Actual 1st BB User Profile data is in folder named Default
Actual 2nd BB User Profile data is in folder named Profile 1
Actual 3rd BB User Profile data is in folder named Profile 2
Renaming the BB User Profile ← name(s) . . . DOES NOT CHANGE the folder names and structure:
Renaming 1st BB User Profile name, from “Profile 1” to “Bob8” ← still uses Default folder
Renaming 2nd BB User Profile name, from “Profile 2” to “Hope” ← still uses Profile 1 folder
Renaming 3rd BB User Profile name, from “Profile 3” to “Buzz” ← still uses Profile 2 folder
NOTE: NEVER RENAME the folders ← that messes up things.
My interest, here, is that you know the pattern and refer to it, when you write. So, you always distinguish between Profile Names and their associated/corresponding Folder Names.
Simply and only writing “Profile 1” without including the distinction of BB user Profile Name or Profile Folder Name, leads to confusion. IMHO.
289wk Thanks. I think I had understood that from your previous post, but appreciate the clarification.
In the most recent posts I was just noting what files with “Profile” in their names I had found at each of those paths.
I only have two profiles (not three). According to my understanding of what you (and @mattches) have written, Profile 1 data is contained in the ‘Default’ folder and ‘Profile 2’ data is in the Profile 1 folder.
There are too many entries in both folders for a screenshot. Can you identify what files I should be looking for in those two folders – i.e., /Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ -and- /Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 2/ – ?
I don’t see anything with “Bookmark” or “Bookmarks” in either folder.
289wk Thanks. In reply to your “Please print the following” post, I think I had understood that from your previous post, but appreciate the clarification.
In the most recent posts I was just noting what files with “Profile” in their names I had found at each of those paths.
I only have two profiles (not three). According to my understanding of what you (and @mattches) have written, Profile 1 data is contained in the ‘Default’ folder and ‘Profile 2’ data is in the Profile 1 folder.
There are too many entries in both folders for a screenshot. Can you identify what files I should be looking for in those two folders – i.e., /Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ -and- /Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 2/ – ?
I don’t see anything with “Bookmark” or “Bookmarks” in either folder.
@289wk Thanks. In reply to your post beginning “Referring to my immediately recent reply”, the “where” in my original post was actually asking whether there was a ‘Help’ doc that explained Profiles and their usage in detail. The ‘where’ at that point wasn’t about profile file locations. It has since become relevant given where the thread has gone.
My understanding of profiles at this point is that they essentially just create a ‘new user’ within the same Brave login account.
@mattches The URL’s below were among the suggestions from Brave when I searched the topic. (I forgot to note the actual search spec that displayed them). Although it’s possible that the situations described in both occurred for the reasons you’ve suggested – import, sync, or interfering extension – I don’t see how any of those could apply in my situation. I did not import bookmarks, I don’t use sync, and the only three extensions I use are for tab management and screenshots.
The only action I took was to switch to Profile 2 from Profile 1. It was immediately after that that I saw all those old bookmarks in Profile 1. So perhaps the issue could be looked into further. Thanks.
NOTES: User wants separate bookmarks for separate profiles. Replier says adding bookmarks to one profile also adds them to the other(s).
COMMENT: Replier just incorrect?
“I have two Brave profiles on my machine. For some reason, they are sharing the same bookmarks. Is there a fix for this? I want each profile to have its own set of bookmarks.”
The first one of those I think is a typo and they meant to say “wouldn’t add it […]”. The second one is from 2021 and does not have enough context to go off of.
I will bring this up to some other devs and see if they have other ideas of what might be going on here, but that is the most I can do at this point without new information or the ability to reproduce the issue.
If this issue occurred the way you describe it then it is a very specific and isolated instance. I’ve been using macOS as my daily driver and to test/reproduce bugs and issues for years now and have never once had this issue occur.
Further illustrating that this is not expected behavior and is not an issue that is widespread or common, I went ahead and recorded myself swapping between some of the dummy profiles I have for testing:
Observe that they all have different bookmarks associated with them and do not inherit one another’s.
@mattches OK, thanks for that. There is also the possibility that the issue isn’t directly related to the profiles themselves since you’ve said that there’s no way bookmarks can be transferred to another profile.
