How to manage Chrome OS syncing for better portability and security
Chrome OS is undoubtedly the easiest operating system to use. It’s really. Even better, Chrome OS makes it incredibly easy to use your account across devices and even perform a full operating system factory restore while only losing the data stored on local storage.
It’s just that simple.
However, there is one specific setting in Chrome OS that you should pay attention to. This setting is “Sync and Google services”.
Within this setting, you tell Chrome OS what you want to sync across your account – which in turn will sync across all of your devices.
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Chrome OS syncs everything by default:
- bookmark
- extensions
- story
- settings
- theme
- reading list
- open tabs
- passwords
- addresses
- Payment methods, offers and addresses with Google Pay
Many of these are harmless and useful for syncing. You probably want all your bookmarks, settings and even open tabs to be synced. The more problematic are extensions, passwords, and payment methods. Passwords and payment methods are sensitive information that you may not want to sync across devices. Additionally, you shouldn’t let Google store your passwords anyway (use a password manager instead).
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Regarding extensions, although this setting may not contain sensitive information, I ran into a situation where I installed an extension that led to unexpected consequences. Had I allowed extensions to sync, the same extension would have been added to every Chrome OS device I signed into and wreaked the same kind of havoc. Due to this incident, I prefer to disable extension syncing.
Now how do you manage the sync options in Chrome OS? let me show you
How to manage Chrome OS syncing for better portability and security
requirements
All you need to manage these settings is a working one Chrome book. That’s it. Let’s configure these sync options.
Sign in to your Chromebook and open the Chrome web browser. Click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and choose Settings.
In the Settings app, navigate to You and Google > Sync and Google services > Manage sync.
Managing your sync items is just a few clicks away. Image: Jack Wallen
In the Manage what you sync window, select Customize sync, then uncheck any options that you don’t want to sync across devices. To turn off a service, move the On/Off slider for that service to the Off position. Once you’ve made your selection, close the settings and you’re done.
You have many items to enable and disable here. Image: Jack Wallen
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At this point, Chrome will only sync the items you have enabled with your account. Also note that these settings don’t just apply to the Chrome web browser on Chrome OS, but to any Chrome browser you’ve linked to your Google account. Keep this in mind when turning off sync options.