All extensions and settings disappear when transferring to another computer

[sun1ight]

All extensions and settings disappear when transferring a USB flash drive to another computer. I tried to log in and create a clean profile without authorization in the browser. The profile folder is stored locally on a USB flash drive.

My software: Windows 10 x64 Pro 2004 build 19041.264 Portable Edge Updater v1.3.5.0 Edge Portable 83.0.478.37 x64 Stable

[UndertakerBen]

This is by design from Google Chrome. All Chromium-based browsers lose the extensions when you switch to another computer. In this case it is unfortunately better to synchronize the profile via a Microsoft account. Sorry!

[sun1ight]

Opera portable chromium based has this functionality https://www.opera.com/en/computer/portable

[tomomargilaj]

All extensions and settings disappear when transferring a USB flash drive to another computer. I tried to log in and create a clean profile without authorization in the browser. The profile folder is stored locally on a USB flash drive.

My software: Windows 10 x64 Pro 2004 build 19041.264 Portable Edge Updater v1.3.5.0 Edge Portable 83.0.478.37 x64 Stable

Hello , try to zip or rar that folder wich is your user data from edge , i tested and moved to another machine and works with that method , just use a winrar software and make it .RAR , after move to another machine ,just extract it and check it.

[chaoscreater]

I think Chromium based browsers will "encrypt" the data (extensions, etc) based on the hardware ID of your machine. If you move your portable folder to another machine, then the hardware ID has a mismatch and therefore the extensions won't load.

I've tried taking the portable folder and just archived it using Winrar and tried moving to another machine, but can't access the extensions etc. It's the same with Chrome portable as well.

[DemGiran]

I think Chromium based browsers will "encrypt" the data (extensions, etc) based on the hardware ID of your machine. If you move your portable folder to another machine, then the hardware ID has a mismatch and therefore the extensions won't load.

I've tried taking the portable folder and just archived it using Winrar and tried moving to another machine, but can't access the extensions etc. It's the same with Chrome portable as well.

do the settings for the extensions presists if you reinstall them at least

[chaoscreater]

I think Chromium based browsers will "encrypt" the data (extensions, etc) based on the hardware ID of your machine. If you move your portable folder to another machine, then the hardware ID has a mismatch and therefore the extensions won't load. I've tried taking the portable folder and just archived it using Winrar and tried moving to another machine, but can't access the extensions etc. It's the same with Chrome portable as well.

do the settings for the extensions presists if you reinstall them at least

No, they don't. Because the data can't be read anymore.

In Chromium based browsers (Vivaldi, Edge, Chrome), you can create profiles and switch between the profiles. If you have e.g. 100 extensions installed in Profile1, then you can take the contents of Profile1 and copy into Profile2, like this:

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge Dev\User Data\Profile 1
copy to
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Edge Dev\User Data\Profile 2

and it'll work. Your extensions and their settings will remain the same. Everything under the "User Data" folder can be copied to the other profile as well, such as bookmarks, sessions, etc. I have 5 different profiles that I have cloned using this method.

Notice that in my path above, I'm using Edge Developer. You can do this trick with Edge stable or Edge Canary, they all work using the same method and this means you don't have to waste time setting up your new profile with all your extensions and settings re-configured from scratch. You can even move extensions and certain files like bookmarks between Chromium browsers, like Edge and Chrome.

However, all of the above requires this to be done on the same machine. They all work on the same machine because the hardware ID doesn't change. If you try to move your data from machine A to machine B, it won't work. Certain files like bookmarks will work, but not extensions.

Firefox does not have this problem though, because it doesn't use the encryption method like Chromium browsers do.

The other solution is to take an image backup of your machine and restore it onto your new machine. I have done this many times and this means you retain everything installed in your OS, including your Chromium browsers. Even if you're using a portable version, the hardware ID is tattoed somewhere into the registry and so restoring from image backup guarantees that it'll be useable.