How to migrate from LastPass to Keepass

Today is March 18th 2021. LastPass has recently changed the scope of its free tier. Due to new restrictions in functionality, a lot of users are on the hunt for a new password manager.

As readers of this website might know, my favorite password manager is an open-source program, called Keepass. This short guide will help you to migrate from LastPass to Keepass.

If you still need arguments why one should use a password manager, I can only recommend my fabulous How to password article and the How to use Keepass. 😎

LastPass to Keepass migration

Option 1: export and import 🤓

Fortunatly LastPass, such as any reasonable password manager service, provides the fucntionality to export all your stored data. You have the option to export stored usernames and passwords into a text file (CSV-file). Keepass on the other hand provides a potpourri of available import options.

Attention: The resulting file is very sensible. It contains all your usernames and passwords in clear text! Do not put it on any cloud service or sync folder! Just leave it in your user directory.

Usually I recommend to use KeepassXC. However, in this particular user case (import from LastPass) is the KeePass 2.XX for Windows client better equiped.

Steps:

1. Open LastPass and login
2. Go to “Account options” ➡️ “Advanced” ➡️ “Export” ➡️ “LastPass CSV file”
3. Save the file (not in the cloud or sync folder)
4. Open Keepass and your password library
5. Choose from menu “File” ➡️ “Import”
6. Select the appropiate service entry (e.g. “LastPass CSV”)
7. When the import is finished save your Keepass library
8. Delete the LastPass.csv file (do not just put it in the bin)

Example:

Option 2: by hand 😔

You always have the option to create the needed account entries in Keepass by hand. Just open both programs next to each other and copy and paste the content from the accounts you want to transfer. This is helpful in case you don’t want to go with option 1 for security reasons, or if you simply do not need all accounts in the new tool. For databases with numerous entries I would highly recommend option 1.

Steps:

1. Open LastPass
2. Open your Keepass database
3. Create a new entry in Keepass and name it according to the LastPass entry
4. Go back to LastPass and copy the username
5. Go back to Keepass and paste the username
6. Go back to LastPass and copy the password
7. Go back to Keepass and paste the password
8. Repeat steps 3 - 7 for every account you want to transfer
9. Save the database with the new entries

Example:

Do it like this, but with copy and paste instead of typing in username and generating the password.

I hope this article is helpful for someone

Cheers, M.