Having a routine of creating Windows OS System Restore Points, plus a backup of the User Data folder - every 24 hours, helps.
SOMETIMES A BB user has recovered via:
‘All Brave Profiles Gone After Corruption Message – Urgent Help Needed - #5 by thepanchalshadow’
SOMETIMES A BB user has recovered via:
‘Profiles gone AWOL - #2 by jessepf’
SOMETIMES: A BB user has recovered passwords by using the backed up Login Data file; and sometimes by doing that PLUS using a previously-backed up Local State file; and sometimes by a combination of: Resetting the Brave Browser Settings, using the backed up Login Data file, plus, using the previously-backed up Local State file.
SOMETIMES: Passwords come back after yet another reboot.
SOMETIMES: Recovery via Brave Sync.
SOMETIMES: Recovery by:
File and Folder Permissions - Brave Browser (Windows OS):
Ref.: ‘https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/38609’
And then, there is the following:
‘Lost cookies, extensions, filters, but tabs are there, on 2 different computers - #3 by Flex’
I asked Perplexity.ai to decipher those commands. The reply:
Those three commands are working together to take control of the Brave Browser profile folders and reset their permissions for the Administrators group.
1) takeown /F ... /R /D Y /A
takeown /F C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser /R /D Y /A
takeown– changes the owner of files/folders./F <path>– target folder: here it is the Brave-Browser folder in your profile./R– recurse into all subfolders and files./D Y– automatically answer “Yes” to any confirmation prompts when access is denied./A– make the Administrators group the owner (instead of just the current user).
Effect: Administrators become the owner of the entire Brave-Browser tree under that user profile, including all subfolders and files.
2) icacls ... /setowner Administrators /T
icacls C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser /setowner Administrators /T
icacls– manages NTFS permissions and ownership./setowner Administrators– explicitly sets the owner to the Administrators group./T– applies to the folder and all subfolders and files.
Effect: Confirms and enforces that Administrators are the owner of everything under Brave-Browser (similar goal to the first command, using a different tool).
3) icacls ... /inheritance:e /T /C
icacls C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware /inheritance:e /T /C
/inheritance:e– enables permission inheritance so items inherit ACLs from their parent folder./T– recurse through all subfolders and files underBraveSoftware./C– continue even if errors occur (skips over problem files, keeps going).
Effect: Re-enables normal inherited permissions for everything under BraveSoftware, so permissions flow down from the parent instead of using only custom/blocked ACLs.
Overall purpose
Together, these commands:
- Make the Administrators group the owner of the Brave Browser data folder and all of its contents.
- Ensure that ownership is set consistently using both tools (
takeownandicacls). - Turn inheritance back on for the broader
BraveSoftwarefolder so its permissions are normalized and inherited from its parent, which can fix “Access denied” and permission corruption issues within the Brave profile.
‘Where Brave Browser Profiles Are Located’
The problem(s) of lost access to passwords and/or lost passwords, is not a simple matter and requires a lot of study. Above, I provided a basic set of what has SOMETIMES worked for an unknown, small number of Brave Browser users. My consolidated notes on the matter, are at:
‘Brave deleted all my active tabs and favorites - #2 by 289wk’