Quick Thoughts

Migrating KeePass to Bitwarden

In light of some of the things that have happened with LastPass recently I rediscovered Bitwarden, an open-source password manager in the cloud.

I've been using a KeePass for a long while now, but before that I used LastPass. But KeePass for me had its limitations. For example, syncing my KeePass vault file across devices was trying and after dealing with this limitation for a while I thought "I should move over to Bitwarden." but forgot about it until today.

Migrating to Bitwarden from a KeePass file is a snap. I'll outline the steps below at a high level.

  1. Sign up for an account over at bitwarden.com

  2. Download the newest version of KeePass 2 and install it. We'll be using this to export our KeePass file for import into Bitwarden.

  3. Use KeePass 2 to unlock your KeePass file.

  4. In KeePass 2 select File > Export.

  5. Choose the KeePass XML (2.x) format, enter a location for the file to be exported, and click OK. THE RESULTING FILE WILL BE ALL YOUR PASSWORD IN PLAIN TEXT. DO NOT SAVE THIS FILE TO A CLOUD SYNCING ACCOUNT (ONEDRIVE, DROPBOX, ICLOUD, etc) Choose the KeePass XML (2.x) format, enter a location for the file to be exported, and click OK.

  6. In Bitwarden, click Tools then click Import Data on the following page. Choose the "KeePass 2 (xml)" format from the dropdown menu in Step 1. In Bitwarden, click Tools then click Import Data on the following page. Choose the "KeePass 2 (xml)" format from the dropdown menu in Step 1.

  7. Choose the file you saved in Step 2. Then click Import Data. Choose the file you saved in Step 2. Then click Import Data.

That's all there is to it. Now all your KeePass passwords are now in Bitwarden. Don't forget to delete your KeePass XML export file so your passwords are not in plain text on your computer!