How to import Bookmarks from Old Brave to a new Brave on a different computer?

Hello Everybody,
I spent hours trying to solve this problem and I hope it is not just “under my nose”…
So I had an old version of Brave with Archlinux and I changed computer in january with now Manjaro Linux.
I installed the new Brave but I don’t know how to import my bookmarks which where all in my old computer, in the bookmark bar classified in different files.
I have saved the /.config/Brave file from my old computer but I don’t see any bookmark file, any html, etc.
Thank you for your time and help. It’s the first time I’m writing a request on a forum. Usually I do find the answer…

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The newest version of Brave has sync. Did you happen to create a sync account in Muon that you could use?

Excuse-me, I really don’t know what you are talking about : I just installed Brave by clicking in the Manjaro table of programs that could be installed.
Where and how can I “create a sync account in Muon” ? I don’t even know what is Muon and sync… :^(
(Thank you for your answer, I need more and I hope you won’t be cynical. ;^)

Hi @AgnesO! Thanks for using Brave.

It is good that you saved your config files on your old computer.

On Linux system, old Brave (Muon) has its config files in .config/brave
New Brave has its config files in: .config/BraveSoftware.

This is what you need to do

  1. Copy .config/brave from your old system to .config/brave on your new system (make sure you have the right permissions)
  2. Download new Brave for Linux: https://brave.com/download/
  3. Import data in your new Brave.

More on migration: For users who had issues migrating data from Brave Muon to Brave Core

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Brave used to use Muon to design their user interface. They have since switched over to Chromium, to make it easier on the programming side.

You can sync your bookmarks between installations of Brave, just like you can in Chrome or Firefox. More details are available here.

Hi btlechowski and cynical13.

Thanks for your replies.
I have again more questions:

  • I did do what shows the animation but when I’m in “import bookmarks and settings”, I have only the “bookmarks HTML file” option, not the “Brave(old)” one. :^(

  • My old computer is now also under Manjaro Linux with new Brave, so my .config/brave file is just saved on a hard drive disk.

  • So I cannot Sync my bookmarks as I don’t have any old Brave anymore.

  • Now should I copy .config/brave from my old system into the .config/BraveSoftware file on my new system ? Each and all separate items in the “.config/BraveSoftware” file ? Or just the file “.config/Brave” next to the file “.config/BraveSoftware” ?

  • I did already download new Brave for Linux (I’m surfing actually with it right now). Should I disinstall it, copy .config/brave on my computer and than only reinstall new Brave ? As I don’t have the option “Brave(old)” ?
    Maybe this is the solution:start it over again ?!

You won’t have the Brave(old) option, because you don’t have the older Brave on that system.

You can create a sync account so that the next time you distro hop, you’ll have your bookmarks available.

I would think you could start with copying the folder to your .config/BraveSoftware directory, but I’m still not completely proficient with Linux’s file systems like I am in Windows. If something happens, you can always uninstall and reinstall the browser.

@AgnesO - we’re almost there!
@cynical13, good support! Not quite though.

So at this point, you should have the new Brave Core (chromium) build installed on your new machine and your old .config/brave file (not .config/bravesoftware)saved on a hard drive. Here’s how I would move forward (its not as intense as it may seem):

  1. While it may seem counterintuitive (it may also be unnecessary but this is the easiest confirmed way to accomplish this without additional issues), download Brave Old (Muon) from our Github repository and install it on your new machine.
  2. Now, confirm that you have both a brave and BraveSoftware in your .config directory (.config/brave holds Muon (old) Brave data, BraveSoftware holds Brave Core (new) data).
  3. Now, copy the .config/brave folder you have saved from your old machine and replace the newly installed directory (from step 1, confirmed in step 2) with it. Be sure you are in fact replacing the contents rather than adding/duplicating it - otherwise this will cause issues.
  4. Once the new .config/brave directory on your new machine has been replaced with the old one you saved, launch Brave Muon (Old) on your new machine. You should see that almost (if not all) of your old browsing data/profile information now appears on your new machine.
  5. Finally, launch Brave Core (new) and repeat the steps to import browsing data and Brave (old) should now appear in the drop down box.

Let me know if this works for you or if any of the above is unclear.

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Thank you Mattches and also Cynical13… still not there but I’m persistant :^)
So, at this point, I don’t know/manage/etc how to install the old Brave:
I went on the Github repository and downloaded Brave.tar.bz2.
I did unzipped it, looked for a “configure” or “makefile” name somewhere but didn’t find…
I tried to download aur old Brave but the package didn’t work…
So I can imagine the steps 2-5 you"re telling me to do but can’t do the first step :^(

Uh oh, that’s my bad. I guess I didn’t realize your new machine was also a linux build. So what Linux distribution is this you’re using? Also, can you (re)confirm . where did you download/how did you install the Brave Core (new) on your new machine that you’re attempting to import your old data into?

