Free Edge Collections Exporter: Get Your Collections Out

How to Export Edge Collections to Bookmarks, CSV or Markdown

1. Close Microsoft Edge completely

   Quit every Edge window. On Windows, also check the system tray and Task Manager for msedge.exe, because Startup boost and background apps keep Edge running after you close it.

2. Open your profile’s Collections folder

   On Windows, paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\Collections into the File Explorer address bar. On a Mac, use Finder’s Go to Folder with ~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft Edge/Default/Collections.

3. Copy the collectionsSQLite file

   Copy the file named collectionsSQLite (it has no extension) to your Desktop. Work on the copy, never the original.

4. Drop the copy on this page

   Drag it into the box above or click to choose it. The tool opens the database in your browser and lists every collection with its links, notes and the date each item was saved.

5. Download the format you need

   Choose Bookmarks file to import into any browser as one folder per collection, CSV for a spreadsheet, Markdown for notes apps, or JSON for a full copy. Or open one collection as tabs, a batch at a time.

Where Is the Edge Collections File Stored?

Every Edge profile keeps its Collections in a small SQLite database called collectionsSQLite, inside a folder named Collections in the profile folder. The file has no extension. The main profile folder is called Default. If you used more than one Edge profile, look in Profile 1, Profile 2 and so on, next to Default. Each has its own Collections folder.

Preview channels (Beta, Dev, Canary) keep a separate profile folder, so check those too if you ever used them. Collections synced between devices when you were signed in, so another computer where you used Edge may hold a copy as well.

You may see other files next to collectionsSQLite, such as collectionsSQLite-wal or collectionsSQLite-journal. Those are temporary files SQLite uses while Edge is running. The one you need is collectionsSQLite itself.

How Do I Copy the File When Edge Has It Locked?

A running browser holds its database files open, and Windows may refuse to copy a file that is in use, or give you a copy that is missing the most recent changes. The fix is to make sure Edge is not running at all before you copy.

Closing the last window is often not enough. Edge has a Startup boost setting and an option to keep background extensions and apps running after it closes. Both are under edge://settings/system. Turn them off, close Edge, then open Task Manager and end any Microsoft Edge processes that are still listed. On a Mac, press Command-Q in Edge, or right-click its Dock icon and choose Quit.

• Copy the whole Collections folder rather than one file if you want a backup. It is usually small.
• If a collectionsSQLite-wal file is still there after Edge is fully closed, some recent changes may live in it. Open Edge once and quit it properly, then copy again, so SQLite writes those changes into the main file.
• Don’t rename, move or delete the original. Keep it where it is in case you need it again.
• On a work computer, the folder may be managed by your organisation. Ask IT if you can’t read it.

What Happens to Your Data in This Tool

The file never leaves your computer. When you drop collectionsSQLite on the page, your browser reads its bytes into memory and opens them with sql.js, a version of SQLite compiled to WebAssembly. The SQLite engine itself (about 650 KB) is loaded from belaytab.com the first time you use the tool. Nothing about your file, your collections or your links is sent anywhere, and nothing is stored after you close the tab.

The tool reads only what it needs: the title and position of each collection, and each item’s title, type, saved address, note text and creation date. It doesn’t read the stored preview images, which keeps large files fast. It never writes to the file, so even if you drop the original by mistake, nothing changes.

Microsoft never published the Collections database format, so the tool doesn’t assume one. It lists the tables and columns in your file, then looks for the ones it knows: collections, items and collections_items_relationship. It reads the page address from the JSON stored in the items.source column, and falls back to other names it has seen, such as a url column. Dates are recognised whether they are stored in milliseconds, seconds or Chromium’s own format. Items that Edge marked for deletion but hadn’t yet removed are hidden by default. You can show them with one checkbox.

What Were Edge Collections, and Why Are They Gone?

Collections was a panel in Microsoft Edge for gathering pages, notes and images around a topic, such as a trip, a purchase or a research project. You could add the current page, all open tabs, text notes and images, reorder them, and sync them across devices when signed in. It arrived in Edge previews in 2019 and sat behind the Collections button on the toolbar or Ctrl+Shift+Y.

Microsoft has now retired it. According to Microsoft’s support page, Edge 145 stopped letting you add new pages to Collections, and from Edge 149, released on 4 June 2026, Collections is no longer available. The page offers two routes out. Move to Favorites turns each collection into a Favorites folder in one click, but only saved web pages move. Images, notes and other non-page items are not included. Send to Excel exports a collection from its More options menu.

