I installed Brave on D drive. Now it won't update

1

Is there anything that can make update work properly? Or do I have to reinstall the entire thing, losing all settings, extensions and bookmarks?

2

I’m just curious, how did you install Brave on D-drive?

3

Hi

@Norm2022

For windows 64bit.

  1. Copy Brave from D to C:\Program Files
  2. Check if you have the folders Brave-Browser and ReportsCrashreports in C:\Users\the name of your device\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware
  3. Run Brave.exe from here C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application
4

Go to where it is on C and cut and paste to D?
I like to have all my browsers in the same folder called, incredibly, Browsers. Keeps things organized when you group your program files instead of scattering them around like Windows does.

5

I have it on D because I don’t want it on C.
Now let’s see if someone knows how to get it to update properly. Most of my other programs update just fine and they’re installed on D.

6

I checked the AppData folder and just the user data is there as to be expected. I’d like to have everything in one place but Windows seems to love scattering everything all over the place.

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Do you move Program Files folder or Program Files (x86) or both? And what about user data folder, is it also moved?

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You can’t move the Program Files folder because occasionally it doesn’t work for some programs. Like with Microsoft programs quite often. The only glitch is updating. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Like with Brave. This may be a Chrome thing because Google Chrome doesn’t seem to update once moved either.

I’ve never tried changing the data folder as I would presume another one would get created to replace it as there’s no option in setting where I can control its location.

So I tried moving it. When I opened it all settings were reset. As I suspected. Something is telling it where to get these settings. That’s what I need to change. I wonder Chrome makes this so painful.

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I meant moving Brave from there folders. But I got it.

10

Indeed, that is possibly the major reason why so many users of the Windows OS, will not back up their data – and thus, lose their data.

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Please back up the BraveSoftware folder in the following path:

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

Abbreviated path explanation:

%LOCALAPPDATA% being akin to “C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local” (no quotes)

Good way to back up the BraveSoftware folder, is with applications WinZip or 7-Zip. Compress the BraveSoftware folder, give the resulting .zip file a name that includes the date and time; example:

“20220401-1530_Friday_BBSoftwareFldr_bkup.zip”

Leave a copy on your Windows OS machine; and, copy that file over to an attached, external hard drive. Those 2 copies, being the minimum effort.

In addition, I believe that Bookmarks should routinely be exported, and thus handy. And, Passwords should be saved in a password wallet application (1Password, BitWarden, KeePass, LastPass have been recommended), whether or not using an Internet browser’s built-in password manager.

For backup software, I usually suggest GoodSync. GoodSync can also backup Android devices.

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Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak files:

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

Caches (folder):

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

Cookies (file):

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

Extensions (folder):

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

File System (folder) - can grow to be LARGE and require attention:

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

History (file - usually lots of data):

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

Preferences (file) is similar to the “Local State” file, loaded with info:

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

Web Data (file):

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

You can backup up your search engines (records within that “Web Data” file):

“Backup of Search Engines - #4 by maxwow”

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Routine: Create a New System Restore Point every day.

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Re installation on some other drive, than C . . . that is unknown territory.

You will have to manually update your “brave.exe” installation on drive D.

You will learn whatever updating of your BraveSoftware folder may be achieved, as a result of your manual updating of “brave.exe” installation on drive D.

Might be worth the discovery – comparing the updated BraveSoftware folder with your recent backup of it.

Let us know, what you discover. Thanks.

–

1 Like
11

I’m not understanding why you are backing up the Brave browser so often. How often do you change settings? Bookmarks? I realized long ago using your browser to store your bookmarks isn’t a very good idea as we often switch browsers or use different browsers for different tasks. So the last thing you want is for one to control everything. Most browser’s bookmark management is very poorly designed as well. Then there’s the issue of mobile devices, not all of us are on only IOS or Android. Many use both. So one needs a cross platform system that is easy to manage and backup. Not sure what that is but it must be out there! On Win7 I tried just using a word processor and it works surprisingly well, especially for editing and management.

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@Norm2022 ,

Setting aside the ‘feature requests’ and ‘web compatibility’ issues, [my rough estimate:] at least one half of the rest of the issues - here at Brave Community - would be easier to resolve, if Brave Browser users would routinely back up their data.

Granted, that Brave Software ought to BE CERTAIN that

  • vBAT
  • Brave Rewards
  • Brave Wallet
  • Bookmarks
  • Passwords
  • Sync info
  • other important stuff

would all be successfully restored from the backed up BraveSoftware folder’s sub-folders.

In addition to, routine backups remain necessary because of a variety of computer problems.

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