My passwords disappeared from Brave

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Description of the issue:: i just woke up in the morning and opened brave , i was logged out of everything and passwords gone

**Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary): 1.close pc 2.open pc 3. no passwords

Actual Result (gifs and screenshots are welcome!):

image
image1505×905 40.9 KB

Operating System and Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu): v1.80.124-brave version windows 11

**Additional Information:**please hellp me all my sites log in and passwords dissapeared

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@tibituc

Take a look at:

‘Suddenly Lost all my saved passwords from brave but did nothing - #2 by 289wk’

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can you plz explain cuz i dont understand i am kinda slow .

1 Like
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The same issue appeared for me in Linux on last update. As suggested above, I keep back ups of password files, but this has nothing to do with passwords disappearing. I was able to recover my passwords in Linux, but I’m not sure where this file would be located in Windows. This note is just to say “it happened here too on a differnt platform”.

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@tibituc

Please be prepared by preserving your data - “just in case”.

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:

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: newmenuicon.png
  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:

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

You should verify that location; in a BB New Window, go to brave://version and scroll down to Profile Path.

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

In a BB New Window, go to: brave://settings/clearBrowserData

Disable:

  • Cookies and other site data
  • Passwords and other sign-in data
  • Autofill form data
  • Site and Shields Settings

Click the ‘Save’ button.

Exit / Quit everything and Restart your computer.

6

@tibituc, it’s tough to say exactly what happened without more details, but I can explain a likely cause and what your options are.

Brave stores passwords securely using something called OSCrypt. This system relies on your Windows login information to create an encryption key. That key is what Brave uses to lock and unlock your saved passwords. If something changed on your system, like a Windows update, corruption in your user profile, or switching to a different Windows account, then the key Brave needs may no longer match. When that happens, the browser can no longer decrypt your stored passwords, even though the data itself might still exist.

There are only a few ways to recover your passwords if this has happened:

  • You previously exported them as a backup file
  • You synced your passwords to another device using Brave Sync
  • You used a third-party password manager that still has your data

If the passwords were deleted, either manually or by a cleanup tool, there may be no recovery option unless you have a system restore point or backup from before the data was lost. Even then, if the encryption key has changed, restoring the system might not help.

For more technical details, Brave has a helpful article that explains how sensitive data like passwords is stored and encrypted:
https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/29808985123085-Sensitive-data-storage

In the simplest terms, unless you have a backup, sync, or used a password manager, it’s very unlikely that the lost passwords can be recovered

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