Edge Sync Not Working: Passwords, Bookmarks, and Settings

Edge sync not working — passwords, bookmarks, or settings not appearing across devices — is usually a sign-in or account issue rather than a deeper problem. The fix is typically quick once you know which sync component is failing. For a broader walkthrough, our Google Chrome Errors is a good next read.

Check sync status first: Edge menu → Settings → Profiles → Sync → look at the sync status at the top. If it shows “Sync is on” with a green indicator: Edge believes sync is working. If you see an error or “Sign in to sync”: the account connection needs to be refreshed.

Fix 1: Sign out and back in

The most common cause of Edge sync failures: the Microsoft account token has expired or become invalid. Edge appears signed in but sync requests are rejected by Microsoft’s servers silently.

Edge → Settings → Profiles → your account → “Manage” → Sign out. Wait 30 seconds. Click “Sign in” → sign in with your Microsoft account. After reconnecting: give sync 2-5 minutes to begin pulling data down from the server.

Check what’s enabled to sync

Edge doesn’t sync everything by default — each data type (Favorites/bookmarks, passwords, settings, history, open tabs, collections, extensions) can be enabled or disabled independently. Settings → Profiles → Sync → check each toggle.

If passwords aren’t syncing: “Passwords” toggle must be On, and the Microsoft account must have “Password sync” enabled at the Microsoft account level (account.microsoft.com → Security). Sometimes corporate policies disable password sync for work accounts.

Sync for work accounts (Azure AD)

Personal Microsoft accounts and work/school accounts (Azure AD) have different sync behaviour. A work account’s sync is controlled by IT policy through Intune or Azure AD:

• IT can disable sync of specific data types (passwords, browsing history)
• Sync may only work on company-managed devices
• Personal browser profiles may not be allowed to sync work account data

If sync works in a personal Edge profile but not the work profile: IT policy is controlling sync permissions. The profile icon in Edge shows the account type — a building icon indicates a work account with managed settings.

Sync conflict and data not appearing

If Edge shows sync is “on” and active but specific items (specific bookmarks, specific passwords) are missing: those items may exist in the cloud but aren’t downloading to this device. This can happen after a long period offline, after clearing browser data, or on a newly signed-in device.

Force a sync: Settings → Profiles → Sync → click “Sync now” if available. Alternatively: add a new bookmark (any temporary bookmark) → this triggers a sync cycle → delete the test bookmark → check whether previously missing items now appear.

Favorites not syncing

Edge calls bookmarks “Favorites.” If Favorites sync is enabled but specific bookmarks aren’t appearing across devices:

• Check the Favorites bar — are they present but hidden? View → Show Favorites Bar
• Favorites might be in different folders: Favorites Bar, Other Favorites, or imported folders
• If a bookmark was added during an offline period: it may not have synced during that session. Opening Edge on that device while online triggers the pending sync

Passwords not syncing

Edge passwords sync through Microsoft’s password sync infrastructure, separate from the browser sync. If passwords sync on one device but not another:

1. On the device with the passwords: edge://passwords → confirm the passwords are present and saved
2. On the device missing them: confirm sync is active → Settings → Profiles → Sync → Passwords toggle → On
3. Check account.microsoft.com → Security → “Password monitoring” isn’t blocking sync
4. Some corporate Intune policies disable password sync for work accounts on non-managed devices

Our guide on Edge configuration issues covers the profile and account settings that affect Edge beyond sync. For sync that stopped working after a Windows update, our update troubleshooting guide covers the account token refresh that sometimes helps after system changes. Microsoft’s Edge sync documentation covers the edge://sync-internals/ page which shows the technical sync state for each data type — useful for advanced diagnosis of partial sync failures.

edge://sync-internals/ — the diagnostic page

Navigate to edge://sync-internals/ in Edge’s address bar. This page shows the real-time sync state for every data type. Look at:

• Sync status: should show “Active” with a last sync timestamp
• Data types: shows each type (Bookmarks, Passwords, Settings, etc.) with their individual sync status
• Error messages: if any type shows an error, it’s listed here with a technical code
• Sync errors: the “About” tab shows the last known good sync time and any persistent errors

This page is the equivalent of Edge’s hidden diagnostic console for sync — much more informative than the Settings UI that only shows “Sync is on/off.” If a specific data type shows an error while others are healthy: that targeted information directs the fix precisely.

Extension sync — what it does and doesn’t include

Edge syncs which extensions are installed but not necessarily their settings. When you sign in on a new device: installed extensions appear, but their individual configurations (uBlock Origin filter lists, password manager accounts, etc.) typically need to be set up separately. This is by design — extension settings may contain sensitive information that users don’t want synced across all devices.

If an extension itself isn’t syncing: Settings → Profiles → Sync → Extensions → On. After enabling: check edge://extensions on both devices to confirm the same set is installed.

Open tabs syncing across devices

Edge can sync open tabs so you can continue browsing on another device. Settings → Profiles → Sync → Open tabs → On. After enabling: edge://tab-sync/ shows all tabs open on other signed-in Edge devices. On mobile Edge: the “More” menu includes “Synced tabs” for accessing desktop tabs.

Tab sync works in real-time when both devices are online. If a device was recently offline: its tabs appear in sync once it reconnects. There’s a slight delay (typically 30-60 seconds) before changes on one device appear on another.

