Since last night my Brave Browser freezes on startup. It is unresponsive. When I run “top,” I see a bunch of “brave” processes with high CPU usage. I am using version 109.1.47.186.
I moved my browser directory under .config elsewhere and started out with a clean setup, bu the problem persists.
Strangely, when I try to run Chrome, I get identical behavior. It also starts but freezes right away.
I also installed Chromium from snap. I then copied the entire Brave Browser setup directory from config under the relevant snap config directory for chromium. Chromium picked up my bookmarks but NOT my PASSWORDS–I guess due to different encryption passwords used.
I especially need my saved passwords from Brave. I’d love to know how I can restore those from Brave, possibly via the command line on Linux, since Brave fails to work at the moment.
Hello @hsevay, thank you for reaching us out. Have you tried deleting cookies and cache? Can you try disabling the following: You’ll find this in Settings --> Additional Settings --> System --> Hardware Acceleration Hope this helps. Regards.
Unfortunately, I cannot even get to the menus, since Brave (or Chrome) strangely freeze on startup. Sure, I can click on the top right main menu, but I cannot go any further than that. Just no response at all while CPU is being hogged by Brave (or Chrome, whichever I try to run).
Since I tried starting Brave (or Chrome) with a clean slate, I should have no issues with cookies or cache, because there are no cookies or cache data stored on the very first clean slate startup of either Brave or Chrome.
Incidentally, I tried to copy over the config data from Brave to Chrome, thinking they are compatible. Then I realilzed Chrome also hangs on startup. I’ve got a bunch of “brave” processes on GNU/Linux hogging the CPU. I have no idea what those processes are.
They could not be about previous sessions being restored, as I started with a clean slate by moving the BraveBrowser config directory elsewhere. So Brave created a totally clean config.
So I don’t know what those processes are … I am able to run the Task Manager, which shows me: a bunch of “Utility: Unzip Service” processes that take up a bunch of CPU!!!
Then there is a “Spare Renderer” process within Brave that takes quite a bit of CPU.
The “Browser,” “GPU Process,” and “Utilit:y: Network Service” take up some memory but only a little CPU. The “Utility: Unzip Service” processes have no memory footprint but take up bunch of CPU.
We’ve got to discover why Brave automatically runs these “Unzip Service” processes and “Spare Renderer.” There must be some general configuration that has changed, but I cannot tell what it is.
BTW, I installed the latest Flatpak version of Brave, transferred my entire Brave configuration directory content to that version’s directory under .var, and it seems everything is back to normal. However, I still wonder what happened to my other installation of both Brave and Chrome.
Even if I tried to end those CPU hogging processes, nothing would change.
Hello again @hsevay, thank you for letting us know on how you resolved the issue. In case it persists do not hesitate and reach us out so we can suggests more settings and further investigate this. Best Regards.
I always install the official Release Channel via terminal and it always works All I do is copy and paste each command – run each command individually.
