Microsoft is killing off an Edge feature, and users may lose their data

Microsoft recently announced that it is finally retiring Microsoft Lens, and that users should migrate to OneDrive. People in online spheres generally didn't seem too happy with this news, and now, the Redmond tech giant seems to have its eyes set on axing another feature that may be used by many customers. Collections in Microsoft Edge are next on the chopping block.

Windows Report has noticed a warning for Edge customers leveraging the Dev Channel which reads: "Collections is being retired. You will no longer be able to add new items to Collections. To keep your saved content, you can export it, or move all pages to your Favorites before removal."

This essentially means that Edge users only have two options. If they click on Move to Favorites, Edge will automatically create a new CollectionsExport folder in Favorites, but the drawback is that only web pages are relocated here, not images and notes. The other option is to export, which does exactly what it says on the tin and sends the data in an offline CSV format to your PC.

For those unaware, Collections in Microsoft Edge were launched back in 2020, and they have been updated with new capabilities several times over the past few years. Collections are very similar to Favorites, but different in other ways. They enable users to save web pages, notes, and images in Edge, which can be useful when planning trips or making shopping lists. These collections can be accessed from the omnibar on desktop, and they can be synced across devices where Edge is installed with the same Microsoft Account logged in.

It is important to note that Microsoft has not publicly announced the discontinuation of Collections in Edge, and the documentation hasn't been updated to reflect this change in strategy either. We could not reproduce this change in our Edge Dev copy, but the report does seem legitimate because there have been hints in the past about this deprecation too, as spotted by Windows Central. The retirement of Collections in Edge will likely infuriate customers who use them heavily, especially since no proper alternative is in place.