Sync and Microsoft account regions

Microsoft account sync may have regional variations in data availability. If your account was created in a specific region and Edge sync was introduced at different times in different regions: ensure the account region (account.microsoft.com → Your info → Account region) matches your current location. Region mismatches occasionally affect what data types are available for sync.

Clearing sync data

If sync data on the server has become corrupted or is showing wrong data: clearing it from the server and letting Edge re-upload a clean copy resolves the issue. Navigate to account.microsoft.com → Privacy → Privacy dashboard → Microsoft Edge browsing data → you can clear specific data types from the cloud. After clearing: Edge uploads fresh data from the local profile on next sync.

Caution: clearing server-side sync data removes that data from the cloud and from any other synced devices. Do this only if the cloud data is wrong and your local data is the correct source of truth. If the local data is also wrong: the data is lost without a local backup.

Multiple Microsoft accounts and sync confusion

If you have both a personal Microsoft account and a work/school account in Edge (separate profiles): each profile syncs independently. Favorites and passwords from the personal profile don’t merge with the work profile’s data even when both are on the same machine.

Sync confusion often occurs when a favorite is saved in one profile but expected in another. Check which profile is active (the coloured circle in Edge’s top-right corner shows the current profile) when saving and looking for bookmarks.

Edge sync vs iCloud, Google account sync

If you previously used Chrome with Google account sync or Safari with iCloud sync: Edge sync uses a different account (Microsoft) and doesn’t automatically pull in data from those sources. To migrate: Edge → Settings → Import browser data → import from Chrome or Safari. After importing: the data exists locally in Edge, and enabling sync then uploads it to Microsoft’s servers for cross-device availability.

Sync interruption and resumption

If sync was working and stopped: common triggers include:

• Microsoft account password change — the stored token becomes invalid
• Microsoft account security event (unusual activity detection) — Microsoft forces a re-authentication
• Corporate policy change — IT updated Intune policies affecting Edge sync
• Edge major version update — occasionally resets sync connection

In all these cases: signing out and back in (Fix 1) restores sync. The sign-out/in process creates a fresh authentication token and re-establishes the sync connection from scratch.

Quick reference: what doesn’t sync by default

Several things people expect Edge sync to handle but that require additional setup:

• Extensions’ individual settings: sync installs the extension, not its configuration
• Saved PDF annotations: not part of Edge sync
• Custom themes: syncs the theme selection but theme data itself may need to be re-downloaded
• Keyboard shortcuts: custom shortcuts don’t sync
• Site-specific permissions: camera, microphone, notification permissions per site are not synced

Knowing what Edge sync does and doesn’t include prevents misdiagnosis — if you’re looking for data that’s in an excluded category, no amount of sync troubleshooting will make it appear because Edge never intended to sync it.

Edge sync is reliable once the account connection is healthy. Sign out and back in resolves the majority of sync failures because most failures are authentication-related rather than data-related. The edge://sync-internals/ page is the go-to for anything that survives the sign-in refresh — it shows exactly which data types are succeeding or failing and provides technical error codes for the ones that aren’t.

History sync and privacy considerations

Browsing history sync shares every page you visit across all devices signed in with the same Microsoft account. Some users intentionally disable history sync (Settings → Profiles → Sync → History → Off) for privacy, then wonder why history isn’t appearing on their other devices. If history sync is off by choice: that’s working as configured, not a bug.

Microsoft’s Privacy Dashboard at account.microsoft.com shows what browsing data has been synced and stored. You can review and selectively delete items from the server here, which is useful for removing sensitive browsing history from the cloud while keeping local history intact.

Edge sync on mobile

Edge for iOS and Android syncs with the desktop version when signed in with the same Microsoft account. Mobile sync includes Favorites, passwords, and reading lists. Open tabs sync from desktop to mobile but the mobile → desktop direction depends on the “Open tabs” sync toggle being enabled on both devices.

If mobile Edge isn’t showing desktop synced data: open Edge mobile → tap the account icon → confirm it’s signed in with the same Microsoft account as the desktop. Different account emails (personal alias vs primary) can cause sync to appear as two separate accounts that don’t share data, even if they’re technically the same Microsoft account.

Edge’s sync architecture is built on the same Microsoft account infrastructure as OneDrive, Outlook, and other Microsoft services. When sync is broken: it’s worth checking whether those other Microsoft services also have issues — a Microsoft account service outage affects all of them simultaneously. The Microsoft 365 Service Health page (status.office365.com) and Microsoft’s general status page (microsoft365status.com) show whether there’s a service disruption that’s causing sync to fail across all Microsoft services, which would explain why local fixes don’t help.

Edge sync is genuinely one of the more reliable features when the account connection is healthy — Microsoft has invested significantly in the infrastructure. When it breaks, it almost always comes back to authentication: the token expired, the account credentials changed, or a policy restricted access. The sign-out/in fix addresses all three in one step. The edge://sync-internals/ page is what you need when the obvious fix doesn’t work and you need to identify which specific data type is failing and why. You might also run into Chrome Password Manager Not Working.

For power users who rely heavily on Edge sync: exporting a periodic backup of Favorites (edge://favorites → “More options” → Export favorites) and saving saved passwords in a local export (edge://passwords → “More options” → Export passwords) provides a safety net independent of sync. These backups can be imported on any device or browser, ensuring critical data is accessible even if sync has a problem. Treat sync as convenience, not as the only copy — local backups complement cloud sync rather than being made redundant by it. Related: How to Fix Firefox Sync Not Working.