Hi,
Crisis this morning as my Mac updated overnight to Big Sir 11.5.2 and suddenly Brave was not even opening. Spent the last year organizing bookmarks and PW for work. I shld have backed it up I know!
Managed to re-install Brave so it’s working but without any of the bookmarks or PW. I urgently need help, please!
@hko,
How did you go about uninstalling Brave from your system?
@Mattches I followed the instructions in this post. So I deleted the files mentioned here.
So I have these files on my desktop. I also located a file called “Bookmarks” that showed up under the Brave folder but it’s gibberish and not importable into the bookmarks section of the new Brave I downloaded
@hko,
If you still have all the files that were located in the directory:
~Library/Application support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser
Then you can try copy/paste/replacing your old saved files to that same directory, which should then put your browser back into the state it was before uninstalling.
ok thank u. Can you give me some info on how I do that. Just copy and paste everything and delete the news ones?
Yeah pretty much – can you show me (screenshot would be fine) the folder where you believe to have saved your previous user data files? From there I can provide exact instructions for you.
@Mattches how do I know which one is the new one? I have two on there.
Brave Browser
Brave Software
Under Brave Software, there is also a folder called Brave Browser
Thanks so much!
@hko,
Which folder/files did you copy from your old profile/installation?
I also saved two files that had “bookmarks” in the title
Mind you I don’t understand any of this, I was just blindly following instructions I found in antoher post
Thanks
@hko,
So I’m not sure you can get all your information back, unfortunately. However, the bookmarks data you should be able to get back.
So you’ll want to copy the Bookmarks.bak and Bookmarks files, then open finder and go to Library/Application Support/Brave Software/Brave-browser/. Now if you have not made any additional profiles (which I imagine is the case for you at this time), you’ll then want to go into the Default folder. This is where you’ll want to paste the old bookmarks file, replacing the ones that are in there (if they are there, if not just paste them in).
Example image below – note that again, in my image the bookmarks are stored in a different profile, which is why it says Profile 1. For you, it will be the Default folder:
@Mattches thanks for the detailed instructions. I tried this and the bookmarks appeared briefly (I was excited for about 2 mins) but when I clicked on them the websites did not open. Also they had a funny logo on, not the unique one for each bookmark. I closed Brave and reopened, hoping this would be fixed and now the bookmarks are gone again. I closed and opened it a few times and they are not turning up. I removed the two bookmarks files and put them back in under Default but still nothing
Sorry another update. I noticed a new Brave Software folder appeared under Library/Application Support. So I moved them there and now the bookmarks showed up again.
I now have 4 Brave software folders under Application Support. What shld I do?
And a couple of other questions pls
Thanks for all your help today.
@hko,
Well that certainly is confusing – you should not have that many BraveSoftware folders. There should only be one. Can you please share a screenshot of the folder? Also, to confirm, when you previously uninstalled, did you go to this directory and delete the BraveSoftware folder?
Also, the bookmarks are now there and all proper?
Yes, bookmarks are now there. I can’t thank you enough.
I did not go through a process of uninstalling. I simply moved some folders to the trash following the instructions in a post I found here, then moved these folders from the trash to the desktop.
Now I have 4 Brave Browsers. Pls note that I renamed them so I can recognize which one is the new one, but then this last one (not renamed) popped up. And I think it’s the one I am using now. (I think)
hko,
To make a few things more clear . . .
The screenshot that you supplied in your reply 14 above, does not show that you “have 4 Brave Browsers.”
Your screenshot shows 4 Brave -type folders within your user account’s “Application Support” folder, located within the “Library” folder of your user account:
/Users/your_username_aka_shortname/Library/Application Support/
The “Brave Browser.app” is located in the root level “Applications” folder. The root level includes the “Applications”, “System”, and “Users” folders:
/Applications/Brave Browser.app
Another way of illustrating the root level (itself designated simply by the forward slash character):
/
/Applications/
/Library/
/System/
/Users/
Currently, the “Brave Browser.app” uses only 1 “BraveSoftware” folder in your user account “Application Support” folder:
/Users/your_username_aka_shortname/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware
The “Brave Browser.app” should not seek to use any of the other three Brave -type folders that you have renamed and show in your screenshot.
From your writing, it now sounds like you have your Bookmarks restored.
Brave Browser does not maintain your Bookmarks in easily-readable HTML text format. Instead, you would find the 2 Bookmarks files here (caution, these files are NOT in HTML format) (and, I am assuming that you are using the “Default” profile):
/Users/your_username_aka_shortname/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Bookmarks
/Users/your_username_aka_shortname/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Bookmarks.bak
Those “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak” files are supposedly in JSON format - and would appear to be “gibberish” in a text editor application.
Now . . . In order to secure your Bookmarks, please use the Brave Browser application’s “Bookmarks Manager”, to back up your Bookmarks (“Export bookmarks”). At least, for now, back up to your Mac’s Desktop.
There, you can find that new HTML file that was created (its name may be similar to “bookmarks_8_28_21.html”) and open it with TextEdit on your Mac. The initial lines of that new HTML file, will resemble:
Thank you. This has all been very helpful. I’ll back it up and put reminders to do so weekly.
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