b) on a reload or startup, Brave Browser decided that it did not like/understand something, and then picked an internal restoration scheme â that swept up/altogether what it could find.
When you want to restore Brave Browser (MacOS) to a known-working status 'back in time' - you need a chronological backup
In order to make chronological backups of the Brave Browser (MacOS) installationâs BraveSoftware folder at:
/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware
I created an AppleScript, used within an Automator application, that I named bkup_BraveSoftware_fldr.app.
When Brave Browser does something strange, and you want to restore Brave Browser to a known-working status âback in time,â then - WITHOUT Brave Browser running (your making sure, by examining the Activity Monitor application) - you can set the existing BraveSoftware folder at:
/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware
aside . . . and expand one of the chronological backups â will cause that backupâs un-zipped folder BraveSoftware to show at:
/Users/[username]/Documents/BraveSoftwareBKUPS/BraveSoftware
and move that older BraveSoftware into position at:
/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/
Thus, restoring Brave Browser to a slightly older point in time.
That is how I have restored all Internet browsers on the Mac, for many years, by maintaining chronological backups.
Steps to create the backup application
Startup Automator application â it is in the Applications folder.
Click the Application icon, and then click the Choose button.
In the Untitled (Application) window that displays, the adjacent scroll area to the left â scroll down in that area, to Run AppleScript
Drag that Run AppleScript action over to the right . . . and into the area that reads: Drag actions or files here to build your workflow.
A frame will display with title Run AppleScript
You are going to copy the AppleScript code and paste it on the area that reads: (* Your script goes here *)
The AppleScript to copy, is the entire, lightly-gray-shaded area:
--
--
-- Makes a .zip compressed backup of the BraveSoftware folder located
-- at: /Users[/username]/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware
--
-- The backup is stored
-- at: /Users[/username]/Documents/BraveSoftwareBKUPS/
--
-- The backups are named in order for them to display in the Finder,
-- in chronological order; example:
--
-- 20260207-234745_EST_Saturday_BraveSoftwareBKUP.zip
--
set hmFldr to (path to home folder) as string
set storedDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {":"}
set btVol to first text item of hmFldr
set usrNm to third text item of hmFldr
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to storedDelimiters
--
set POSIXpthToBraveSoftware to "/Volumes/" & btVol & "/Users/" & usrNm & "/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware"
set POSIXpthToBraveSoftwareQ to quoted form of POSIXpthToBraveSoftware
--
set bkupPth to "/Volumes/" & btVol & "/Users/" & usrNm & "/Documents/BraveSoftwareBKUPS/"
set bkupPthQ to quoted form of bkupPth
--
tell me to (do shell script ("mkdir -p " & bkupPthQ))
--
tell me to set dateTimeStamp to ("" & (do shell script "date \"+%Y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S\" | sed -e 's/\\.//g' -e 's/\\-//g' -e 's/\\ /-/g'") & "_" & (do shell script "date | egrep -o 'EDT|EST|CDT|CST|MDT|MST|PDT|PST'") & "_" & (do shell script "date | sed -e 's/\\ .*//g' -e 's/Sun/Sunday/g' -e 's/Mon/Monday/g' -e 's/Tue/Tuesday/g' -e 's/Wed/Wednesday/g' -e 's/Thu/Thursday/g' -e 's/Fri/Friday/g' -e 's/Sat/Saturday/g' -e 's/\\...$//g'") & "") -- .%S seconds: -e 's/\\...$//g'
--
set destItem to bkupPth & dateTimeStamp & "_BraveSoftwareBKUP.zip"
set destItemQ to quoted form of destItem
--
tell me to (do shell script ("ditto -c -k -X --sequesterRsrc " & POSIXpthToBraveSoftwareQ & " " & destItemQ & "; wait"))
--
--
--
--
After the paste action, you will see:
Next, in the Automatorâs menu bar > select File and scroll down to, and select, Save...
A pop-up window will display, where you can create the name for the new application - replacing Untitled:
with bkup_BraveSoftware_fldr
Click the Save button, saving the new application to your Desktop.
Quit Automator.
When you run the bkup_BraveSoftware_fldr.app application, a backup of the BraveSoftware folder at:
/Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware
will appear at:
/Users/[username]/Documents/BraveSoftwareBKUPS/
A screenshot taken after 3 runs of the bkup_BraveSoftware_fldr.app application:
