Recently my computer died and I was/am unable to reboot it. I have recovered and am able to access the hard drive. How can I transfer my Brave info (bookmarks, browsing history, etc) to my new computer?
Drag copy the “User Data” folder:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\
from the old location to the new location.
On the new Windows OS PC, with Brave Browser running, notice the Profile Path: ← scroll down to that, at:
brave://version/#Profile%20Path
Thanks. Just to be clear, copy the entire “User Data” folder from old to new. Seems clear enough and makes sense.
However, I don’t follow you on the second part of your instructions, beginning with “On the new Windows OS PC . . .” Could you please explain this further. I’m not quite sure what I am supposed to be looking for.
Thx
New location = New / working computer . . . relative to non-working computer.
In a Brave Browser New Window, go to:
brave://version
Scroll down to “Profile Path”
@RickWms,
He just means that you’re going to want to find that same path on your old OS in your new OS and paste/replace the User Data folder there with the one you copied from your old PC. An easy way to find your path on your new PC is to open Brave and view brave://version, which will show you where on your system the browser data is stored:
(note that the above image is from macOS, your Windows path will be different but will appear in the same place)
I found that and copied the folder, twice now. First with the Browser closed, then again with it open. Some of the files in the “user Data” folder are showing up with the creation date from the original computer/source while some (especially those in the subfolders) are showing dates from creation on the new computer. (Granted some of these may not be duplicate files.) I still have not been able to recover my old bookmarks, which is my primary goal here, with a secondary goal of recovering my browsing history. Is there a subsequent operation I need to perform after the copy is complete? Should I delete the “User Data” on the new computer before I copy from the old?
@RickWms,
What you should be doing here is, on your new Windows machine, navigate to
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\ – in here, the User Data folder should be the next directory to go into.
Assuming you’ve already copied the User Data folder from your old PC, simply paste and replace the User Data folder here (ideally with the browser closed) and this should do the trick.
As for your bookmarks, if the above doesn’t work, one thing you can do is, in your old User Data folder, you should see a Default folder – go into this directory and you’ll find a Bookmarks file which holds all your bookmarks. You can copy this one file and replace the Bookmarks file in your new ~\User Data\Default directory on the new PC.
That did it!! Copying just the Bookmarks file got them back.
Now the final task is to restore my previously open tabs. Are these in the UserData\Sessions folder? If so, there are two sessions files and two tabs files. Copy both?
@RickWms,
I’m actually not sure if these files will work the same way but worth a shot. First, make sure you close the browser fully.
You should be looking for will be in User Data --> Default --> Sessions on your old hdd. Copy all files listed here, then go to that same directory on the new machine, delete any files there, then paste the copied files.
Let me know if this works for you.
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It did! Thank you for all your help to both of you.
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Thanks for confirming – glad that did the trick.
Have a wonderful day!