Brave Browser not opening with Windows 10 - 2021

Support and Troubleshooting Desktop Support
#1

Description of the issue:
Brave Browser was, up until about 12 hours ago, functioning with no problems. When I restarted my computer this evening, the browser no longer opens up at all. It appears in the Windows 10 task manager and creates three instances of itself, then almost immediately disappears.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling latest download from Brave itself, as well as disabling the GPU with no effect.

How can this issue be reproduced?

Unknown as this was a completely random occurrence.

Expected result:
Browser should open up and show my previous tabs.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
According to the folder where the browser is located: 88.1.20.108. Unknown if this is the current version.

Additional Information:
There are older threads from 2020 that are not the current version of Brave Browser, nor did advice in those threads work.

1 Like
#2

Hello @TerraCorrupt

  1. close brave and make sure it does not run in the task manager (kill the process if it exist)
  2. create an empty folder where ever you like then
  3. right click on the shortcut of brave then choose properties then go to shortcut tab then edit target by adding
    this --user-data-dir=“location of the folder you created in step 2” at the end of the line

check this image

740Ă—1020 140 KB

so it will close to that

"C:\Program Files (x86)\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --user-data-dir="location of the folder you created in step 2"

the first part could be different depend on your windows

  1. press ok then start brave it will look like if it a new installation
  2. close brave again and make sure it not running in the background
  3. go to the shortcut and right click then properties then go to shortcut tab then remove the flag that you added in step 2 then ok
  4. start brave again

hope that help and have a nice day :slight_smile:

#3

Thanks for your help!

That solved the problem until I got to Step 6, then it decided not to work again. Because I copied the data from the default user folder, I was able to paste it into that secondary location. I put the flag back into the shortcut target and was able to get back to work thanks to Session Manager keeping my tabs.

It developed a different problem now, in that I can’t get URLs to open from third party programs like Skype and Discord without copying them. I’ve ensured the default program is Brave, because changing to another browser causes it to work, but when I switch back, it fails. Is there another flag I can put in the shortcut target?

#4

you welcome

do you mean that brave does not work unless you use the flag am i right?

when the third party url does not work is it while your shortcut set with the flag or not or both?