Sync Chrome bookmarks without admin access

If I install Chrome in a Windows laptop without admin access, all sync functionalities are disabled. This is unlike Firefox - which continues to sync, I suppose because it doesn't use a Windows service for sync.

Is there any way I can turn sync on without having admin access for Chrome in Windows?

Type in chrome browser:

chrome://policy 

You will see SyncDisabled value true (sync is disabled now).

To enable sync follow below steps:

Search string SyncDisabled in regedit > Edit > search and double click and set value 0.

Setting would be differ from PC to PC hence ** is mentioned here:

\HKEY_USER\S-1*************\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\

Go and check value change in chrome://policy (sync is now enabled). The value is changed to false.

To do this you will need to make a registry hack which basically means you need to modify the registry to make this work.

To do this go to your start menu and search run. Then click on the application named run and in the box type regedit. Then you will need to navigate to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\

Double click on the Update default and change the value from 0 to 1. This should solve your problem.

Sources: google product forms

To fix this same issue on a Mac, edit these 2 files (requires admin):

/Library/Managed Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist

/Library/Managed Preferences/[USERNAME]/com.google.Chrome.plist

Change:

<key>SyncDisabled</key>
<true/>

To:

<key>SyncDisabled</key>
<false/>

Then restart Chrome. You will have to re-enter your sync passphrase in Chrome's preferences.