Attempt to Remove and Reinstall Brave

In a previously UNRESOLVED problem that I posted some time ago, I was unable to post comments on YouTube. (When I originally downloaded Brave, I was able to comment but it just stopped one day.) No one here has been able to help. I’ve tried every recommended solution to no avail.

Now I have another problem AND CONCERN: In a last ditch effort to not have to permanently uninstall Brave, I tried removing it from my computer completely so I could try a fresh install and see if that fixed the issue. It did not but what concerns me is that, when I re-installed Brave again, it was as if I had never uninstalled it to begin with! All of my same stats, bookmarks, and extensions reappeared without having to redo them.

Why?! I chose Brave because it’s supposed to protect my information, not keep it! Whenever I’ve had to uninstall a browser in the past (Safari, Firefox, etc.,) I always got a fresh install, void of all of my information, preferences, and settings. Why didn’t it happen with Brave?

And, for the record, it did NOT help my other YouTube commenting problem.

As much as I appreciate people’s willingness to help me, if my problem is unsolvable, I would also appreciate knowing that so I can drop Brave and go back to my previous browser. I’d rather be told than left hanging.

What I have noticed when you uninstall Brave from your computer, for some reason Brave does not seem to delete all their data. Every time I uninstall anything from my computer I double check to make sure all leftovers are gone from what I’m uninstalling. But Brave always leaves their folder usually with about 500 MB of data on the user’s folder under C://Users/[username]/AppData/Local, you will always see a folder left there from Brave undeleted when you uninstall Brave, I always delete that folder when I uninstall Brave, which users shouldn’t have to and Brave needs to do when uninstalling, it’s the only browser that does that, that I have noticed. Guessing after you uninstalled Brave, that folder was left intact, so when you reinstalled again all your data was still there. Hope this helps answer your question.

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oh I just noticed this is for MacOS, I’m not sure if it does the same thing for your Mac, but this is what I have noticed from my Windows PC, but I’m guessing it’s probably doing the same thing there by what you described.

Thanks, JKTorres28. I know what you’re talking about because, whenever I uninstall anything, I go through search for any of those hidden files left behind so I can remove them. I didn’t find anything. Nothing that had “Brave” in the title that is.

I may try uninstalling Brave again and see because this is really bothering me. To be honest, for as long as I’ve been having the same unresolved issue, Brave is becoming more of a frustration to me than anything. If I uninstall it permanently, I want to know that it’s completely uninstalled.

MacOS has a lot of little hidden stuff. I have found hidden stuff under the library folder, user folders and etc folder. This is especially the case when you use applications that can run as services/daemons. I recommend using Terminal to search for folders (I think ‘locate’ is the command, I can’t quite remember as I haven’t done it in quite some time) relating to Brave, you will likely find the remaining components and can strip them. This is an issue I’ve had with Steam and ConnectWise Automate on my Macbook in the past.

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@JackParker,
To uninstall Brave fully on macOS:

  1. Open Finder, navigate to ~/Library⁩/Application Support⁩ /BraveSoftware⁩ and delete the Brave-Browser folder found here.
  2. Navigate to Applications and move Brave to the Trash
  3. Trash/remove all icons in dock
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Thank you, everyone. I will try this later today. I really hope it works and corrects my commenting issue on YouTube. Like I said, I was able to comment when I first downloaded Brave. Then it just stopped working one day and hasn’t worked since.

Here’s hoping…

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