Because I run several different blogs and have a number of social media clients, I’m always LOGGING IN AND OUT OF PINTEREST! After months of this, I got fed up. I started looking for a way to manage multiple Pinterest accounts without faffing around…
Turns out, the easiest method to manage multiple Pinterest accounts DOESN’T require an app! You don’t have to sign up for any new tools either. You just need to use the Google Chrome browser.
Tutorial summary:
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create multiple user profiles in Chrome. In each profile, you’ll log into the corresponding Pinterest account ONCE. Then you can switch between them without logging in and out! Simple.
Note: I’m using Mac OSX El Capitan, but this should work whether you’re using another operating system (such as Windows). The menu items may be named slightly differently. Google provide a wonderful help guide covering a range of operating systems and devices. If you get stuck, check out their guide here.
How to manage multiple Pinterest accounts
Instructions
You’ll only ever have to do steps 1 – 7 once! Never set up a Chrome profile before? It can take a little time to get your head around. There’s a video at the end of this post that illustrates the steps I outline below:
1) Load up Google Chrome and choose Chrome > Preferences from the main menu
2) A ‘settings’ window should open. Scroll down to the section where it says ‘people’ (see the screen grab below)
3) Your “People” box should be empty, or only have one user. We’re going to add multiple users – one for each of your blogs. Click the “ Add person... ” button underneath.
4) A pop-up box will appear with several different options. Choose an icon and give the profile a name (I use my blog or client’s name). Then click add.
5) After clicking the add button, a new window will open. Navigate straight to Pinterest and log in with the relevant credentials.
6) Repeat steps 1 – 6 above, as often as needed. Create a new profile for each of your blogs/clients. Each time, navigate straight to Pinterest and log in to the relevant account.
7) Nearly finished! Close all open windows EXCEPT FOR ONE (can be any).
8) Navigate back up to the menu bar, notice the “People” option? Click it. Now you’ll see your list of “users”. Here’s what my list looks like (again, I’ve blurred names out). Click the profile you’d like to use…
9) Navigate to your Pinterest account. You should be logged in still?
10) Switch to another profile and again, you’ll still be logged in.
VIDEO TUTORIAL
I walk through each of the steps above on this short video –
Did this tutorial help you?
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Thank you!
What a simple and yet great idea! I’ve been using Incognito windows in chrome to manage several accounts at the same time but this obviously doesn’t keep you logged in when you close the tab. I’m definitely going to try this method as it’ll be a lot more streamlined than logging into separate accounts all the time – thanks for the tip!
Hiya Katy,
Thanks for commenting! You’re welcome – I’m glad the tutorial helped – I also used to do the Incognito trick with Pinterest, and you’re right, you have to log in every time! This method is much easier.
Hi, I am trying to merge 2 Pinterest boards. I tried your instructions, but it didn’t work. From which board do I start from? I want my personal Pinterest board to be my main and a group board to be secondary. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Faith,
Thanks for stopping by the blog and commenting. Sadly, I think there’s been a bit of confusion somewhere. This tutorial is for MANAGING two Pinterest accounts, not MERGING two boards. My tutorial helps bloggers or freelancers who regularly manage more than one Pinterest account, it saves them logging in and out with different usernames/passwords.
As far as I know, there is not any way to MERGE two Pinterest boards or accounts together. A quick Google search suggests this is a feature lots of people request though, hopefully Pinterest will add it soon.
Sorry I could not be of more help,
Carly
Hi there,
I wonder if you can help me, I know you said you use a Mac but where can I find this ‘preference’ option in Windows using chrome?
Hi Tarn,
There should be a menu button somewhere in chrome. It looks like three lines together.
This diagram illustrates: http://www.guidingtech.com/assets/postimages/2015/08/settings-in-chrome-1_result.png
Thanks!
Carly
Hey Carly My you are clever… 🙂 This is the perfect solution, thanks heaps you have made my life so much easier!
Awww, no problem. I’m glad it worked for you. I have been using this technique for about a year now, it really is a life saver!
Thank you sooooo much for this post! It will seriously make our life so much easier for now on… 😉
Hi Upgrade Design,
I’m really pleased the tip works for you. It’s been a big time/hassle saver for me too.
Before, I used to log in and out of Pinterest accounts. Using browser profiles like this really does make life easier!
Hm, it sort of works for me. When I navigate to the second person, a new window opens again and it always first asks me to login to google before I can go to pinterest. Maybe the new window popping open is a setting, but couldn’t you just as well use an incognito window in that case?
