Brave profile creation

Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Brave keeps losing the profiles I created and replacing them with a default profile when I restart my PC running Windows 10 home.
  2. How do I create a new profile that has all the tabs I use every day?
  3. How do I save/backup a profile so that if Brave loses it I can restore it? List steps please

Expected result:

**Brave Version( check About Brave): Version 1.76.74 Chromium: 134.0.6998.89 (Official Build) (64-bit)
](https://brave.com/latest/)

**Additional Information: Tabs I want to save to a profile are pinned tabs. About 12 tabs

You might verify the installation

Brave Browser installation location on Windows OS

Application “brave.exe”

64 architecture

C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe

The initial Brave Browser Profile is, by default, named “Profile 1” (unless you change that namebrave://settings/getStarted).

The folder that contains the initial Brave Browser Profile, is the Default folder (a name that you must not change):

C:\Users[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\

That path may also be written:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\


If you create 1 additional Profile (aka “Profile 2”), it will be stored in folder Profile 1:

C:\Users[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Profile 1\

If you create a 2nd additional Profile (aka “Profile 3”), it will be stored in folder Profile 2:

C:\Users[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Profile 2\


IMPORTANT - Replacing Profile folders

When replacing Brave Browser Profile folders:

Folder named Default (including its contents) can only replace its likeness: the folder named Default.

Folder named Profile 1 (including its contents) can only replace its likeness: the folder named Profile 1.

Folder named Profile 2 (including its contents) can only replace its likeness: the folder named Profile 2.


IMPORTANT - Brave Browser Preferences

Some Brave Browser Preferences are stored in the Preferences file:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Preferences

The contents of that Preferences file, are not exactly the contents of, brave://prefs-internals/.

Some Brave Browser Preferences are stored in the Local State file:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Local State


Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak files:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Bookmarks.bak

Cache (folder):

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cache\

Cookies (file):

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Cookies

History (file - usually lots of data):

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\History

Crash Reports:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\CrashReports\


Brave Browser installers are available at:

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/blob/master/CHANGELOG_DESKTOP.md


I would routinely back up the “BraveSoftware” folder; but you might routinely back up the “Brave-Browser” folder or the “User Data” folder

Windows OS:

  • C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\

You might use a simple, Windows OS batch file, in order to make backups of your data; example:

set ITEMTOZIP="C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware"

tar.exe -a -cf "C:\Users\username\Desktop\BraveSoftwareDATA.zip" %ITEMTOZIP%

pause


Add a chronological date to the file name:

  • 20250317_BraveSoftwareDATA.zip
  • 20250318_BraveSoftwareDATA.zip
  • 20250319_BraveSoftwareDATA.zip
  • 20250320_BraveSoftwareDATA.zip

You could use WinZip to make those files, and schedule the backups.