Brave Browser not opening on Mac

Hey,

My Brave isn’t opening on my Mac. I click the application and it is just bouncing at the bottom / Application Not Responding.

I have uninstalled and re-installed with no luck.

Can anyone please help?

Thanks

Please edit your Original Post (“OP”) above, to include:

  • Brave Browser version numbers
  • Operating System version numbers

Versions of Brave Browser stable releases:

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/blob/master/CHANGELOG_DESKTOP.md

Try the latest version - click on the number, and the page will redirect to

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/tag/v1.75.180

Scroll down to and click on:

Screen Shot 2025-02-18 at 7.33.44 AM

BEFORE you run the installer, delete the following 3 items:

The BraveSofware folder at:

  • /Users/username/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware/

The com.brave.Browser folder at:

  • /Users/username/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/

The com.brave.Browser.savedState folder at:

  • /Users/username/Library/Saved Application State/com.brave.Browser.savedState/

Exit / Quit BB. And I would restart your Mac. Then try the installer.


Where Brave Browser has usually been installed on the Mac:

/Applications/Brave Browser.app

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Brave Browser ... .plist

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/

/Users/username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Brave Browser ... .crash

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.brave.Browser.plist

/Users/username/Library/Saved Application State/com.brave.Browser.savedState/

And the “Brave Browser … .diag” reports within:

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

You might not find:

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware

. . . do not worry about that.


Anytime you want to start up and run Brave Browser (for MacOS) without burdens, use the following command in the MacOS Terminal.app window:

  • open -a "Brave Browser.app" -n --args --incognito --no-experiments --disable-extensions --disable-gpu --enable-leak-detection --crash-on-failure 2> $HOME/Desktop/brave_console_out.txt

For that command string, the switches are intended to:

  • Start up Brave Browser, showing a New Private Window [--incognito]
  • Disable all experiments at brave://flags [--no-experiments]
  • Disable extensions [--disable-extensions]
  • Disable hardware (GPU) ie Graphic Acceleration [--disable-gpu]
  • Enable leak detection and if that failure occurs, then crash the browser [--enable-leak-detection --crash-on-failure are a combo]
  • Produce error/log output to a file named ‘brave_console_out.txt’ on the MacOS Desktop

PS. You might have an anti-virus application or extension that is the source of the problem.

And take a look at:

https://www.lifewire.com/can-i-fix-application-thats-not-starting-2260192