Lost my Brave profile after Update

[sushant7]

I never created another profile, Just had 1.
My laptop was working slow so I decided to restart it, but I forgot brave was open and after the laptop turned on, I opened brave and Boom.. My profile has just resetted, favorite sites gone, stats gone, passwords and credentials gone, What remains is search history.

[289wk]

@sushant7

For now, disable Brave Sync for the Windows OS PC in question.

In a Brave Browser New Window, go to brave://version and in the resulting page, report what you see for lines beginning with:

• Brave:
• OS:
• Executable Path:
• Profile Path:

NOTE: For Profile Path substitute character string “username” for your actual username (in other words, be mindful of protecting your actual username).

The one item that you might be able to rescue, is your bookmarks collection . . . but right now, the Bookmarks file’s whereabouts are unknown in your description.

[sushant7]

As of Now, I’ve deleted the sync. I never used bookmarks in the first place so I don’t care about Bookmarks.

[289wk]

@sushant7

So, you are using:

Brave Browser version 1.84.139
Windows OS 11 25H2 Build 26200.7171

Suggested reading:

Lost all cookies including passwords and site data

Based on the details you’ve provided, there isn’t a clear or definitive answer. The two most likely explanations are: Data was deleted by you, another user on the device, or possibly by an app or extension. Your Windows encryption (DPAPI) was corrupted or lost. This encryption system protects sensitive data such as saved passwords. If the encryption key becomes inaccessible or damaged, the passwords technically still exist in your Brave profile folder, but the browser can no longer read o…

Establish routines for preserving your data:

How to Back Up Passwords that are stored by Brave Browser

Scrolling down the webpage at:

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018185951-How-do-I-use-the-built-in-password-manager

A note states:

“Export Passwords - Selecting Download file will export all credentials you’ve saved in your browser as a .CSV file onto your system. Note that anyone who has access to your system will be able to open and view this file, so it is recommended that you delete this file once you’ve used the file for its intended purpose.”

Tips on how to encrypt that .CSV file:

• ‘https://www.crucial.com/articles/pc-users/how-to-password-protect-a-folder’
• ‘https://nordvpn.com/blog/how-to-password-protect-a-zip-file/’
• ‘https://www.winzip.com/en/features/security/password-protection/’

Be sure to safely store a copy of that CSV file on an external drive.

How to back up your Bookmarks as an HTML file

Two ways to get to the Bookmarks Manager.

One way:

1. Launch Brave and open the Main menu:
2. Select Bookmarks --> Bookmarks Manager
3. Open the More options menu at the top right
4. Select Export and choose where you want to store the exported file.

Another way:

1. In a new Brave Browser window, go to: brave://bookmarks
2. Locate the “Organize” (vertically-arrayed 3-dot) menu button in the upper-right area of the window; click on that
3. You should get a pop-up menu, in which you click on the “Export bookmarks” selection and choose where you want to store the exported file.

The exported file name: “bookmarks.html”

Be sure to safely store a copy of that HTML file on an external drive.

After the initial installation and setup of Brave Browser (“BB”) for Windows OS users, the original BB user profile data is within the Default folder. ← See your Profile Path

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

Without* BB running, and before doing anything else, also make a backup of the User Data folder . . . placing the backup somewhere that is safe and NOT within any BB installation path.