Brave removed all profiles

[NerdNorm]

I was using my computer when I had to go do some stuff. So I shut down my computer for an hour or two, and when I came back, all my profiles were gone. No history, no favorites, no log-in info, nothing. My computer didn’t update and I didn’t accidentally click anyone or stuff like that. I tried researching for similar cases but any forums I found were no help whatsoever.

Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?

1. No idea

Expected result: Get my brave profiles back

Brave Version:

1.86.142 Chromium: 144.0.7559.97 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Additional Information: No

[289wk]

@NerdNorm

‘Where Brave Browser Profiles Are Located’

Let us say that you already have 2 Brave Browser (“BB”) user Profiles named, Profile 1 and Profile 2. (Using Brave internal link brave://profile-picker in a BB New Window, you would see the actual BB user Profile names that you created. Not the profile folder names!)

BB user Profile named Profile 1 ← its data is in folder named Default:

• "C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default"

BB user Profile named Profile 2 ← its data is in folder named Profile 1:

• "C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Profile 1"

If you were to create an extra BB Shortcut for test purposes only, on your Desktop:

‘Brave.exe’ is usually at one of the following paths:

• C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
• C:\Program Files(x86)\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
• C:\Users[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe

So . . .

• Right-click on its brave.exe file and select Show more options
• Click on Send To > Desktop (Create shortcut)
• Alternatively, right-click on the desktop and select New > Shortcut
• Enter the path of the program executable file
• Click on Next and give it a name: Brave_Test_Run
• Click on Finish and a desktop shortcut will be created

The complete entry for the [ path of the program executable file + flag/switch ] would be (for example → 64 architecture, system level installation) :

"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --profile-directory="C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default"

Use that test Shortcut to start up Brave Browser. Then, after a moment of thinking about nothing . . . Exit / Quit Brave Browser.

Edit the new, test BB Shortcut, changing the path to bring BB’s attention to the Profile 1 folder:

"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --profile-directory="C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Profile "`

Use that test Shortcut to start up Brave Browser. Then, after a moment of thinking about nothing . . . Exit / Quit Brave Browser.

The idea is, that some bit of the Local State file might be in a mess, and by “some miracle”, BB might flush the bad stuff out, during this housekeeping. Because, sometimes, the result of a Windows OS Update or a BB Update, is that BB no longer recognizes the established BB user Profiles.