I’m new to the Brave browser and have a question.:
Can Brave and Chrome co-exist? If so, where is the Brave profile stored or does it share the same profile as Chrome? I can’t seem to locate the Brave profile.
@bobC927,
Thanks for reaching out.
They sure can! 
Nope! They use completey seperate profiles, directories and data!
That depends on what Operating system you’re using:
Windows: ~/%AppData%/Local/BraveSoftware
macOS: ~/Users/Library/"Application Support"/BraveSoftware
Linux: ~.config/BraveSoftware
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To add a little to @Mattches’s info, inside the BraveSoftware folder (on Windows, macOS, and Linux) is a folder called Brave-Browser, and that holds all profile folders. Usually, the one you want is just called Default unless you specifically add additional profiles.
I’m starting to believe that periodic backup of your profile folder is a good idea even apart from backing up your drive/data as a whole. If you develop an extensive setup, it can take a lot to reproduce it. And if you earn a lot of BAT, that could be lost if something goes wrong with the profile folder. To make a backup, just navigate to the Brave-Browser folder and make a copy of the Default folder or other profile folder (Profile 1, Profile 2, etc., if created), probably in another location on your drive. When I do this, I also compress it, but whatever floats your boat.
I have Chrome, Chromium, and several flavors of Brave installed and all coexist fine. If you install Brave Beta, Dev, or Nightly, they will each have their own folders in the BraveSoftware folder, each with their own profiles.
You can also easily copy portions of your profile, if not the whole thing, between different flavors of Brave and even to other Chromium-based browsers, like Chrome and Chromium. To be safe, I usually do this with a fresh profile in the target browser or make a copy I can fall back on.
In particular, Bookmarks are easy to move as-is. Just find the bookmarks file in your profile folder and copy it to the target browser profile folder, and boom.
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Thanks for this very useful information. I totally agree with your suggestion regarding backups, which was my reason for attempting to find the profile folder(s).
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Yeah, I’m thinking of putting together a sticky post called, “Your Profile Folder and You: A Guide to the Health, Safety, and Maintenance of Your Treasured Web Data.” LOL I mean, I’ve posted guides in replies to threads along those lines several times with a lot of shared information, so it’s kind of a thing.
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Also, these paths will get you to where the Brave-Browser, -Beta, -Dev, and -Nightly folders are, but the profiles are stored in additional folders inside those. That is, the path should be extended to include /Brave-Browser/ for macOS and Linux or \Brave-Browser\User Data\ in Windows 10.
Edit 20200615: Apologies, but I had some kind of brain cramp and there’s no User Data folder in macOS Brave installations, just Brave-Browser folder that holds the profile folders. I suspect same in Linux and will confirm tonight.
Later 20200615: Indeed, after testing several distros, Linux also does not have the User Data folder. So sorry for the brain cramp on this.
Thus, complete paths to User Data
| OS | Path to folder with profile folders |
|---|---|
| macOS: | /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/"Application Support"/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/ |
| or in shorthand format | |
~/Library/"Application Support"/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/ |
|
| Linux: | /Users/YOURUSERNAME/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/ |
| or in shorthand format | |
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/ |
|
| Windows 10: | C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\ |
| or in shorthand format | |
~\%AppData%\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\ |
In Windows 10, AppData is ordinarily hidden. To see it in Explorer, click the View tab of the window you’re using and check the Hidden items checkbox
Added 20200615: Likewise in Linux, the .config folder in the GUI may be hidden and one must use the file browser’s View menu (may differ depending on flavor of Linux) to enable the viewing of hidden files/items in order to see it in the GUI.
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Should ‘Library/Application…’ in the ‘Linux:’ line be chaged to ‘.config’?
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Thank you. I got lost in the weeds of Markdown and missed that. 
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@hnktong,
Thank you for the clarification!
You’re right – I should be including the User data directory at the end. I think I assume that since it’s the only directory there that people will infer that. Good catch.
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