Open links in a specific Chrome profile on Mac

Send work links to your work Chrome Profile and personal links to another one, even when they come from Mail, Slack or another Mac app.

Two Chrome Profiles are useful until a link lands in the wrong one. A work document asks for your personal account, or a personal purchase opens under your company login. Switchman sits between the external app and Chrome, so a rule can name the Profile you meant, not just the browser.

Why macOS and Chrome do not choose the right Profile

macOS lets you choose a default browser, not a separate Chrome Profile for each website or source app. Making Chrome the default tells the system which application should receive web links. It does not tell Chrome whether a Slack link belongs in Work and a Mail link belongs in Personal.

Chrome normally opens external links in the last-used Profile. Switching to a personal Chrome window can therefore change where the next work link lands. Choosing a Profile inside Chrome is a manual fix for that visit, not a routing rule for future links.

With Switchman as the web-link handler, the destination can include the Profile directory. Switchman passes that choice to Chromium explicitly, including when the browser is already running. Profiles and Arc Spaces are Pro features; ordinary browser routing remains part of the free core.

Set up Chrome Profile routing

1. Prepare your Profiles in Chrome. Create and use your work and personal Profiles in Chrome first. Give them recognisable names. Switchman reads the browser's existing catalogue rather than creating a second set of Profiles.
2. Install Switchman and make it your web-link handler. External links need to reach Switchman before it can choose their destination. Leave Chrome installed; it is still the browser that opens the page.
3. Open Applications in Switchman settings. Expand Chrome's Profile drawer to find the names Chrome has saved. Independent Profile destinations appear when the catalogue contains at least two Profiles. You do not need to import a Profile folder.

   

4. Create a rule and choose the named Profile. Use a domain for a whole work site, an exact address for one page, or a source-app condition for links from a particular app. Choose Chrome · Work rather than the plain Google Chrome destination.

   

5. Test from outside Chrome. Click a matching link in Mail, Slack or Notes. Testing in the browser's address bar does not exercise the external-link handoff. Then test a personal link too, so you know the rule is not broader than intended.

With at least one Profile selected in Applications, “Show default window” appears below Chrome even when the drawer is collapsed. Turn it off to keep only the selected Profiles in the picker. This option is free; selecting Profiles still requires Pro. Chrome’s eye hides or restores the whole picker group, preserving all selections, the default-window preference and its order slot. These picker preferences do not change explicit rule targets.

Start with one work domain you recognise. A domain rule can include its subdomains, so you do not need a separate rule for every host on that site. If an exact-address rule also matches, it takes priority over the domain rule. That is useful for exceptions, but worth checking when a destination surprises you.

Where Chrome keeps Profiles on Mac

Chrome's normal user-data folder is ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/. In Finder, use Go → Go to Folder and paste that path. The tilde means your Mac user account's home folder, not a folder shared by every user on the computer.

• ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default is the usual initial Profile directory.
• ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Profile 1, Profile 2 and similarly named folders hold additional Profiles.
• ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Local State contains the Profile catalogue. Its profile.info_cache entries associate directory keys with display names.

A folder called Profile 1 can therefore appear as Work in Chrome and Switchman. The friendly name is not the folder name. Switchman reads each catalogue entry's name and uses the directory key if that name is blank; you should not rename the directory to make it match the label.

This location is useful for understanding a missing Profile, not a request to edit Chrome's files. Create or rename Profiles in Chrome itself. Chrome Beta, Dev and Canary use their own data folders beside Google/Chrome, so a Profile created in Canary is not a Profile in stable Chrome.

Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Chromium and Arc Spaces

The same Profile-routing approach works with Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi and Chromium. Switchman also recognises Chrome Beta, Dev and Canary; Edge Beta, Dev and Canary; Brave Beta and Nightly; and Vivaldi Snapshot. Each installed browser or channel has its own local catalogue, rather than borrowing stable Chrome's Profiles.

For Arc, the destination is a Space rather than a Chromium Profile directory. Switchman reads Arc's named Spaces from its local sidebar file and can open a link in the selected Space. Each Space Switchman finds is offered as its own entry. See the Arc Space guide or set up an Edge Profile. Both kinds of named destination require Pro.

Troubleshooting Profile routing

The link still opens in the wrong Profile

Check that Switchman is still the web-link handler and test a link from another app. Then inspect the rule's destination: plain Chrome leaves the Profile choice to Chrome; Chrome · Work names a particular Profile. Check for a more specific exact-address rule or a source-app condition that changes which rule matches.

If the selected Profile was removed, or Chrome cannot be directed to it, Switchman opens the link in the parent browser and shows a notice explaining the failed Profile handoff. Do not treat that ordinary window as proof the Profile rule succeeded. Re-select an existing Profile in the rule.

My Profile is not listed

Confirm that you created at least two Profiles in the right browser channel and that its Local State catalogue is readable. Switchman reads catalogue entries, not arbitrary folders you place beside Default. Reopen the Applications list after making changes. If a Profile exists in settings but not the ordinary picker, promote it from the browser's drawer; collapsed Profiles are still available to rules.

A source-app rule misses the first link after a reboot

macOS delivers the URL without a reliable source-app field. Switchman captures the frontmost app when the link arrives. On a cold start, that source may be unavailable: source-specific rules then do not apply, and other matching rules can take over. For a work site that must route consistently, use a domain rule without a source condition rather than relying only on the first Slack or Mail click.

Chrome Profile routing FAQ

Related guides

• Sync browser rules across Macs — carry your routing setup to another Mac.
• Open links in a specific Edge Profile — separate work and personal Edge destinations.
• Open Slack links in a different browser — route links by the app they came from.

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