What happened to my bookmarks?!

[LisaLinn]

Description of the issue:

1. I got the latest update a few days ago and lost half of my bookmarks folders.

How can this issue be reproduced?
I have no idea how this can be reproduced.

Expected result:
2. I want my bookmarks back! They represent YEARS of work.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
3. [Version 1.9.80 Chromium: 81.0.4044.138 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Additional Information:

[Mattches]

@LisaLinn,
Thank you for reaching out and I’m sorry for the inconvenience. Lets see if we can figure out what happened here.

1. I noticed you stated you’re missing half of your bookmarks folders – even if not exact, is there any common factor(s) among the ones lost? For example, are they all from the same website or were they all in one specific sub folder, etc?
2. Did you have Brave Sync enabled via brave://flags?
3. Since you appear to have some bookmarks still but not all I don’t think this is the case but would you mind confirming that you’re using the same browsing profile that you normally use?
   
   

[LisaLinn]

Yes, I think it’s odd that only half are missing, but that’s the case. The left 1/3 of my bookmarks bar has folders and the remainder does not. There were multiple folders with subfolders within, across the entire bookmarks bar. Those that are left are in the same order that they were before I lost the others. I’m sorry, but I don’t know what Brave Sync is. I only have one browsing profile so that’s not it.

[Mattches]

@LisaLinn,
Is it just the bookmarks bar that the bookmarks are missing from? Or do you see them if you go to Menu --> Bookmarks --> Bookmarks manager?

[LisaLinn]

The same bookmarks are showing/missing in both places.

[Mattches]

@LisaLinn,
I know you claim that you’re not using sync, but would you mind double checking for me by trying the following?

1. Launch Brave
2. In the address bar, type brave://flags
3. On this page, search for brave sync, you should see a flag that looks like this:
   
   
4. Ensure that the value is either set to Default (as shown in the image) or Disabled.

If that already is the value, you’re good on the Sync issue and we can continue with additional troubleshooting steps.

[LisaLinn]

Ok, my page doesn’t look like that, see what I’ve attached below. On mine, almost everything is on Default.
I have these enabled:
Latest stable JavaScript features

Hardware-accelerated video decode

Threaded scrolling

Everything else is disabled or on default.

~Mrs. Lisa Linn M.S.Ed.

| Mattches Browser Support
June 18 |

• | - |

@LisaLinn,
I know you claim that you’re not using sync, but would you mind double checking for me by trying the following?

1. Launch Brave

2. In the address bar, type brave://flags

3. On this page, search for brave sync, you should see a flag that looks like this:

   

4. Ensure that the value is either set to Default (as shown in the image) or Disabled.

If that already is the value, you’re good on the Sync issue and we can continue with additional troubleshooting steps.

[Mattches]

@LisaLinn,
In my image, I had typed brave sync into that search bar:

Can you try the same and confirm that this value is set to Default or Disabled?

[LisaLinn]

Sorry about that. When I type in Sync I get the message:

Enable Brave Sync

Brave Sync is disabled by default – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

#brave-sync

Like I said, I’m not using Sync

[LisaLinn]

I thought I’d show you what’s missing from my browser bar.

The attached is a picture of the bar in Brave mode, with a picture of my Chrome bar underneath it. You can see the number of bookmarks I had previously. I haven’t used Chrome for about a month, so there are bookmarks missing from the folders.

~Mrs. Lisa Linn M.S.Ed.

| Mattches Browser Support
June 18 |

• | - |

@LisaLinn,
I know you claim that you’re not using sync, but would you mind double checking for me by trying the following?

1. Launch Brave

2. In the address bar, type brave://flags

3. On this page, search for brave sync, you should see a flag that looks like this:

   

4. Ensure that the value is either set to Default (as shown in the image) or Disabled.

If that already is the value, you’re good on the Sync issue and we can continue with additional troubleshooting steps.

[Mattches]

@LisaLinn,
Thank you for your patience and understanding. I think that we’re going to have to go digging around in your browser profile and confirm whether or not the bookmarks are still there. I helped another user out with these steps – they’re not as intimidating as they may seem. You’re just looking for the bookmarks file, and searching.

Try the following:

1. In Windows, find where Brave stores data by going to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default

• Note: If you do have more than one profile, replace the Default in the last part of the address with the profile folder you use normally (ie Profile 1, Profile 2, etc).

2. You should see a whole bunch of stuff here, but we’re just looking for the files that hold some identifying data so that you can confirm that it is, indeed, the very same profile data you’re looking for. Scroll down until you see a Bookmarks file, right-click on the file, then Open with --> Notepad . :

3. Notepad should launch with some code in it that looks something like this:

{
   "checksum": "854d136e73b36b3e994587498f1e9d12",
   "roots": {
      "bookmark_bar": {
         "children": [ {
            "date_added": "13235765365138038",
            "guid": "9042fc64-ee18-45d7-822c-0356159a98b3",
            "id": "5",
            "name": "Games - Lumosity",
            "type": "url",
            "url": "https://www.lumosity.com/app/v4/games"
         } ],
         "date_added": "13224657173689755",
         "date_modified": "13235765365138038",
         "guid": "00000000-0000-4000-a000-000000000002",
         "id": "1",
         "meta_info": {
            "order": "1.0.1"
         },
         "name": "Bookmarks",
         "type": "folder"
...
} 

In my example above, amongst all the code you can see https://www.lumosity.com/app/v4/games" next to the "url" label. This, as you may have guessed, is a bookmark! So on your end, try searching the file (ctrl + f) for a bookmark(s) that youknow aren’t appearing in the browser (since you said some of the bookmarks do appear, jsut not all of them).

Tell me if you can find the bookmarks that are missing from your browser. Additionally, do you have all of the same bookmarks that aren’t appearing saved in Chrome?