After thinking it over carefully, you’ve decided to comply with your son’s constant requests by allowing him to play for a few minutes on your tablet, an Android tablet. Although you have every intention of watching over him, you’re afraid that, during a moment of distraction, he might log in to the apps stored on your device (such as those dedicated to social networks or, even worse, banking apps) and get free access to information and procedures that could harm him or yourself. That’s why, even before leaving the tablet in his hands, you’d like to erase the passwords stored on Android as a preventive security measure, so you opened Google in search of valuable information on the matter.
Excuse me? Did I describe your case exactly? Perfect, then I’m happy to announce that you’re in the right place, at a time that couldn’t be better! Below, in fact, I’m going to walk you through how to accomplish the task you’ve set for yourself, teaching you how to delete saved passwords in both Android apps and the default browser, namely Google Chrome. Finally, for the latter, I’ll also take care of showing you how to permanently disable the password saving prompt.
So, what else are you waiting for to get started? Carve out a few minutes of free time for yourself, make yourself comfortable and read very carefully everything I have to tell you on the subject: I’m sure that, at the end of this reading, you’ll be perfectly capable of securing your device, warding off the possibility that your child might access apps unsuitable for him during a second of distraction. Happy reading and good job!
Delete passwords stored in apps
Most Android apps that require authenticated access to a local service, website, or generally secure section allow you to save your password to speed up the login process.
Deleting passwords stored on Android by these apps is almost always possible, but I have to tell you right away that there is no standard procedure to do this, so I can’t give you precise details about each existing app: all the pages of my site would not be enough to satisfy this request!
What I can do, however, is to direct you on the steps to be taken in a “generic” way: usually, all you need to do is to start the app for which you stored the password, access its main menu or its settings area (in many cases, you can do this by tapping on the buttons (⋮), […], ☰ or ⚙) and select the Exit/Logout or Disconnect/Disconnect items to disconnect from the saved account.
The app should then redirect you to the password entry screen. If your password is still saved in the input box in the form of dots, simply uncheck the Remember Me/Remember Me box or, alternatively, click the Forget Me/Forget button and you’re done: your password will be immediately forgotten by the app and Android!
Just to make things clearer for you, here are the procedures to perform on some of the most popular Android apps.
- Facebook – click on the ☰ button, scroll down the panel that appears on the screen and tap on Exit.
- Instagram – go to the Profile area by tapping on the avatar icon in the bottom right corner, tap the ☰ button, then the ⚙ Settings button and finally the Exit item.
- Just Eat – tap the ☰ button and then tap the Exit item.
- Outlook – go to a folder in your inbox (e.g. Inbox), tap the ☰ button, then the ⚙ button and finally tap the entry for your email address and tap the Delete account entry.
Note: You cannot delete the password stored in the default Google apps associated with your system account (e.g. Gmail, Google Maps, etc.).
Delete saved passwords in Chrome for Android
To be on the safe side, are you also going to delete all the passwords stored in Google Chrome for Android? Then I think I have great news for you: this is a very simple task that can be completed in a couple of taps!
To proceed, launch the Google Chrome app from the drawer or the home screen of your Android device, tap on the button (⋮) in the upper right corner and, in the menu that appears, tap on Password. At this point, select the website for which you want to delete the password saved on your device and then tap the trash icon that appears at the top of the summary window. Finally, repeat the same operation for all saved passwords.
As an additional security measure, you can also delete the passwords saved on the Gmail account associated with your Android device: keep in mind, however, that this will result in deleting the passwords from all browsers associated with that account, including Chrome versions for computers and iOS.
Want to do it anyway? No problem! Once again go to the Chrome for Android menu by tapping on the (⋮) button, tap on the Password item and then on the Google Account link located in the appropriate section. If necessary, type in your Gmail profile password when prompted, go to the Saved Passwords section and tap on the X button corresponding to each password you want to delete.
Note: if the link should not be visible because, for example, you have already deleted all passwords saved by Chrome on the device, you can delete the passwords stored on the Gmail account by acting from the Google Passwords section, accessible through this link, and following the same instructions mentioned above.
Stop saving passwords
Now that you’ve finally deleted all the passwords saved in Chrome for Android (and possibly also in your Google account), you can stop Chrome from saving them (and asking you to do so).
I’ll explain how to do it right now: to start, launch the browser on your Android device, tap the (⋮) button located in the upper right corner and choose the Password item from the proposed menu. At this point, simply move the Save Password to OFF and, if necessary, remove the checkmark from the box next to the Automatic Login item.
If you wish, you can also stop the request to save passwords within your Gmail account: keep in mind, however, that this operation involves all browsers associated with your account, which will no longer be able to store new access keys in your remote account.
In order to proceed, connect to the Google Passwords service, type in the login credentials of your Google account if necessary and, finally, move the switch corresponding to the item Ask to save passwords to OFF. That wasn’t difficult at all, was it?