Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave]
"UserDataDir"="D:\\CustomAppData\\BraveSoftware\\Brave-Browser\\User Data"
"BraveRewardsDisabled"=dword:00000001
"BraveWalletDisabled"=dword:00000001
"BraveVPNDisabled"=dword:00000001
I moved my original User Data dir from %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser to the new directory.
If I start Brave now it creates a new directory under %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data with a new profile etc.
When I open brave://policy it even shows the registry keys I set AND the disabling of Rewards, Wallets and VPN works as well. Only the User Data change doesn't work at all.
For fun I just tried replacing the double backslashes \\ with single slashes / but Brave simply ignores any change, I can also add an invalid directory, it simply does not work.
The directory path is completely valid, I can open the dir just fine.
I tested this with Google Chrome and it works fine there.
Just for fun I also tried setting it in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave, which is also recognized but still the UserDataDir is ignored.
And I also tried setting the UserDataDir in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium to see if it still affected Brave, but it doesn't.
Steps to reproduce
Remove %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data or rename it
Import the registry example, make sure to change UserDataDir to a valid path
Start Brave
See that Rewards, Wallet and VPN features are disabled, but the %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data is re-created and the new directory from the reg file is not used
Check brave://policy to see that all policies are recognized by Brave
Actual result
UserDataDir policy is ignored, also visible in brave://version
Description
I tried changing the UserDataDir using Policies documented here: https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039248271-Group-Policy
This is my example reg:
I moved my original User Data dir from
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser
to the new directory.If I start Brave now it creates a new directory under
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data
with a new profile etc.When I open
brave://policy
it even shows the registry keys I set AND the disabling of Rewards, Wallets and VPN works as well. Only the User Data change doesn't work at all.For fun I just tried replacing the double backslashes
\\
with single slashes/
but Brave simply ignores any change, I can also add an invalid directory, it simply does not work.The directory path is completely valid, I can open the dir just fine.
I tested this with Google Chrome and it works fine there. Just for fun I also tried setting it in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave
, which is also recognized but still the UserDataDir is ignored. And I also tried setting the UserDataDir inHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Chromium
to see if it still affected Brave, but it doesn't.Steps to reproduce
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data
or rename it%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data
is re-created and the new directory from the reg file is not usedActual result
UserDataDir policy is ignored, also visible in
brave://version
Expected result
UserDataDir policy is not ignored
Reproduces how often
Easily reproduced
Brave version (brave://version info)
Channel information
Reproducibility
Miscellaneous information
No response