Bitwarden Backup Utility
Bitwarden Backup Utility's cover image
Bitwarden, a popular open source and free password manager, does a great job of securely storing passwords and other personal data in their cloud, well-encrypted and accessible. However, their option to export your vault (to maintain a local/physical backup) is to export it as a .json file, leaving data in a very human-unfriendly format. So, I made a program that converts the json to a more human readable html file, which one can print onto physical paper. In addition, I've integrated automatic favicon/icon fetching, QR code generation, databreach checks and more.
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Contents

Bitwarden Backup Human-izer

A program to convert a bitwarden json backup into sleek html

How to use:

  1. Get the official bitwarden desktop app, in order to export your vault as a json file
  2. Open the bitwarden desktop app, and click file > export vault, making sure to choose json as the format.
  3. Once you reenter your master password, choose to download the json export in the same file directory as this project’s main.py, and rename the export to export.json. You should be left with an unencrypted json file. When you are finished, you will want to delete this file and empty your trash.
  4. Open console, and run main.py by entering python main.py, or python3 main.py, depending on your operating system. If you get a ModuleNotFound error, type pip install <name of module that was not found>. Depending on how many items are in your vault, this process can take a considerable amount of time (sometimes minutes).
  5. Open output.html in a web browser such as chrome, and print out the file, or save it as a pdf by clicking the save as pdf option under printers.
  6. Delete the qrCodes folder, output.html file, and export.json file when you are done, and empty your trash! If you use a utility such as google drive backup and sync, do not put these files in a folder that syncs. These files contain unencrypted sensitive data.

Use cases:

  • Printing out the backup
  • Storing as a backup on a hard drive, in case bitwarden ever goes away in the future
  • Having access to your vault without needing a device

Future plans:

  • TOTP 2FA QR code generation
  • Folder support (colour coding, or small tab on right side to indicate folder name)
  • Credit card image generation (for credit card type items, generate a picture of a credit card with the user’s info on it)
  • Automatic html to pdf conversion
  • Mark/save where the user has printed up to, so they can only print new content
  • Decrypt encrypted bitwarden json backups
  • Fix inaccurate/broken progress bar

Trying it out:

If you just want to try out the script, you can find an example export.json and output.html file here.