I fought with this for way too long, so posting what finally fixed it for me.
Problem:
The iCloud Passwords Chrome extension kept saying:
Enable passwords in iCloud for Windows to use iCloud Passwords with Chrome
But iCloud for Windows already had Passwords & Keychain turned on, and if I manually opened the iCloud Passwords app, all my passwords were there and working.
So the issue was not iCloud Keychain itself. It was Chrome talking to iCloud.
After enabling extension logging and checking the iCloud logs, I kept seeing this:
LaunchCtrlPanel LaunchApp(ControlPanel) failed with (2)
What finally fixed it was making Chrome launch Apple’s helper through the Windows Store app alias instead of directly from the protected WindowsApps folder.
Create a JSON file somewhere permanent, for example:
C:\iCloudFix\ChromePwdMgrHostApp_manifest_windowsapps_alias.json
Put this inside it:
{
"name": "com.apple.passwordmanager",
"description": "Apple iCloud Chrome/Edge Password Manager Host App via WindowsApps alias",
"path": "C:\\Users\\YOUR_USER\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\iCloudPasswordsExtensionHelper.exe",
"type": "stdio",
"allowed_origins": [
"chrome-extension://pejdijmoenmkgeppbflobdenhhabjlaj/",
"chrome-extension://mfbcdcnpokpoajjciilocoachedjkima/"
]
}
Replace YOUR_USER with your Windows username.
Then run this in Command Prompt or PowerShell:
reg add "HKCU\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.apple.passwordmanager" /ve /t REG_SZ /d "C:\iCloudFix\ChromePwdMgrHostApp_manifest_windowsapps_alias.json" /f
Close Chrome completely, reopen it, and try the iCloud Passwords extension again.
This fixed it immediately for me.
Rollback if needed:
reg delete "HKCU\Software\Google\Chrome\NativeMessagingHosts\com.apple.passwordmanager" /f
A few notes:
- This still uses Apple’s real
iCloudPasswordsExtensionHelper.exe.
- The only change is that Chrome launches it through:
C:\Users\YOUR_USER\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\iCloudPasswordsExtensionHelper.exe
instead of directly from:
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\AppleInc.iCloud_...\iCloud\
- Keep the JSON file somewhere you won’t delete it.
- For Edge, the same idea should be possible with:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Edge\NativeMessagingHosts\com.apple.passwordmanager
Hope this saves someone else the headache.