My collections have disappeared, how do I recover them? Where is the "Get Started" button for Collections?

Anonymous
2023-02-12T17:25:24+00:00

I turned my computer on today, accessed Edge, went to Collections, and discovered that none of my saved items under Collections headings are available, they have disappeared. Previous Help articles say to click on the "Get Started" button -- I do not see the button. Where is the "Get Started" button on the Collections sidebar. Please help, I have important items in Collections which I need to access today. Thank you.

Microsoft Edge | Favorites, history, and downloads | Windows 11

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Anonymous
2023-04-04T19:47:10+00:00

Here's what I did:

-I browsed to: edge://sync-internals/

-Located "collections" at the bottom and saw my number of collections at 128.

-I clicked the three dots and created a new profile in edge browser and it generated as "profile2" (yours may different, like profile3)

-Went to C:\users\*****\AppData\Local\microsoft\edge\userdata\default\ in File Explorer

-Closed the browser

-Copied the "Collections" folder within that default folder

-Pasted the "Collections" folder into "profile2" of "userdata" (C:\users\*****\AppData\Local\microsoft\edge\userdata)

-Opened the Edge browser

-I clicked the three dots again and opened my original profile and clicked the settings wheel and selected "sign out" on the next page that came up.

-I checked "clear favorites, history, passwords..... from this device". Finished the prompt and signed out.

-This is the most important step: I went back to the home page of the browser in my newly created profile "profile2", clicked the three dots again and signed in with my original profile's credentials (email and password) while in "profile2".
-The browser did a full sync (took a minute) and kept the pasted collections from "profile2" which then all magically became my new original profile.

My collections are now synced across all of my devices, I've confirmed.

I've also saved the original "Collections" folder in safe place in case this happens ever again.

Daniel Stewart

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-08-14T09:31:03+00:00

    Thank you for your detailed description. From your description, you can see these collections lists, but nothing is listed when you click on a category. We can test if these can be opened in the new Profil.

    We can try to create a new Profil for Edge, then copy the files under the following path to another Profil, and check whether the collections can be viewed normally in the new Profil.

    %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Collections

    Note: The second step should be done with Edge turned off, because if Edge is on, it will synchronize the collections.

    Thanks for your close cooperation. Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Hello,

    I've reached a point where I can only view my collections at Bing. I checked the sync/Internals report and my collections are still listed there.

    I had 2 user accounts on this Edge browser and am still using Windows 7, but preparing to upgrade to windows 10, and I stored the info i needed to properly upgrade to Windows 10 under Collections rather than bookmarks for easy access. The items that i had placed in Collections regarding the Windows 10 upgrade info are NOT in the collections available at Bing.

    I'm currently trying to go back and delete all profiles under Edge and start over with only 1 profile in order to salvage what is left of my Collections.

    I checked according to instructions under the paths indicated above:

    %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Favicons

    %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Collections

    This is NO FOLDER named "Default" for me to get to Favicons or Collections though. Any suggestions?

    Also, I would like you to ellaborate on this Note.... Edge is turned off ---- where, exactly?

    Note: The second step should be done with Edge turned off, because if Edge is on, it will synchronize the collections.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-05T08:13:39+00:00

    I totally agree. It messed up everything, and I lost most valuable information.
    I started using Edge after years of using Chrome, but that "joy" lasted only 2 years or something.
    I'm back into Chrome, I organised the bookmarks. The "collections" was a very nice thing, until it wasn't anymore.

    We get indeed insane suggestions, as a professional, those are completely unacceptable, unreliable, and even costly.

    Result: Never ever will I turn back to Edge. Never ever will I use Bing. People who don't know better, are victimized here, because they have no voice and get the message 'live with it'. Very sad thing...

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-05T02:16:21+00:00

    I have lost several collection items between devices and cannot put them in order. This is a monumental "mess-up" on the part of Microsoft without any notice. it looks like similar files on two computers have been merged and have wiped out some of the files on the computer where there were more. They never synced properly. I am so disappointed in MS, and it seems that just when we began to rely on this feature as they encouraged us to do - across devices, they messed us up. It is very infuriating and damages any trust or reliance on this company. A lot of work in a research effort was put into Collections, and now we get these inane "suggestions". This is not Pinterest. If you want to create a Pinterest alternative, do it some other way. The lack of sort capability has made the Collections tool almost USELESS!!!! Fire whoever it was that messed with this feature and created a lot of enemies!

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-06-25T14:32:06+00:00

    I tried searching my old edge collections by entering: %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Favicons

    However, the system throws a prompt asking the appropriate app to open - notepad, word, etc.

    Kindly assist.

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