Description of the issue:
After trying to update Brave Dev by clicking the green arrow in the top right hand corner, I get the usual prompt to restart Brave to apply the changes. Brave closes, but doesn’t reopen itself. After clicking the icon again to manually open Brave, a window appears and then quickly closes. Current version of Brave is 80.1.5.84 based on what I found in C:\Program Files (x86)\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser-Dev\Application.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Open Brave Dev (any method).
- Brave opens a window very briefly and then closes it.
Actual Result (gifs and screenshots are welcome!):
Unable to effectively capture the result, as it happens too quickly.
Expected result:
Brave Dev opens a window and I can use Brave Dev normally.
Reproduces how often:
Every attempt to open Brave Dev.
Brave Version (about:brave):
I do not know the version as I cannot get back into Brave Dev. That being said, I dug around the folders and there are some version numbers floating around, such as the 80.1.5.84 that was being thrown around. Additionally, by opening a version of Brave that was found in file path C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe, I was able to obtain this screenshot.
I’m not sure if this “secret” Brave browser is the latest stable build, or something else, but this browser works, and does not crash.
Reproducible on current live release (yes/no):
Unsure.
Additional Information:
BraveSoftwareUpdate and BraveSoftwareUpdate (32 bit) are shown as running in the Task Manager but it appears that they aren’t actually doing anything.
The extensions I have installed include Google Translate and OneTab. I do not recall having any other extensions in use.
I am not using a proxy, although I am connected to university network via Ethernet. However, this has not hampered the usage of Brave Dev before.
I do not have any third-party anti-virus programs installed, other than Windows Defender. I have attempted a scan on the computer for all files, but WD did not find anything out of the ordinary.
Things I would like to try but cannot find a way to do so
- Verify the integrity of the program files. Something tells me that when it tried to update itself, something horrible happened, causing the first and subsequent crashes. I’d like a way to verify the integrity of the program files and repair them, if possible. This was somewhat “accomplished” by downloading the installer for the latest release of Brave Dev and trying to use it, but a way to verify the program files would be more helpful.
Things I have tried and failed to resolve the problem
- Uninstall Brave (without checking the “delete all history” box), then reinstall it with a download from the website.
- Force an install by downloading the installer from Brave since it will “override” the current version.
- Restarting the computer, both soft (selecting Restart from Windows Power Options) and hard (selecting Shutdown from Windows Power Options, then turning the computer back on).
- Tried a neat trick that I found on the forum that requires modifying the shortcut of Brave Dev on desktop by disabling GPU acceleration by appending
--disable-gputo the end of the file path, outside of the quotes. - Updated GPU drivers (Radeon VII @ Radeon Software Version 20.2.1, this is my display GPU; other GPU is GeForce GTX 1080 @ GeForce Game Ready Driver Version 442.19). This did not help, even after attempting the aforementioned
--disable-gpuflag again after installation of new drivers. - Check the error logs. Alas, there are none. I don’t know if there were any prior to me installing and reinstalling Brave Dev multiple times, but there certainly aren’t any now, despite opening Brave Dev multiple times and having it close on me. Perhaps this is not technically an error, but some other bug.
All my bookmarks and stuff are on Brave Dev, and I have no idea how to extract all of that to another version of Brave (which would be an ideal workaround until the underlying issue is fixed). Additionally, I am also worried that I will lose all my BAT, which I have not yet tied to a wallet.
Edit:
I was able to reinstall Brave Dev using a link to the last functioning version, and I was able to get the version number.
I then proceeded to update Brave Dev, which just closes Brave Dev and causes the bug again, so the bug is reproducible for me even after a nice re-installation. However, none of my extensions, bookmarks, passwords, or other settings were removed during the uninstall of the corrupted version and re-installation. However, all session tabs were lost, as I was logged out of all my most used sites. Sites stored in OneTab and locked are not lost, so perhaps backup your current tabs to OneTab between upgrades in the future to prevent this.