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

Question

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.

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

Hello, Peggy McGannon,

Welcome to our Microsoft community.

First we can check if the collections are missing. Open a new page and enter the following:

edge://sync-internals/

If you can see the collections here, it means that the content is not lost and you can try to log in on another device to check.

The collections content in Microsoft Edge is stored locally on the computer. Specifically, they are stored in the %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Favicons folders. These folders can be found by inputting the path in the Windows File Explorer. You can also go to the path as above to see if there are any contents in the folder.

If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

Olivia | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 3

Thank you for your response. I have not been able to repopulate my Collections. The initial interface appears with my Collections listed but when I click on a category there is nothing listed or available. The categories are empty. Please help...I depend on the info I have placed in Collections to complete my work. Thank you

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

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