I never had a chance to check what, if any, bookmarks were in Profile 2 when I first switched to it. The first I noticed anything strange was when I clicked on the Bookmarks header at the top of the screen and saw all those old bookmarks having been added to the ones that were already in Profile 1. I assume that occurred when I had switched back to Profile 1. I do know that when I checked Profile 2 after that to see what was there, there were no bookmarks listed. Something pulled all those bookmarks into Profile1, but it may not have occurred because of any interaction between the two profiles.
@289wk I found a Bookmarks file in the ‘Default’ folder and wanted to use the JSON viewer you recommended but it requires a later OS version (12.x) than mine (Catalina, 10.x).
Is there another viewer you can recommend that can be used in Catalina?
@mattches Thanks. I must be doing something wrong. I double-clicked on the “Bookmarks” file to open it, then copied what was displayed (Select all, copy), dropped it into “Online JSON Viewer and Formatter” and switched from ‘Text’ to ‘Viewer’.
You have to click the + sign next to where it says Roots to expand the nodes. Honestly I just tested opening it in the macOS text editor and it displays fine/formatted so you may be able to go that route as well.
Same. Opening on Notepad or whatever, just as plain text, it has a lot of encrypted mumbo jumbo but mixed in would be the same info as was seeing in the other but in easier to see format. Well, kind of easier…it’s a lot of things in there but you will see the URL and other info.
@Saoiray Yeah for some reason I remembered that the last time I tried viewing a bookmarks file this way it came out entirely unformatted but good to see that’s not the case – makes things a bit easier.
PS I see you are (or maybe were) playing some FFVII there!
@Saoiray I’m not understanding these replies as a way to see just a list of bookmarks without all the extraneous text. My goal is to try to locate a bookmarks.html file that seems to correspond to the bookmarks that somehow got into Profile 1.
I know that in the past I’ve opened exported bookmarks files just by dropping them into a browser tab. But I don’t recall the path to the bookmarks in Brave now. Can you post it? (This is in MacOS.)
I’ll just try to find an exported bookmarks file that seem to match the dates of the ‘old’ bookmarks in Profile 1 and then open that and see what’s there, including whether they list in the same way they now appear in Profile 1.
Thanks.
. . . . . .
ADDED:
I’ve found some bookmarks.html files in the Downloads folder, but there are only a few.
I know I’ve exported other bookmarks files than these. Do you know where those ‘export’ files are kept?
To clarify, the Bookmarks file we’re having you look at is a list of the current bookmarks in the browser. A bookmarks.html file, as you seem to realize, is the actual exported. bookmarks file that can be reimported into the browser (or any browser).
The bookmarks.html file exports to wherever you choose for it to go. The default location. is probably downloads but I’m not sure. You can use macOS spotlight search (Cmd + Space bar) to search for “bookmarks.html” on your system.
@Mattches Thanks, do you mean to check whether the bookmarks displayed in the file viewer match those that are already displayed in the Bookmarks dropdown list (i.e., the current bookmarks in the browser)? Wouldn’t those have to be the same?
What I had hoped to see with the viewer was a list of only the bookmarks, without all the extraneous text. Isn’t that what the JSON converter/viewer is supposed to show?
The problem with the file exports is that I wouldn’t have left them as “bookmarks.html” but would have renamed them, at least with references to the dates they were exported, and possibly other differences between them. I’ll look around for other likely (or unlikely) locations where the older ones may be.
@Saoiray Is there a way to see a list of just the bookmarks in the “Bookmarks” file in the “Default” folder – i.e., the names/titles of the bookmarks without any extraneous text?
@mk7z before I dive into a lot, can you just help me confirm here what it is you’re trying to do? The bookmarks file is going to contain all the bookmarks that’s in your profile. So whatever you’re seeing in the browser is all that should be there.
Each browser profile has its own bookmarks file. So looking at each profile would show what bookmarks it has. No deep diving on a device or 3rd party apps/sites would be needed.
If you have some bookmarks file you removed and it’s sitting separate, then you’d just plug it into a new profile to see what would load or basically would use a JSON tool.
