You’re using Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge on your Windows PC, and you discover a very strange behavior.
Not only does Microsoft Edge know all the passwords and credentials that you saved in Google Chrome, but it also has all your active logins. That means if you are logged into a website in Google Chrome and then open the same website in Microsoft Edge, Edge is already logged into the same account. Moreover, if you log out of a website in Google Chrome and then open it in Microsoft Edge, Edge also logs you out of that website.
This behavior disrupts cases where you need two separate browsers for different identities. For example, if two people use the same computer under the same Windows profile, one might prefer Google Chrome while the other prefers Microsoft Edge, expecting to stay logged into different accounts. Another scenario is when a single user wants to manage multiple accounts on the same website using different browsers. With Edge mirroring Chrome’s active logins, this setup becomes unreliable.
If you need to manage different identities efficiently, using Chrome profiles is a better approach. Alternatively, portable browsers can help keep accounts separate. However, if you’re accustomed to this Chrome-Edge sync, there’s a way to stop it.
The reason Microsoft Edge knows your Chrome logins is that, at some point, you agreed to import data from other browsers. However, that only explains saved passwords. The real reason Edge has access to active logins is due to a particular setting in Edge’s options.
Since Chrome, Edge, Opera, and most other browsers share the Chromium engine, they function similarly under the hood. This allows Edge to access login data from Chrome easily. To prevent this, disable the relevant setting in Microsoft Edge and restart your PC. This usually stops Edge from pulling active login data from Chrome. However, be aware that after some updates, Microsoft Edge may re-enable this setting automatically, so check periodically to ensure it remains off if you want to maintain separate login sessions across browsers.