go back to the Bitwarden website, click Tools, Import Data, select LastPass, and then import it into Bitwarden by browsing the saved file: same import process. identifiers.

6. Install Bitwarden browser extensions and applications

The next task is to install apps and extensions so that Bitwarden can enter these login credentials for websites and apps.

You can get extensions for:

• Google Chrome
• firefox
• Opera
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari
• Vivaldi
• Brave
• Tor browser

Apps are available for Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, and Linux, and can be found in the respective app stores or on the Bitwarden website.

Here’s a video showing you how to use the browser extension.

7. Delete your LastPass account

You’ll want to disable or remove LastPass extensions from web browsers that use them, and remove the app from your phone. It’s also a good idea to delete your LastPass account so that your logins are completely removed from the cloud.

To do this, log into your account on the LastPass website and go to the account deletion page. There are two options here: account recovery and account deletion. The first one deletes your vault, which contains all logins, but keeps your account. If you do not plan to use it in the future, we recommend using the delete option.

Jim Martin / The Foundry

You will be prompted to remember or not write down your master password, as this will change the process if you don’t know it (you can always delete it if you forget it).

If you know it, click “yes” and enter your password. If necessary, select a reason and enter a comment.

Click Delete, then click Yes at the two prompts asking if you’re really sure, because there’s no going back.

Once done, you will receive a message saying “Your LastPass account has been permanently deleted and all your data has been purged from our systems.”

You’ll also see instructions for removing browser extensions.

8. Change all important passwords

The last task is the most boring. Because hackers can steal encrypted LastPass vaults, you should change passwords for all important accounts. These include online banking, savings accounts, pensions and anything else that could cause you serious problems if someone else had access.

As long as you’ve used a strong 12-character password that meets current LastPass guidelines, your data shouldn’t be at great risk because it takes “millions of years” to crack an encrypted vault – according to LastPass. However, quantum computing risks breaking encryption more quickly, which is why it is recommended to update passwords.

Unfortunately, there is no automatic way to do this. Even paid password managers that require this only work for a few websites.

The process for changing your password is different for each website, but generally, look under your account settings or user profile and you’ll see a Change Password option.

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