Brave profile transfer to new machine

Browser Support
1

Description of the issue:
I’m trying to transfer brave profiles from one mac to another

Everything is working as expected on old mac. But when I transfer profile to new mac and start Brave - settings get reset, and contents of Extensions folder in Default folder is emptied when browser starts, and following pops up:

r/brave_browser - Profile transfer/backup|750xauto

Is there a way to transfer whole profile to a new mac ?

I start Brave profiles with dedicated --user-data-dir flag: nohup /Applications/Brave\ Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave\ Browser --user-data-dir=/Users/me/brave-browser/profile1/ >/dev/null 2>&1 &

Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary): 1. 2. 3.

  • Copy profile folder to new machine
  • Start browser with --user-data-dir flag
  • Navigate to extensions page - see no extensions
  • Navigate to settings - see Brave reset these settings

Expected result:

Expect all extensions, extensions state, and browser settings (not cookies, or any kind of website auths) to be transfered succefully to a new machine when copying profile folder

Reproduces how often:

Every single time

Operating System and Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu)

Both old, and new machines are macs:

Brave is up to date
Brave 1.85.120 (Official Build) (arm64)
Chromium: 143.0.7499.192

2

@0x000081231

Given the old Mac: MacA
Given the new Mac: MacB

If both Brave Browser versions are the same, and the MacOS versions of both Macs are in the range of MacOS 14 and MacOS 15 or, both Macs are MacOS 26.2, then the following might work:

1st) On MacA, Disable and remove all extensions that you have installed. Export your bookmarks - that will produce a file named “bookmarks.html”. Backup passwords, if you have been using the Brave Password Manager - that will produce a .csv file ← store, securely.

Set Safari to be the default browser on MacA.
Disable Brave Sync across the board.
Exit / Quit Brave Browser on MacA.

2nd) There should be no Brave Browser installation on MacB ← means clearing out all of it: the application, the settings files, the cache, the .plist files . . . searching for these items in:

  • /Applications/
  • /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/
  • /Users/[username]/Library/Caches/
  • /Users/[username]/Library/Preferences/
  • /Users/[username]/Library/Saved Application State/

Set Safari to be the default browser on MacB.
Exit / Quit everything and Restart MacB.

3rd) On MacA, make a backup copy of the BraveSoftware folder at: /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware - placing the backup copy on a USB drive.

4th) Drag-copy that BraveSoftware folder, from the USB drive, to the /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/ folder on MacB.

5th) Install Brave Browser on MacB.

6th) Run Brave Browser on MacB. Do not import anything, do not add any extensions. Just observe, conservatively. Try not to allow anything that is un-necessary at this moment; for example, if not using Brave Rewards, then do not allow / enable it.

7th) Take a look at the Bookmarks Manager, to see if the bookmarks are intact. If not, import old bookmarks.

8th) Visit a very simple website: ‘https://test.nextdns.io/’

9th) If things seem OK, then add extensions - testing their usefulness, and test each, in succession.