All Brave Profiles Gone After Corruption Message – Urgent Help Needed

Browser Support Desktop Support
, ,
5

Update: I Found the Solution – But I’m Deeply Disappointed in the Support Response

After spending 5–6 hours digging through folders, posts, and forums, I finally managed to recover all my profiles. I couldn’t post the solution immediately as I had work commitments, but I’m sharing it now in the hope that it helps others avoid the stress I went through.

:white_check_mark: Solution (Windows Only):

  1. First, back up your User Data folder just to be safe.
    Location:
    C:\Users\Win 11\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data
  2. Open Command Prompt and run the following command to launch Brave directly with a specific profile:
"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --profile-directory="Profile 1"

Replace "Profile 1" with the correct folder name (e.g., "Profile 2", "Profile 3", etc.) based on the folders you see in User Data.

This brought back my profiles—tabs, bookmarks, passwords—everything. Absolute lifesaver.
And you know who I have to thank for it?

:folded_hands: Huge thanks to @jessepf

He posted the exact solution here back in 2021. And unbelievably, no one even replied to him. He figured it out himself, posted it quietly, and that post is what saved me.
So from the bottom of my heart—thank you, Jesse. You’re a legend.

:cross_mark: My Frustration with the Support Team

To be very honest, I’m still quite upset. This issue has been raised so many times, even on Reddit. Some users have even quit using Brave altogether because of this.

Yet there’s been no clear fix, no warning message, and no effort to improve profile recovery. When I posted asking for help, the first reply was just “you should’ve backed up”. That’s not helpful.

So… when Brave itself corrupts the profiles, it’s my fault for not backing up? That’s unfair. Even if this is Chromium-related, Brave can still:

  • Add a pop-up warning before updates to suggest backing up
  • Provide a “Create Profile Backup” button in settings to safely export the data

Just something—anything—to help us protect our work before disaster strikes.

I’m still sticking with Brave for now, but this has definitely made me more cautious. I really hope the team takes this seriously.

—
Jigar Panchal (ThePanchalShadow)