Accessing inactive tab through `Search tabs` dialog yields empty viewport

Description of the issue:
When I access an inactive tab through the “Search tabs” dialog, the viewport remains empty. Moreover, in this state, none of the keyboard shortcuts, such as F6, Ctrl+R, Ctrl+Tab, are functional, and I have to click on another tab on tab bar with mouse to regain control of the browser or switch to another window and then switch back to trigger the page reload.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Set “Memory saver” to “Maximum”;
  2. Open bunch of tabs;
  3. Wait until some tabs gone inactive;
  4. Open “Search tabs” dialog with Ctrl+Shift+A;
  5. Choose one of the inactive tabs;
  6. Get empty viewport with no keyboard shortcuts working.

Expected result:
The tab should be reloaded just like when it is accessed by clicking on the tab bar.

Brave Version:
Brave 1.79.123 (Official Build) unknown (64-bit)
Chromium: 137.0.7151.104

Additional Information:
Tested with two independent profiles.
Brave installed from FlatHub,
Run on ArchLinux and Debian Bookworm, both with Gnome/Wayland.

Tested in my Ubuntu VM and not seeing this behavior. Going to see if anyone on our Linux team can test on Arch and/or Deb. builds.

Thanks for checking. I am trying to reproduce the issue on a clean Ubuntu VM. I’ll post my findings in few days.

I was able to reproduce this behaviour on a fresh Ubuntu 25.04 VM using the snap version of Brave 1.79.123 installed from App Center.

Here is my screencast:

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Thank you for the recording, very helpful. Taking a look at this with some Linux folks right now and hope to have more information for you soon.

I was able to reproduce the same issue on a Windows 10 VM.
The screen recording:

@akhilman thank you for the information and the recordings. We are able to reproduce this on our end as well. I’ve opened the following issue here:

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Quick update - I was able to reproduce in Chrome and opened an upstream bug with https://issues.chromium.org/issues/429178773

I shared good steps for them - will share updates. They should triage and I’ll have an update then. Thanks!

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