How to Backup Brave Browser Profile, Settings, Bookmarks, and Session on Linux

Brave stores most browser data inside a user profile directory. If you want to move Brave to another Linux user, rebuild a system, or keep a manual copy of bookmarks and settings, the most important directory to back up is the Brave profile under ~/.config.

This guide shows how to back up and restore Brave Browser profile data on Linux using tar. It focuses on the local profile files that store settings, bookmarks, extensions, session state, and profile metadata.

What Brave Data Should You Backup?

For a normal .deb package install on Ubuntu/Debian, Brave usually stores profile data here:

~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser

Brave cache data is usually here:

~/.cache/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser

The config profile is the important backup. It may include:

• Default/Bookmarks
• Default/Preferences
• Default/Sessions/
• Local State
• profile folders such as Default, Profile 1, Profile 2
• extension settings and browser preferences

The cache directory is optional. It is usually safe to skip cache if you only need settings, bookmarks, and profile state.

Quick Command Summary

1. Check Common Brave Profile Paths

Different install methods use different profile locations. Check the common Linux paths before creating a backup.

for p in "$HOME/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser" \
         "$HOME/snap/brave/current/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser" \
         "$HOME/.var/app/com.brave.Browser/config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser"; do
    if [ -d "$p" ]; then echo "FOUND $p"; fi
done
echo "done"

Tested output on this host:

done

No Brave profile was present on the test host, so the backup and restore commands below were validated against a temporary Brave-style profile tree under /tmp. The same tar commands work with the real ~/.config/BraveSoftware and ~/.cache/BraveSoftware directories when Brave is installed.

2. Make Sure Brave Is Closed

Before copying a live profile, check whether Brave is running.

if pgrep -a "brave|Brave"; then
    echo "Close Brave before backup or restore"
else
    echo "No Brave process found"
fi

Tested output:

No Brave process found

If Brave is running, close it normally from the browser first. Avoid forcing the process to stop unless the browser is hung.

3. Inspect the Brave Profile Directory

A real Brave profile normally contains Default and may also contain Profile 1, Profile 2, or other profile directories.

The tested temporary profile contained these files:

~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Bookmarks
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sessions
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 1/Preferences

And these profile directories:

~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 1

On your system, inspect the real directory with:

find "$HOME/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser" -maxdepth 2 -type d | sort

If your Brave installation uses snap or flatpak, replace the path with the profile path from brave://version.

4. Backup Brave Config Profile with tar

Create a backup directory first:

mkdir -p "$HOME/brave-backups"

Back up the Brave config directory:

tar -C "$HOME/.config" -czpf "$HOME/brave-backups/brave-config-$(date +%F).tar.gz" BraveSoftware

Tested archive listing:

BraveSoftware/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 1/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 1/Preferences
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sessions
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Bookmarks

The options used here are:

• -C "$HOME/.config" changes into the config directory before archiving.
• -c creates an archive.
• -z compresses with gzip.
• -p preserves permissions where possible.
• -f sets the archive file name.

For more archive examples, see the tar command in Linux.

5. Backup Brave Cache Optional

Cache is optional, but you can back it up if you want a fuller local copy.

tar -C "$HOME/.cache" -czpf "$HOME/brave-backups/brave-cache-$(date +%F).tar.gz" BraveSoftware

Tested archive listing:

BraveSoftware/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Cache/
BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Cache/data_0

If the cache archive is very large, you can skip it. Brave can rebuild cache files after restore.

6. Check Backup Files and Create Checksums

After creating the archives, list them:

ls -lh "$HOME/brave-backups"

Tested output:

total 8.0K
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 228 Jun  7 21:17 brave-cache-2026-06-07.tar.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 334 Jun  7 21:17 brave-config-2026-06-07.tar.gz

Create checksums so you can verify the backup after copying it to another disk or system:

sha256sum "$HOME/brave-backups"/*.tar.gz

Tested output:

1c310d418031206b7b07d48638c2cd441a72508b4cd6c2c78a0448ca65782db9  /tmp/brave-backup-demo/backups/brave-cache-2026-06-07.tar.gz
e43886f973fb3e06a6ddcbe7369489d79ddf98d37450183b420b9bfb0eafe32b  /tmp/brave-backup-demo/backups/brave-config-2026-06-07.tar.gz

For larger backups or remote copies, rsync is also useful. See the rsync command examples.

7. Restore Brave Profile from Backup

Close Brave before restoring. Then move the current profile out of the way instead of deleting it.

mv "$HOME/.config/BraveSoftware" "$HOME/.config/BraveSoftware.old.$(date +%F-%H%M%S)"

Extract the config backup:

tar -C "$HOME/.config" -xzpf "$HOME/brave-backups/brave-config-2026-06-07.tar.gz"

If you also backed up cache, restore it separately:

mv "$HOME/.cache/BraveSoftware" "$HOME/.cache/BraveSoftware.old.$(date +%F-%H%M%S)"
tar -C "$HOME/.cache" -xzpf "$HOME/brave-backups/brave-cache-2026-06-07.tar.gz"

Tested restored files:

~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Bookmarks
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sessions
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 1/Preferences

Tested restored file content:

bookmark data

After restoring, start Brave and check bookmarks, settings, extensions, and open tabs.

8. Passwords, Sync, and Keyring Limitations

Copying a Brave profile is not a perfect replacement for Brave Sync or password export. Brave is Chromium-based, and saved passwords are usually encrypted with user-specific or OS keyring data.

That means:

• Bookmarks and settings often restore from a profile backup.
• Session files may restore open tabs, but this is not guaranteed across versions.
• Saved passwords may not work after copying the profile to another user or computer.
• Extensions may need to re-authenticate.
• Some sites may require login again.

For important passwords, use Brave's password export or another password manager before reinstalling the system. For bookmarks, also consider exporting an HTML bookmarks file from Brave's bookmark manager.

9. Backup with rsync Instead of tar Optional

If you prefer a directory copy instead of a compressed archive, use rsync.

rsync -a "$HOME/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/" "$HOME/brave-profile-copy/"

Use a dry run first when testing paths:

rsync -a --dry-run "$HOME/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/" "$HOME/brave-profile-copy/"

In the temporary test, the dry run completed without copying data because the restore destination already matched the source state.

Summary

To back up Brave Browser on Linux, close Brave and archive ~/.config/BraveSoftware. This is the most important directory because it contains the Brave profile, bookmarks, settings, session files, extensions, and profile metadata. The cache under ~/.cache/BraveSoftware is optional.

For restore, move the current BraveSoftware directory aside, extract the backup under the matching config path, and start Brave. Always keep the old profile until you confirm the restored bookmarks, settings, and profiles work as expected.