Okay, did some googling and found some bugs with this guy but none of them offered a suggestion for a fix.

After listening to Brynjolf's scheme and sending the poor guy to jail to "cool off" for a few days, he's still stuck in there, he's even selling items out of his cell... I found a console command to free him but now he's standing at his stall totally unaware of the fact I've already helped him discover his past in another quest.

Is there a way via console commands to fix him? It's annoying as hell talking to him and having him to even acknowledge that his past has been revealed already.

The way to prevent this situation is to fail at that mission and get caught by the guard. Failing also allows you to join the guild. I like Brand-Shei and he's a good merchant.

Maybe using a console and placing him at players location = his shop?

EDIT
Just downloaded a mod that releases him from the prison.

Don't even have to get caught by a guard.

Steal the ring, then drop it and tell brynjolf you lost the ring. He just says, I expected that would happen, welcome to the guild.

This is fixed by the Unofficial Patch I believe which everyone on the PC should be using. It can also be fixed via the console by clicking on Brand-Shei and typing the following:

set TG00BrandSheiJail to 0
evp

Thanks for the tips everyone, going to try 'em out.
I think I have a save before I did the guild, unfortunately I didn't realize this was a problem until after I had finished the entire quest line.

Sadly I'm not fond of failing missions, I'd almost rather have a bugged NPC than a failed quest.
That worked but again, I really dislike failing the mission.
I tried that, I've already freed him from jail on one save so I reloaded an older one to try it just as you suggested.
He's freed from jail but still doesn't acknowledge your involvement in finding the truth about his past.

I don't like failing missions either.

You said you freed him from jail ... how did you free him ?

I used the mod mentioned in post #3. It works great. Brand Shei is out of jail and thanks me no matter where he is in town.

When you use the set TG00BrandSheiJail to 0 command it frees him.
Getting him out of jail isn't the problem now, getting his AI to realize you've already helped him with his past is.
>__<

Well that's more of a quest design / voice over dialogue issue than an outright bug. I agree it would be nice, but for whatever reason there is no acknowledgment for completing this quest in any of the voice over work for the character. Annoying to be sure but that's how things seem to go in this game for a lot of quests, no one notices anything has actually changed.

I think the OP means the dialogue "Thanks for all you've done for me" which Brand-Shei is supposed to say after you complete his personal quest. It's not missing normally, just missing in the OP's game.

My recommendation (which worked for me) is to use the console to release him, but do not force him to leave straight away (by using any evp command). Just release him and wait for his routine to update him to leave, which may take a little time.

Precisely, when you talk to him he still says "I one day hope to find out about my past!" Or whatever he says, he totally disregards the fact that you've already helped him. His dialogue when you stand there next to him thanks you for helping him but his actual NPC dialogue is broken.

Ah I see I didn't get what you meant obviously, sorry about that been some time since I've done this quest. Not sure if there's a solution for you in that case, just one of those odd little glitches that come up in these games. He's bugged in other ways as we've discussed here so it's not that surprising that something like this might happen. Did you try use the setstage or resetquest commands with some of the stages in this quest? Worth a try perhaps.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Distant_Memories

Certainly worth a try thanks~

How come there is not a quest path to pull apart the Thieves Guild? Brynholf is in my game a presumptions dike. I do not want to join the TG, but have a growing number of nonTG quests that require interaction. I need to go through Brynholf to get progress on any and all of these. Just let me pull apart someone and prove myself to get to talk to the Central Players.

I've done plenty of quests that require me to interact with the guild but none that require me to join up.

Wait, so this guy is supposed to get out of jail? I've completed his quest and he's s in prison. I'm even using the unofficial patch. Damn.

He's only meant to spend a week in jail, but the quest is broken. Fixing this by showing up and letting him out after a week is the simplest way to fix him from being bugged. The more you mess with console commanding him, the more headaches may be generated, but if the OP has loaded an old save and released him on schedule (without forcing him to leave), and his other quest is still bugged, then the next thing to try would be setstage FreeFormRiften08 200 or 250 which would complete the quest.

I even opened his prison door and he just stands there.

Did you release him via console?

If he's been in jail for a week, then you can use the console command: set TG00BrandSheiJail to 0
I found it worked for me when I didn't force him to leave the cell, and just waited for his AI to move him out, which will happen 4 times in every 24 hours. You can stand there and make sure he leaves, if you want to know it's fixed before embarking on anything else.