Not able to update Brave

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@MainframeSupertasker ,

Trying to track down, where you may have installed Brave Browser on a previous occasion.

About custom installations . . .

June 23, you wrote:

Same topic, anon57438784 replied:

“Custom installation folder - #4 by anon57438784”

Brave uses the OMAHA updater, which is open source alternative to what Chrome uses, and probably what Edge uses as well.

OMAHA update can only update in two locations, Program files when you install with admin rights and %localuserdata% when you install without admin rights, but the User Data never changes, it always goes to where it goes.

Brave by not having a custom installer, they have the way to use Policies and all that which is good for enterprise, unlike other Browsers.

So, in that case, what you have to move is the User Data.

Brave in their Github page already offers a zipped version of the Browser which doesn’t have the updater, which means you can place it anywhere you want, and then you can create a BAT file [batch file?] or Shortcut and use whatever directory you want for the User Data.

You can use --user-data-dir="User Data" and the folder will be placed wherever the Brave.exe you are starting is.

If you want to keep the ‘updater’ but move the files, then you should use Junctions or Symbolic Links, which is exactly what Windows users all over Windows, so using them will not cause issues.

The best way to use it is by installing Brave without admin rights, so everything Application, Updater and User Data will be placed in the same folder, in %localappdata%\BraveSoftware

Then you use move it somewhere else and create the junction or symbolic link to it in the same place so Updater and everything works as expected.

It is the way Chromium works, this has to be something Chromium offers easier without using the --user-data-dir=.

You replied in August 2023:

“Thank you so much for the info”

In a January 7th reply, above (this topic: “Not able to update Brave”), you mentioned that you changed your username to “Mainframe” and “and had to do the registry edits to fully change it and stuff - apps still wanted to install in the C drive /users/[my personal name]”.

So, it sounds like some file/folder permissions might not be correct; and, you might have done at least 1 custom installation of Brave Browser . . . placing that installation . . . where you now need to find it . . . plus all things Brave, scattered about your computer - including, your searching in all Windows OS users’ directories (and of course, their sub-directories).

You may find CCleaner to be useful.

https://support.ccleaner.com/s/?language=en_US

https://www.ccleaner.com/knowledge/why-your-pc-is-so-slow-and-how-you-can-speed-it-up