I think you can download it directly from the AUR using Octupi (in KDE) or Pamac (in Xfce, GNOME, MATE, etc.).

Make sure you have the AUR enabled in the settings for your software center. Search for Brave-git. It looks like that’s version 0.24.1 of Brave and should be the old, Muon-based version, if I’m not mistaken. Install that, then you should be able to follow the steps that @Mattches mentioned.

Thank you! I appreciate the compliment.

I think that @cynical13 is right - this method is fine given our current circumstances and that we don’t really need Muon for more than a moment anyway.

@AgnesO, let me know if that works for you (as far as getting Brave Muon (re)installed).

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Hi, I’ve asked this before and tried to solve it many times.
I have downloaded the new brave. I am now on Version 0.59.35 Chromium: 72.0.3626.81 (Official Build) (64-bit)
I am trying to import everything, not just bookmarks, but especially my brave payments and token sites and tokens. I follow the steps from the above video and also from this page: https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019782291-How-do-I-import-or-export-browsing-data-

… yet I keep coming back to the same problem. I do not see anything but bookmarks. I do not see cookies, stats, brave payments. What further, when I do click bookmarks, it opens a dialog box for me to find the file. I don’t know what file name that is. I look for .config/brave, but the window does not show me any .config directories.

Can you please just make this work? I’ve been begging for over a month to get my old settings back. I’ve asked on various posts and in comments. The answers never scratched exactly where it itched.

Joe

I only insist things work properly the first time and every time.

@JoeM,
If you’ve asked this before, you’ve likely been directed to this article at some point:

You mention

First, lets find your directory and confirm that your browsing data is still there. Try the following:

  1. IIRC, you’re using an Ubuntu machine - open your preferred (or built in) Terminal
  2. In the terminal, type ls -la and hit enter. This will display the full list of directories available, should look something like this:
  3. :point_up: Notice that I’ve pointed to the .config directory as it appears in list view. This is where we want to go. Type cd .config into the terminal and hit enter. (Note: If you do not see this .config folder for some reason, stop reading here and reply with a screenshot of what you do see listed.)
  4. You should now be in the .config directory. Again, type ls -la and hit enter. You should now see some additional directories here - including Brave’s. At this point, should be looking at something like this (note again that I’ve pointed out the brave dir’s):
  5. The old data you’re trying to access is held in the brave folder (BraveSoftware is where the new build lives). Step into this folder (cd brave) and locate a file called session-store-1.
  6. Use a text editor to open this file (alternatively, you can type cat session-store-1 to output the text file directly in the terminal. At first glance, text here will look like chaotic jibberish. However, if you inspect closely, you should see the familiar web addresses of your bookmarked sites embedded in the text - kind of like a word search! This is my output after typing cat session-store-1 (with a few examples outlined):

Status check: You don’t have to comb through this while text file, just confirm that it does have “stuff” in it. If you do not have “stuff” in there, the “stuff” doesn’t look like anything you’d bookmarked or visited while browsing, or you’re unable to locate your session-store-1 file - STOP reading/following the steps below and let me know.


Okay, now that we’ve confirmed your data is there and in the right place, we need to check to see if the old Brave (Muon) is still installed. The easiest way to do this from where you are now is (assume you’re in the same place you left off in the Terminal) to simply type brave into the terminal and hit enter.

Did Brave (Muon) launch? If not, stop here and let me know. Otherwise, move on to the next steps.


At this point, you should have located the brave directory and confirmed that your session-store-1 file has “stuff” in it and have launched Brave Muon (old) on your machine. Great! Confirm that your data appears as intended in the browser, then close it. Now we can try to import from Muon again. You mentioned that you got your bookmarks when you attempted this before but no other data.

You may be running into an issue with the importer feature. Taken from the article linked to above (relevant parts in bold)

“If my data is still there, why didn’t it import during the update?”

We have an issue with the importer where order of operations and/or specific points of failure would halt the import process. We’re reworking the import function so that, even if it reaches a point of failure when importing some data, it will still run through and attempt to import any remaining data in the list (essentially the checked boxes on the import screen).

Here’s how you can workaround this issue and still manually import your Muon profile data into Brave Core:

  1. Read this brief article describing how to import browsing data into Brave Core , but don’t import just yet .
    2. Before you import, check the boxes for the data you’d like to transfer but ensure that the Bookmarks option is NOT checked .
    3. Click Import when ready

This should import the desired browsing data into Brave Core.

Try the above method for importing your other browsing data by way of importer. Due to the length of this response, I’m going to stop here and wait to see what results you come up with.

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