I am leaving Apple. I have been using brave for a while now on Mac OS (Mojave).
I am moving to Fedora Linux.
I found a thread describing how to find brave files on Mac in Application Support folder etc. thats’ fine to move to another mac, but what about moving to Linux Fedora?
Is the process the same? if not, any guidance would be appreciated. thanks
@NoMoreFirefox your best solution would be to export everything. So go to
brave://password-manager/settings and choose to Export passwords and download to a flash drive.
brave://bookmarks/ and the hamburger menu on top right, choose to Export Bookmarks and put on flash drive.
Other thing you can do is just create a Sync chain, assuming you have another device (like your phone) that has Brave installed or if you will be getting the transition all done in the same day. This can automatically sync your bookmarks, passwords, etc with little to no issue. The reason I stress other device or same day is because the code does change daily and it’s not meant as a backup.
Not sure about that part. But generally speaking, copying information from the User Data portion of the \brave-browser folder has been said to be able to bring over some things like bookmarks and extensions. Yet things like passwords wouldn’t be moved over this way. And I couldn’t say with any confidence that things would work well going from MacOS to Linux with this method. You’d honestly be better going with the prior two options I mentioned.
Thanks for replying. I should have clarified what I want to migrate as I am not the typical user.
I dont have any stored passwords, for example, I have all that stuff turned off. I also don’t have any extensions.
What I have is 3 things:
I could do it manually worst case. But if there’s a way to migrate those, it would be good
Safest and guaranteed method is to do an import/export. Might want to at least have that as a backup in case other method(s) don’t work. Sync is next best method. Folder would be third, if it works.
Not sure that these ever actually sync and there’s no import/export for it. So in this case, the only way they’d move over is by moving over your \brave-browser folder or the User Data portion of it at least. Just have to make sure everything is on same version number and you should try to replace the folder before opening it on the new devide. So install, but don’t open Brave. Replace the folder from other OS and it might be fine with all your settings, bookmarks, and profiles.
These also don’t sync and I’m not aware of a method to import/export completely. So you’d be looking at replacing the folders.
Thanks, so looks like folder moves is what I need to do. But I have no idea which folders.
Can you please explain which folders to move from Mac OS to Fedora Linux, in the hope it will bring settings and profiles?
thanks
Best way to check this is to go to brave://version. The Profile Path is where it’s all saved. So wherever that tells you it’s at is where you’ll be copying from. I always told people to do the \brave-browser folder but Support and others have claimed all you’ll need is the User Data folder that is contained within that.
Key thing is to replace the folder before you open Brave the first time on new device AND to try to make sure both are running the same version of Brave if possible. This limits the chances of compatibility issues and all, especially as Brave changes details within.
Other thing you can do is just create a Sync chain, assuming you have another device (like your phone) that has Brave installed or if you will be getting the transition all done in the same day. This can automatically sync your bookmarks, passwords, etc with little to no issue.
Sorry to spray shooting my Thoughts and Question, but synching to the phone does not sync all settings or extensions, right?
So when the Situation is that I only have a phone I should not use this as a backup, instead sync this shortly to another device like a laptop or pc right?
This is correct. Unfortunately it doesn’t save all settings between. It just keeps pertinent information like passwords, bookmarks, etc.
That is correct, it works best if you have another active device that is synced. This way if one device is lost or damaged, you can easily sync your new device. If you only have one device, it’s always a gamble on what might happen. Eventually they are supposed to be changing Sync where code changes daily and there’s no way for users to obtain the info again. I just don’t know when that will happen or if they’ll change their mind and go a different route.
And for things like Android or iOS, there’s no method to do a manual backup like we can on desktop. This is because it gets hidden into admin only areas that we can’t access unless rooted or whatever. Even then, it’s difficult to find and copy.
Thanks. I have done similar stuff when moving mac data from one machine to another, not running apps before getting their data folders right, otherwise you get duped folders etc.I think I understand what you mean, I will give it a whirl thanks!
I am the naturally distrustful type and have never used “Sync”, whether from Brave or anyone else. I just don’t like stuff like that generally as SO many companies abuse it. That said, I do not believe Brave would abuse it (or I wouldn’t be using it!)
I don’t see Sync helping in this case anyway, as far as user data goes. BUT - I do have LOTS of open tabs I could do with an easy way to get across to the new machine. In Firefox I used to have an extension which would list all open tab URLs into a doc or clipboard. Is there anything similar to get lots of Brave tab URLs into a doc/email so I can open them in their relevant profiles once i have created them in the new machine’s Brave?
thanks
You know you can bookmark all open tabs, right?
If you save that to its own folder, then you can just open all, such as below:
So on that, I just did that with 4 open tabs and put it under New Folder
Other option is to create tab groups, but that kind of does the same thing.
After I put the tabs into Testing tab group, then I chose to Bookmark all tabs:, it saved as you see below:
I added that Testing bookmark folder onto my Bookmarks bar and then it’s just as simple as doing right click and open all. Can choose in tab group or just to open in window, however I want to do it.
Obviously I don’t mess with it a lot, but I do know it’s possible at least. Then once you bookmarked, it would be able to sync across devices.
If it’s not obvious, I’m not quite sure differences on tab group vs not in terms of the bookmark and all. But I think there’s supposed to be a difference. I’d leave that for you or others to pay closer attention and toy with it. But at least saving all tabs to one folder on Bookmarks Manager lets you easily open again.
