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Bitwarden – Import Data to your Vault

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Table of Contents

Import data to your individual Bitwarden vault for easy migration from any password management solution. You can also import from one Bitwarden vault to another or import an encrypted export.

For a full list of supported import formats, refer to this FAQ item, or use one of these articles for importing from the most popular solutions:

Tip

If you need to import to an organization instead of to your individual vault, refer to this article.

Import to your individual vault #

Data can be imported to Bitwarden from the web vault or CLI. Data is encrypted locally before being sent to the server for storage. To import your data:

Web App #

To import data to your vault:

  1. Log in to the web vault at https://vault.bitwarden.com, https://vault.bitwarden.eu, or https://your.bitwarden.domain.com if self-hosting.
  2. Select Tools → Import data from the navigation:
  3. Complete the following fields from the drop down menus:
    • Import destination: Select the import destination such as your individual vault or an organizational vault that you have access to.
    • Folder or Collection: Select if you would like the imported content moved to a specific folder or organization collection that you have access to.
    • File format: Select the import file format.

4. Select Choose File and add the file to import or copy/paste the contents of your file into the input box.

Warning

Importing does not check whether items in the file to import already exist in your vault. If you import multiple files or import files with items already in your vault, this will create duplicates.
  1. Select Import data to trigger the import. If you are importing a password protected .json file, enter the password into the Confirm vault import window that will appear.
  2. After successful import, delete the import source file from your computer. This will protect you in the event your computer is compromised.

Additional items such as file attachments, Sends, and trash will need to be manually uploaded to your vault.

Browser Extension #

To import data to your vault:

  1. Select the Settings tab and choose the Import items option.
  2. Complete the following fields from the drop down menus:
    1. Import destination: Select the import destination such as your individual vault or an organizational vault that you have access to.
    2. Folder or Collection: Select if you would like the imported content moved to a specific folder or organization collection that you have access to.
    3. File format: Select the import file format.
  3. Select Choose File and add the file to import or copy/paste the contents of your file into the input box.

    Warning

    Importing does not check whether items in the file to import already exist in your vault. If you import multiple files or import files with items already in your vault, this will create duplicates.
  4. Select Import Data to trigger the import. If you are importing a password protected .json file, enter the password into the Confirm Vault Import window that will appear.
  5. After successful import, delete the import source file from your computer. This will protect you in the event your computer is compromised.

Desktop App #

To import data to your vault:

  1. Select File > Import data.
  2. Complete the following fields from the drop down menus:
    1. Import destination: Select the import destination such as your individual vault or an organizational vault that you have access to.
    2. Folder or Collection: Select if you would like the imported content moved to a specific folder or organization collection that you have access to.
    3. File format: Select the import file format.
  3. Select Choose File and add the file to import or copy/paste the contents of your file into the input box.

    Warning

    Importing does not check whether items in the file to import already exist in your vault. If you import multiple files or import files with items already in your vault, this will create duplicates.
  4. Select Import Data to trigger the import. If you are importing a password protected .json file, enter the password into the Confirm Vault Import window that will appear.
  5. After successful import, delete the import source file from your computer. This will protect you in the event your computer is compromised.

CLI #

To import data to your vault from the CLI, use the following command:

bw import <format> <path>

bw import requires a format (use bw import --formats to retrieve a list of formats) and a path, for example:

bw import <format> /Users/myaccount/Documents/mydata.csv

After successful import, delete the import source file from your computer. This will protect you in the event your computer is compromised.

Troubleshooting #

Importing file attachments #

File attachments must be manually migrated to your Bitwarden vault, as they are currently not including in bulk import operations. Please note that storage of file attachments is available only for premium users, including members of paid organizations (families, teams, or enterprise).

The following error messages, typically received when attempting to import a .csv, indicate that an item in your import file has a specified value that exceeds the allowed encrypted character limit for its field type:

Cipher errors in the web vault
Cipher errors in the web vault

To solve this issue, open the .csv file in a text editor or spreadsheet program and remove or reduce the character count of the offending item. Bitwarden won’t import your .csv file until it is free of offenses. The contents of the error messages contain several pieces of pertinent data to help you identify the offending item. For example, in the above example:

  • [1] identifies the index number where the offending item is located, adjusted to match row numbering in most spreadsheet programs.
  • [Login] identifies the vault item type of the offending item.
  • "Facebook" identifies the name of the offending item.
  • Notes indicates the field (column) where the character limit is exceeded.
  • 10000 indicates the character limit allowed for that field (column).

    Tip

    On import, the character count of any given field is increased due to encryption, meaning that an 8000-character Notes field in your .csv will scale to 10,000+ characters when it comes into contact with Bitwarden, triggering this error. As a rule of thumb, character counts will grow between 30-50% when encrypted.

If you continue to have trouble locating the offending item using the data provided in the error, it may help to focus first on notes as these are frequently the cause of this error.

File size import limitations #

Imports may be rejected for exceeding any of the following data limitations:

  • If your import has more than 7,000 items.
  • If your import has more than 2,000 folders.
  • If your import has more than 2,000 collections.
  • If your import has more than 7,000 item-folder relationships (e.g. a single item in 3 folders can be said to have 3 item-folder relationships).
  • If your import has more than 14,000 item-collection relationships (e.g. a single item in 3 collections can be said to have 3 item-collection relationships).
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