Where apps hide your files

Finding Opera's profile folder

Updated 2026-10-28 · 5 min read

Opera stores your bookmarks, settings and saved logins in one hidden Library folder. Here is how to confirm the exact path on your Mac, what each file is, and how to back up bookmarks without risking your profile.

The profile folder

~/Library/Application Support/com.operasoftware.Opera

That is the data folder for standard Opera on a Mac. Opera's forum moderators give this path, and Homebrew's uninstall list for Opera removes exactly this folder. Opera's help says the exact paths for your profile and data folders appear on Opera's about page, so confirm yours there:

1. In Opera, type opera:about in the address bar and press Return, or open About Opera from the menu.
2. Read the profile path listed on that page. That is the folder in use on your Mac.

Opera is built on Chromium, but unlike Chrome it normally keeps the main profile's files directly in this folder, with no Default subfolder. Treat the about page as the final word, because it reflects how your copy was set up.

Opera was not installed on the Mac used for this guide, so the layout below comes from Opera's help pages. The folder itself did exist there, holding only a NativeMessagingHosts folder left by other software. A folder with that name does not prove Opera has a profile on your Mac, so look for the files below inside it.

Open it

The Library folder is hidden in Finder. Choose Go > Go to Folder (or press ⇧⌘G), paste the path and press Return. From Terminal:

open ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.operasoftware.Opera

One profile, or several

Chrome splits each user into a numbered profile folder. Opera's main profile is the folder above. Extra profiles you add are, according to answers on Opera's own forum, kept in a _side_profiles folder inside the main profile, one subfolder per profile, named by an ID rather than the profile's name. Opera's help does not document this, so use opera:about in a window of the profile you care about to see its exact path.

The files worth knowing

Opera's help lists these among the files to back up:

File or folder	What Opera's help says it holds
Bookmarks	Your bookmarks' metadata, such as name and location
BookmarksExtras	Thumbnail images for your bookmarks
Login Data	Saved passwords, encrypted and readable only on the machine that created them
Preferences	Your browsing preferences and profile information
History	Your browsing history
Current Session	Open tabs and other data about the current session
Cookies	Your cookies; delete them and you sign out of sites
Extensions	Installed extensions, in folders named by a long ID

The browser cache is not in this folder. Chromium browsers on a Mac keep it under ~/Library/Caches, and Homebrew's uninstall list for Opera names ~/Library/Caches/com.operasoftware.Opera.

Do not open Login Data or Preferences in a text editor to look around, and do not share them: even encrypted, they are your account's data.

Backing up your bookmarks

Opera's own export is the portable route. Open the bookmarks manager, click the import/export button at the bottom of the left panel and choose export, which saves an HTML file you can import into any browser.

For a raw safety copy before an update or reinstall, Opera's help lists Bookmarks and BookmarksExtras as the bookmark files to back up. Quit Opera, then copy those two files to a folder of your own. Quit Opera again before you put them back.

Moving to a new Mac

Do not copy the whole profile folder and expect passwords to travel. Login Data is readable only on the Mac that created it, so copied passwords will not open. Opera's sync carries bookmarks, Speed Dial entries, history, passwords, settings and open tabs through your Opera account, so signing in on the new Mac is the easy route. Without sync, export bookmarks to HTML and import them.

Opera GX and other editions

Each Opera edition uses its own folder, all under ~/Library/Application Support. These names come from Homebrew's uninstall lists:

Edition	Folder
Opera GX	com.operasoftware.OperaGX
Opera beta	com.operasoftware.OperaNext
Opera developer	com.operasoftware.OperaDeveloper
Opera Air	com.operasoftware.OperaAir

The about page in each browser shows the one it uses.

Reclaiming space

Check what is big with read-only commands:

du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.operasoftware.Opera/* | sort -h | tail
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/com.operasoftware.Opera

The cache is the part that is safe to lose, and Opera rebuilds it. The tidy way to empty it is Opera's own Clear browsing data, which can clear cached files without touching bookmarks. Moving the whole profile folder to the Trash resets Opera to a fresh install and discards local settings, so do that only when you mean it, with Opera quit and your bookmarks exported first.

Why searching misses it

The folder is inside ~/Library, and Spotlight and Finder searches leave that out. The Bookmarks file also has no extension, so a search for .json or "bookmarks" in a normal Finder window finds nothing useful.

Finding Opera's files again

Typing com.operasoftware in Everywhere finds the folder at once, and typing Bookmarks lists the bookmark files of every Chromium browser on the Mac, so you can tell which belongs to Opera by its path. It matches file names, not the bookmarks inside. The Application Support folder is part of the scan without any special permission. ⌘↵ shows the file in Finder.

Common questions

Where is the Opera profile folder on a Mac?

Usually ~/Library/Application Support/com.operasoftware.Opera. Open opera:about in Opera and read the profile path to confirm your exact folder.

Where does Opera store bookmarks on a Mac?

In a file named Bookmarks in the profile folder, with thumbnails in BookmarksExtras. For a portable backup, use the import/export button in Opera's bookmarks manager to export an HTML file.

Can I copy Opera's saved passwords to another Mac by copying Login Data?

No. Opera's help says the passwords are encrypted and readable only on the machine that created them, so use Opera sync instead.

Is it safe to delete the Opera data folder?

It resets Opera to a fresh state and removes local settings, bookmarks and history. Quit Opera, export your bookmarks first, and move the folder to the Trash rather than deleting it outright.