NOTE
Also if synced, you can see open tabs and all. Such as below:
On that, as you can see, I’m able to click and open all. So if you had lot of open tabs on one desktop and want to open on another, you’d just have it synced and then go to History → Tabs From Other Devices and could open from there.
Sorry if I’m writing too much and not really saying a lot, but trying my best here to explain while I was also doing it myself, as been a while since I screwed with it…trying to make sure I’m not steering you or anyone wrong.
At first, many thanks to @Saoiray for your detailed answer and explanation. Really appreciate this!
Back to you @NoMoreFirefox, I have another suggestions which may help you in your specific situation:
TabCopy is an extension for brave (of course not exclusively) which you can send just a selected or as you described in your case all tabs in pre-defined format or a custom one.
From there you can copy the formatted text and which has all links of your tabs and email them yourself and open them again at your machine.
Info:
As @Saoiray already suggested, I would also recommend to useBrave Sync, however I can fully understand your distrust in general. I useBrave Syncsince a long time three or four years.I had never problems. You can sync bookmarks as @Saoiray already mentioned it but also extensions and tabs. This means if you have open tabs those are synced to your device in the sync chain and can be opened via
(Hamburger) Menu > History. Alternatively you can also go viaSettings > History.
There you see grouped per device, all links/tabs which are opened there.I have taken an example screenshot from my device for you.
Example Picture:
I hope I have been able to help you a little. 
Thanks maybe i should overcome my dislike (generally) of cloud and sync type stuff.
Only one question is - I have various profiles , I assume you can only sync one profile?
i tried it, got bookmarks from one profile across to new laptop, thanks.
Still not sure re other profiles.
Bit of a complaint - i told it to bring extensions and settings. It didn’t bring my only extension over, but it did do settings - EXCEPT a few sneaky ones it left like sending usage ping to brave (which is off on mine, didn’t sync that!), also private window with Tor is ticked when it shouldn’t be. I guess I will just have to check all settings manually, which didn’t save much time there! That’s why I like dealing with files, removes decisions made by others 
Thanks though, the bookmarks saved some time
PS it didn’t bring customised home page settings, turned wallet back on, turned blocked privacy notifications on etc etc. not great with settings
Can I ask, wondered about it for ages - What is “Hangouts” in settings for? Is it private and safe to use, and if so, what does it do/enable me to do in browser that I can’t otherwise?
Um, you can sync all profiles, but probably not in the way you mean. If you’re asking if it can sync so when you open on another device, you can have multiple profiles, that’s not an option.
Instead, you would have to add each profile to the sync chain separately. And all that will do is have all passwords, bookmarks, etc be used collectively between them all.
@Mattches when you get a chance, could you provide some feedback on the issues listed below? Primarily on Sync but then touch on Hangouts. Oh, and bit about syncing profiles is just to ask if it might ever be on radar or if is intended as is and likely won’t allow syncing of multiple profiles (where their info is kept separately but on same sync chain…guessing would be a big ask?)
In regards to Hangouts, I always assumed it was referring to Google Hangouts (which is dead now and changed to Chats or whatever). What exactly is it and does it run through Google at all?
i told it to bring extensions and settings. It didn’t bring my only extension over, but it did do settings - EXCEPT a few sneaky ones it left like sending usage ping to brave (which is off on mine, didn’t sync that!), also private window with Tor is ticked when it shouldn’t be.
So what I am assuming is happening here is you are using Sync between Brave on macOS and Brave on your new OS (Fedora), correct? If so, it’s strange that it did not bring the extension over — I would recommend just reinstalling it. As for those sneaky settings, unfortunately not every single setting in the browser is Syncable. I suspect that this might be possible in future releases but as it is now Sync will carry over almost all of your settings. Apologies for the inconvenience.
it didn’t bring customised home page settings, turned wallet back on, turned blocked privacy notifications on etc etc. not great with settings
Definitely should have brought the Homepage settings over — I’d be curious to know exactly what you had setup that didn’t get carried over. Also, some settings like Wallet are on by default — so I’m not sure it turned this/these settings “on” as much as they just didn’t carry over to “off”.
I know that profile Sync is in the works for the future. However for now, you can only Sync one profile at a time, but you can still sync multiple profiles. For example, if you have 3 profiles on your macOS machine(Prof A, Prof B, Prof C), simply create three profiles on the Linux machine (Prof 1, Prof 2, Prof 3)and sync them one to one. Something like:
Sync Prof A → Prof 1
Sync Prof B → Prof 2
Sync Prof C → Prof 3
Unless I’m misunderstanding what is being asked here.
This setting was specifically implemented to accommodate specific Google services that were highly used but not initially compatible with Brave — namely Google “Hangouts” (now called “Chats” as @Saoiray points out). There may be some other functionality it allows but it’s main use is for Chats. Note that any data sent via this extension is proxied through Brave’s servers and stripped of any identifiable information.
such a brilliant response as usual. Yes I will use that process to sync profiles, will work fine for my needs. Thanks again, I have no need for any kind of ‘chat’ or ‘hangout’, so will turn that off. was just curious what it was, I stopped reading at the word “Google” 
Thanks again, superb support.
Might I be cheeky and ask another question? My mother in law is elderly and alone, but an active mind and reads a lot. I have installed Brave for her on her android tablet, and I used a ‘hack’ I found online to activate Leo for her as she was fascinated by what it can do. Was tricky but got it working, although it’s not very usable in landscape mode. Can I ask… when is Leo likely to be fully integrated into android browsers on official release of Brave?
thanks again
