Description of the issue: My Brave Browser Beta profile suddenly broke. When I opened the browser, I was logged out of every website, all of my extensions showed “Repair” and had to be repaired, and all of my saved passwords disappeared.
I still have the original profile files, including:
C:\Users\kidfl\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser-Beta\User Data\Local State
C:\Users\kidfl\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser-Beta\User Data\Default\Login Data
I opened the Login Data database with DB Browser for SQLite and confirmed that the logins table still contains 100 saved login entries with the correct websites and usernames. The password_value column still contains encrypted BLOBs, so the password data appears to still exist.
I’m still using the same Windows installation and the same Windows user account that originally created these passwords.
I’m trying to recover my own saved passwords and import them into the regular Brave Browser, but Brave Beta no longer recognizes or displays them.
How can this issue be reproduced?
I don’t know what caused it. It happened unexpectedly after opening Brave Beta.
After it happened, I was logged out of every website.
Every extension showed “Repair” and had to be repaired.
The Password Manager became completely empty even though the Login Data database still contains 100 login records.
Expected result: Brave Beta should recognize my existing profile, decrypt the saved passwords stored in Login Data, and display them in the Password Manager so they can be exported or synced.
Brave Version (check About Brave): Brave Browser Beta (I’ll update this with the exact version from brave://settings/help.)
Additional Information:
Same PC and same Windows user account.
Login Data and Local State are still present.
The logins table contains 100 entries with the correct URLs and usernames.
password_value contains encrypted BLOBs, which I understand is normal.
Is it possible that the encryption keys, profile, or another required file became corrupted? Are there any additional files besides Login Data and Local State that Brave requires to decrypt and display the saved passwords?
What integrity checks occur when Brave Browser launches?
According to Brave Search (Answer with AI):
When Brave Browser launches, it performs several integrity and safety checks to ensure security and functionality. Brave includes a built-in Safety Check feature that verifies if the browser is updated, if installed add-ons are safe, and if Safe Browsing settings are enabled.
Additionally, Brave actively blocks potentially harmful features from its underlying Chromium engine, such as Google’s Web Environment Integrity (WEI) API, which it considers a privacy risk.
Users may also encounter third-party integrity checks from websites (e.g., Cloudflare or Twitch) that verify the browser environment, which can sometimes trigger issues like the Wayback Machine prompt or failed preview loads if conflicts arise.
Apparently, Brave integrity checks may lead to Brave replacing or modifying the ‘Local State’ file, and that leads to particularly Brave Browser (Windows OS) users losing access to one or more of their Brave Browser user profiles.
According to Brave Search (Answer with AI):
Yes, this is a documented issue affecting Brave Browser on Windows. The browser performs an integrity check on the Local State file at launch. If this file is found to be corrupted or unreadable (often due to JSON syntax errors, bad updates, or disk issues), Brave automatically renames the damaged file to Local State.bad and generates a fresh Local State file to allow the browser to start.
The Cause of Profile Loss
The critical data loss occurs because the Local State file contains the os_crypt.encrypted_key, which is the master key used to decrypt sensitive user data (passwords, cookies, and profile configurations) via the Windows Data Protection API (DPAPI).
Key Mismatch: When Brave replaces the corrupted file with a new one, it generates a new encryption key.
Inaccessible Data: The existing profile folders (e.g., Profile 1, Default) remain on the disk, but their data is encrypted with the old key. Since the new Local State file has a different key, Brave cannot decrypt the old profiles, making them appear “lost” or forcing the browser to create a new, empty default profile.
Recovery and Mitigation
Users experiencing this issue may see a crash or a “something is corrupted” error upon launch.
Check for Local State.bad: Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data. If a Local State.bad file exists, it contains the original encryption key.
Manual Restoration: Advanced users can sometimes recover access by validating the JSON syntax of the .bad file, fixing errors, and copying the os_crypt object from Local State.bad into the new Local State file.
Profile Launch: In some cases, profiles still exist but are unlinked from the picker. Users can attempt to launch them directly via command line: brave.exe --profile-directory=“Profile 1” (replacing “Profile 1” with the specific folder name).