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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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

Was this answer helpful?

8 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

74 additional answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-06-26T06:17:42+00:00

    " "We are updating your collections, please wait" ... and there they were, but a lot of them disappeared "

    This just happened to me. Got a new computer, open Edge, then clicked on collections...it then seemd to have download and took several minutes. Next thing I know, half of my collections are gone! It seemed it deleted just about everything I had saved from the last X weeks.

    This is terrible. I'm sticking to Chrome.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-01T14:56:53+00:00

    MS Edge's 'Collections button' option (in Settings > Appearance > Customize toolbar) is no longer functional; that is, the Collections icon no longer appears on the toolbar when that button is enabled.

    The sync-internals table reports 117 total and live entries. But there is no Favicons subfolder displayed by File Explorer.

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

    Running Windows 11 Home Version 22H2 (OS Build 22621.1848)

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  4. 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!

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments