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
    2023-10-14T11:11:06+00:00

    I can open "Collections" just fine...where is the auto sort feature at? It only has manual sort, and I have way to many to do it manually.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-10-14T11:01:28+00:00

    If anyone else runs into this issue, try opening a new tab and then pressing <CTRL><Shift><Y>

    I'm not sure why the "Collections" feature no longer appears in "More Tools", but the above is the keyboard shortcut to get it to appear/disappear. Good luck!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-09-14T19:08:53+00:00

    This whole collection thing has cost me several thousand euro in lost time, they are all gone, and there is no solution, I just use the bookmarking with organised folders

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-14T17:39:01+00:00

    Olivia, my model-type Collection has a Model Loaded State. What does this mean, and how can I get Edge to read the collections file located in

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

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