Hi Sofie,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. You should only need to log into Pinterest once in the second person account. You shouldn’t have to log in every time. Maybe check your cookie settings in preferences?
Chrome will ask you to log into Google, it always does (unless you just log in!). You can set a group of tabs as your new homepage. So for this site, I have a “person” called LBA. My home tabs are set to Twitter, Pinterest & this site’s admin panel.
I really ought to make a better video. I’ll put it on my to-do list.
There are now apps available for using Multiple Pinterest accounts even these apps have option to create content and automate multiple Pinterest account on different niches,
Thanks for letting me know Jermey, I’ll have to take a proper look at a couple of apps and amend this page with recommendations.
Re the last comment about apps, I did not find any.
In any case, while your directions kind of work. It’s different for Windows users obviously. Like, there is no “people” tab at the top. Each time I have to go to the desk top and click on the other google chrome icon (I now have 2 for each “user”). I suppose this is helpful if you’re only browsing for that account when in that account. But, when I’m on my personal Pinterest page, it would be great to be able to pin to my business page, which this does not allow.
I have to logout of Pinterest and login w/the other account, then go back and pin. It’s not ideal, but I guess there isn’t a way to just pick which account you want to pin from from say a drop down selection. Oh, well thanks anyway and it obviously works great for what you are doing w/your clients.
Hmm nobody in my house has a Windows laptop unfortunately, but I’ll do my best to borrow one from a friend & update the tutorial. Thanks for the feedback.
OMG!!! Thank you for this post! I was using separate browsers which was a real pain! Now I just have these two little icons on my desktop that I can use to pop back and forth between accounts. AWESOME!
I’m pleased it works for you 🙂
This helped a lot! Thanks!
I’m really pleased!
Hi there. Nice article. I have a question, however.
Before going through the steps you list, should I first create my various Pinterest accounts – say 3 of them?
And then, when I set up the 3 profiles, I’ll tie each one to a different Pinterest account and log in accordingly under the individual Chrome profiles?
Thanks,
Ed
Hi Ed,
Yes, you can create Pinterest accounts first and then log in after creating the chrome profiles if you like. BUT for ease, I’d probably sign up for each Pinterest account as I create each Chrome profile.
So create Chrome profile #1 > sign up for Pinterest account #1
then create Chrome profile #2 > sign up for Pinterest account #2
etc
That way, after signing up, you should be logged in to each Pinterest account in the correct browser.
I hope this works for you.
OMG!!! This post is seriously a lifesaver!! I never knew this was even possible… I’ve wasted SO much time trying different tricks. Thank-you so much for sharing 🙂
Oh, yay! I’m so pleased it’s helped you 🙂
It work, thanks
Fantastic! I “discovered” this method a few years back and I literally used it to switch between my Pinterest accounts today. It’s very useful 🙂
OMG This is great!!!
I have two online business en this is a super way to keep them two seperated!
A HUGE thank you!
Hi Sarah,
I’m really pleased the tutorial worked for you. I use this method every day to switch between my Pinterest accounts too!
Thanks for commenting!
Carly
Great tutorial as I have a few Pinterest accounts. I see you have loads of accounts, is there not a risk of getting accounts banned from using so many Pinterest accounts from the same browser and IP address?
Hi Stevie,
Thanks for commenting, I’m glad the tutorial helped you.
I don’t think it’s against the Pinterest TOS and I’ve certainly not had problems using multiple accounts myself. There are lots of legitimate reasons why people would want to run more than one account or log in to several accounts using the same browser/IP address, e.g.
I’d advise you double check with Pinterest, though. I don’t want to misinform you and get you into any trouble. I can only speak from my own experience.
Such a useful tool!! I’ve been using Chrome for like ever and didn’t know this option was even available! Exactly what I was looking for =)
Hi Vicky,
I’m really pleased the tutorial helped.
Carly.
I am definitely going to try this. I have 6 different blogs all with their own social media accounts and I have been trying to find 6 different browsers that I like. (not very easy) If this works you will be my hero! (heroine?) Anyway, thanks so much! This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I like Google Chrome and hate to use a different browser at all.
Hmm, it looks like I have to have a separate google email for each one which I kind of do but they are in G Suite and there are really only 2 main email addresses and I think they call the other ones aliases or something like that. I guess the aliases don’t work. I will either be making more gmail accounts or looking for another solution.