Not everyone gets both routes. Answers on Microsoft Q&A report that the one-click move and the export were offered to work or school accounts, while people signed in with a personal Microsoft account were pointed to Bing Saves at bing.com/saves instead. Bing Saves shows synced collections but has no export. If your notes never synced, or you never signed in, Bing has nothing for you at all.

The part that makes recovery possible: removing the feature did not delete the database. Reports from people who updated to Edge 149 describe the collectionsSQLite file still sitting in the profile folder, with collections, links and notes intact, but no app left to open it. That is the file this tool reads. Get your data out soon, though. There is no promise that a future Edge update, a profile reset or a clean-up tool won’t remove it.

Can You Still Export Edge Collections Inside Edge?

Only if your Edge still shows Collections, and even then the built-in options leave things out. Here is what each one did, and what it keeps.

Copy all and Open all lived in the collection’s Sharing and more menu, as described on the Microsoft Edge blog when they launched. Once Edge 149 removed the Collections panel, those menus went with it, which is why the file is now the only complete source.

Examples: What People Recover From collectionsSQLite

Most people come here with one of a few situations. Here is what the export looks like for each.

• A research project with 40 sources and notes: the Markdown export gives a heading for the collection, a linked list of sources with the date each was saved, and every note as a quoted block under it. Paste it into Obsidian, Notion or a Word document.
• Shopping and trip planning spread over ten small collections: the Bookmarks file creates an Edge Collections folder with ten subfolders. Import it into Edge, Chrome or Firefox and each collection is back as a folder you can open in one click.
• Moving to another browser: the same bookmarks file imports into Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Safari, Opera or Vivaldi, so your Collections become normal bookmarks there.
• Auditing what you saved over the years: the CSV has one row per item with the collection name, type, title, URL, note and date, so you can sort by date, filter out dead sites and delete what you no longer need.
• You updated to Edge 149 and Collections vanished: nothing in Edge opens them now, but the file is usually still there. Copy it, drop it here, and check the counts at the top match what you remember.
• A personal account with notes that Move to Favorites didn’t carry over: notes are stored as text in the database, so they come back in the CSV, Markdown and JSON exports.

How to Import the Export Into Your Browser

The Bookmarks file uses the Netscape bookmark format that every major browser imports. It creates one top folder, Edge Collections, with a subfolder for each collection that has at least one link. Standalone notes can’t be bookmarks, so use the Markdown, CSV or JSON export to keep those.

What Can Replace Edge Collections?

No single feature replaces everything Collections did, so pick based on what you used it for.

• Edge Favorites: folders of links, synced when signed in. The closest match for plain lists of pages, and the target of Microsoft’s own migration. No notes or images.
• OneNote or another notes app: best if your collections were mostly notes and clippings. Paste the Markdown export or use a web clipper.
• Edge Workspaces: still in Edge, and good for keeping a set of tabs for one project. Microsoft removed shared, collaborative workspaces in early 2026, so treat them as personal.
• Bing Saves: where personal accounts’ synced collections ended up. Fine for viewing, but it has no export, so it isn’t a safe long-term home.
• A read-later app or bookmark manager such as Raindrop.io: good for tagged, searchable links across browsers. Most import the HTML bookmarks file.
• A tab or session manager such as BelayTab: if you used Collections to park a whole set of open tabs for later, a session manager saves the window as a named session you can restore in one click. It saves tabs, not notes or images.

Limits and Troubleshooting

The tool can only show what is in the file you drop. If a collection is missing, it was probably created on another device and never synced to this profile, or it lives in a different profile folder.

• “This isn’t a SQLite database file”: you picked a different file, or a -wal or -journal file. Choose the file named exactly collectionsSQLite.
• “This SQLite file has no Collections tables”: you dropped another Edge database, such as History or Favicons. They live one folder up, so go back into Collections.
• “The database is locked or damaged”: Edge was still running when you copied it, or the copy was interrupted. Close Edge fully and copy again.
• Zero collections found: the profile never had any, or they were all marked for deletion. Tick Show deleted items to check.
• Pages open one at a time, or not at all: your browser is blocking pop-ups. Allow pop-ups for belaytab.com, then press Open again.
• Images are missing: images are stored as binary data or links to Microsoft’s servers, and the tool doesn’t rebuild them. Their titles still appear as items.
• Very large files: files of 50 MB or more open fine on a desktop, but take a few seconds. The list shows the first 600 items; every export includes all of them.

Microsoft never documented this file format. The tool handles the layouts people have found in real files, and tells you which tables it used. If your file uses an older or newer layout it can’t read, the message says so, and you can still open it in DB Browser for SQLite.