How to Export/Access Synced Browser Data

Question

Does anyone know how to access the synced data for an Edge profile?

I've been trying to find the Microsoft equivalent of Google's https://myactivity.google.com and/or https://takeout.google.com which are tools that you search/export all your data synced to a Google account, including the data stored in Chrome like history/bookmarks/etc.

With Edge browser, you can login with a Microsoft account which enables syncing of data across devices, but I'm trying to find where I can access that data online. So far, I haven't found anything similar to these Google tools on Microsoft's account management site https://account.microsoft.com and although I've heard of Microsoft Graph as a way of accessing MS user data, I can't find anything there related to Edge browser data.

Any advice?

Export options for Chrome browser data synced to a Google account:

Answer 1

Hi evdev

I am Dave, I will help you with this.

Do you find the data you are looking for on this link?

https://account.microsoft.com/account/privacy

This is the information Microsoft provide on this subject:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/vie...

Answer 2

Indeed! I was completely unfamiliar with Microsoft's privacy dashboard which is exactly what I was looking for.

This is definitely the equivalent of Google Takeout tool, https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/download-data 

Thanks again!

Answer 3

Hi evdev, glad to help!

Answer 4

The unfortunate thing is that for whatever reason, the privacy dashboard's archive function (aka export) for "Browse history" seems to either be broken or very incomplete compared to Edge's actual synced history found within the Edge application at edge://history .

From within the Edge apps on my different PCs and even mobile devices, I can see browsing history at edge://history and edge://history/syncedTabs which show records dating back much further than what's contained in the archives from Privacy dashboard.

As well, earlier today I created an archive of "Browse history" and "Apps & Services usage" from the privacy dashboard at https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/download-data and after downloading/unzipping the export I have a BrowsingHistory.csv containing the earliest history record as 4/11/2022, but then the ProductAndServiceUsage.csv file from the same archive/account shows many "Microsoft Edge" app usage records dating back to 12/4/2020 (I believe right around the time Edge rolled out history syncing feature).

Any idea why there would be such a mismatch and lack of records in the Privacy dashboard's Browse history like this? Are there any other ways of accessing/exporting all synced browser data for a given MS account?

Answer 5

Hi evdev

I think that is caused by the fact that Microsoft do not hold your history indefinitely, they only hold that data for a specific period, then it is deleted from your account, unlike Google, their main business is not Internet searches.