Hi Theresa,
You shouldn’t have to use a Google email to sign up. I only have one Gmail account and 5 different user profiles. After creating an account, it does prompt you to sign in with a Gmail address but you can ignore this.
The caveat is, you might be using a different operating system or version of Chrome to me… So I cannot say for certain. But in my experience, you don’t need any Gmail accounts, never mind one!
Hope you manage to get it working!
Carly
THANK YOU. This is incredibly helpful! I’m thinking of starting a second blog and in the process of slowly starting up my social media accounts, I had to google “how to log out of Pinterest” – I mean, seriously? You’d think I was 80 years old.
So thank you for saving me from logging in and out all the time!!
You’re welcome! It’s a real time saver!
This is amazing! Thank you for sharing. This will make my life so much easier.
Thanks Tiffany, I’m pleased the tutorial helped 🙂
Thanks for this. I’m working on multiple sites right now, and I was trying to find some way to easily do this for Pinterest and Twitter. Who knew I already had the ability to do it all a long. So easy that I’m almost embarrassed for not knowing about.
Hi Kim,
Don’t be embarrassed – it’s really uncommon, I don’t think many people know you can do it. I had no clue until I saw a friend use it for something random and I thought ‘ahh, I could use this method to switch between Pinterest accounts”.
I log into multiple Twitter accounts using the same method too. (Though there are plenty of apps out there for managing multiple Twitter accounts, like HootSuite and Buffer.
Thank you!! I’m always the one figuring out these sorts of things and sharing them so it was awesome to have one shared with me. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this! I own a store so I have all social media accounts personally and for my business!
Everything is so much simpler now!! THANK YOU!
Hi Kate,
I’m pleased the tip helped. It really does make life easier!
So helpful! Thank you!
I am using an iPad. I opened Chrome, but there is no preference item as far as I can tell.
🙁
What to do?
Hi Pamela,
According to Google, they only allow one Chrome user profile on iPhones and iPads. So it’s impossible to do.
Sorry about that.
This will be a huge help since they don’t allow you to merge accounts. I created multiple emails for Pretty Little Liars related stuff to be separate from my own email address and also to create a new FB profile so now I hafta start a whole new Pinterest because of it. This will help A LOT cuz I can just pin everything from my current account to my new one 🙂
Really appreciate the help! <3
You’re welcome, Danielle. You might want to try Board Booster too – that tool lets you schedule lots of pins (100) for free using their free trial. You might be able to automate the whole process.
I’ve not used the tool YET but wondering if it can be used for this!
Hi,
This is slightly off topic but I am doing some market research and reaching out to bloggers interested in using Pinterest to grow a business. I was wondering if anyone had ever had any success on Pinterest in pinning direct from Instagram and whether anyone is interested in this?
thanks in advance
Simon
I’ve used IFTTT to send my images from Instagram to Pinterest automatically in the past. I don’t know if that helps.
Thank you for this guidance, it helped me a lot. I was about to become completely confused and desperate because I continuously logged out of one account and trying to log in into the other I always ended up in the first one. Now I think I can separate them better. I am grateful for people like you who share their knowledge so graciously!
Thanks for the lovely feedback Heidi; I’m pleased to have helped you.
Fantastic! Does it work for Instagram and Facebook too?
Hi Marney,
I’m pleased the tutorial helped. Yes, it works with everything. Any site you need to log in/out of.
Carly
This is so, so helpful! I’ve been going crazy trying to manage my own blog accounts and toggle back and forth for clients, but this makes my life easy (also, I can’t believe I didn’t think of doing this sooner). Thanks for the advice!
YAY! So pleased this helped. I’ve used this method to switch between Pinterest (and other accounts like Twitter) for years now! Literally just used it this morning! haha
I’m stuck on Step 5) After clicking the add button, a new window will open. Navigate straight to Pinterest and log in with the relevant credentials.
What are the relevant credentials? Am I using the same email and password to log into Pinterest for each new Profile or creating new ones each time? Thanks
Hi Michael,
No – Pinterest only allows you to have one account per username/password (if they allowed account switching like Instagram and Twitter do on their apps, for instance, I wouldn’t need to have written this tutorial!)
Yes, you need to have a username/password for each of your accounts. Then you can open a new browser using the “People” open in Chrome and launch a new Pinterest account without having to log in/out multiple times.
Hope that helps (it’s quite difficult to explain!)