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
    2023-02-26T13:54:19+00:00

    The same has happend to me. over 40 collections lost with 100s of links. The instructions are incomplete with the "new profile" where is the data for the collections located for the new profile?

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-02-26T03:23:54+00:00

    Also, it would have been helpful to tell me to check the 'hidden' box in view so i could try to find the hidden app file

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-02-26T03:12:57+00:00

    I wish this were explained in plain english. I was finally able to right-click the windows box, select run, and input: edge://sync-internals/

    I see that i have 41 collections. The rest of the instructions are not working and make no sense. I don't have another device to sync

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-20T03:35:23+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.

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