Nowadays, more and more people use the Edge browser for web browsing, but sometimes you may need to log out of your Microsoft account. The question is, when you log out, will you lose the data on your local storage device? This article will answer your questions and tell you how to retain local data before logging out of your Microsoft account.
Main Content#
When we are unable to log in to our account, if we want to log out of the Microsoft account login in Edge, we may need to go to the account's homepage to log out. Otherwise, we can only log out by deleting the user configuration, but this will result in data loss and require re-login on some platforms, which is very inconvenient.
However, there are other methods we can use to retain data and log out.
In Windows Explorer, find your user data folder (usually located here).
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge\User Data
Generally, your data is stored in the Default folder, as shown in the picture:
But sometimes, if you have used other user configurations, your data may be in the Profile+Number folder. You need to choose according to your actual situation.
Note! The following operations may result in data loss. Please backup the relevant data in advance before proceeding!
Once you have found your data folder, you need to close the Edge browser. Note! You need to close it in the Task Manager. Directly closing it is ineffective.
After closing it, you need to back up this folder. Once done, you can proceed with the logout operation.
In your folder, find these files, as shown in the picture:
The following operation may cause you to lose all saved passwords. Please export your passwords in advance in the settings before performing this operation. The tutorial for importing and exporting passwords is provided at the end of the article.
Then delete the Preferences, Login Data-journal, and Login Data files. When you return to the browser, you will find that your data is still there, but your account has been logged out.
After logging in to your Microsoft account, you can import your original passwords. Once this step is completed, congratulations, you have successfully completed the operation of logging out of your Microsoft account while retaining local data!
Data Transfer#
This method also applies to data transfer. You just need to copy and replace the contents of the user folder you want to transfer to the new user folder. Before performing this operation, you need to back up the Preferences, Login Data-journal, and Login Data files in the user folder being replaced. After completing the data transfer, move them back. This way, you have completed the data transfer.
Exporting or Importing Passwords#
First, open Edge://settings/passwords or you can open Settings -> Profiles -> Passwords.
Then, click the three dots on the right side in this place, as shown in the picture:
Select Export passwords. During this step, you may need to verify your identity. Follow the steps to proceed.
Finally, save your passwords to a secure location. When importing passwords later, you can also do it in the same place.