Brave does not launches, even after deleting User Data

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81

The Preferences file modification didn’t worked for me. Also tried launching Brave by opening a ‘hello world’ html file and didn’t worked either. So far the only way I can open it is by turning airplane mode on, but as soon as I turn it off it crashes.
The log says: “the dat file is not found or corrupted”… ExtensionWhitelist.dat
(FYI: I have Shields disabled)
(I’m on Win 8.1, Brave Version109.1.47.186)

82

Unfortunately, this did not work for me.

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83

@stanger @keyopp Would you mind trying to use airplane mode/go offline, go to brave://settings and set New tab page shows to Blank page manually? Then turn off airplane mode/go back online and try opening Brave.

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84

@DougAmes You’re right in that it’s related to the dashboard (more specifically, to Brave News/Today). It’s not that it’s poorly-tested, though (as the same thing doesn’t crash on recent versions of Brave), it’s just the version in question is a two-year-old one, running on platforms that are no longer supported (Windows 7/8.1).

Our best bet is to try and avoid hitting the code paths that cause the crash. I’ll also try to check with server-side folks to see if we can introduce a workaround on the server side to get this fixed for you guys.

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85

Tried it. It still crashed.

86

Just tried via brave://settings, didn’t worked either. Re-launched browser with logging on, same info:

ERROR:dat_file_util.cc(23)] GetDATFileData: the dat file is not found or corrupted … ExtensionWhitelist.dat
ERROR:extension_whitelist_service.cc(73)] Could not obtain extension whitelist data

87

Also noticed that the console shows the same error(whitelist.dat) even when the browser doesn’t crash(when launched in airplane mode on). So idk what to say. I’m sometimes able to navigate for few seconds after turning off airplane mode.

88

@stanger @keyopp I think the reason it’s still crashing for you guys is that you’re opted-in to Brave News.

You’ll have to remove the "today": { ... }, section from the Preferences file:

  1. click on the Windows button at the bottom
  2. type “explorer”
  3. click on File Explorer
  4. paste %localappdata%/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/User Data/Default in the address bar
  5. back up/make a copy of the Preferences file
  6. open the Preferences file (e.g. right click on it, Open with, select Notepad)
  7. remove the "today": { ... }, section

By "today": { ... }, I mean "today": and everything else that’s in "today"'s curly braces ({ ... }) and the comma (,) after the curly braces, e.g.:

"today":{"opted_in":true,"p3a_curr_session_card_views":"0","p3a_total_card_views":[{"day":1726293600,"value":0}],"p3a_weekly_card_views_count":[{"day":1726293600,"value":0}],"p3a_weekly_card_visits_count":[{"day":1726293600,"value":0}]},
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89

Thank you! Its working now!
Much appreciated!

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90

Finally, "today" did the trick. Who would have thought. Thanks @szilardszaloki

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91

Actually, the first set of steps (where you set the shows_options setting) is not necessary, as once you opt out of Brave News, it doesn’t matter what you have the new tab page set to (i.e. can be dashboard).

92

Thanks @szilardszaloki , taking out the today action worked. back to Brave.

1 Like
93

@szilardszaloki - posts #73, #88 and #91
Thank you very much for all your work to help with this, but I’m unclear where to start.
Do I start at #73 line:- 1. click on the Windows button at the bottom
or
#88:- you’ll also have to remove the "today": { ... }, section from the Preferences file:

I struggle with code, I seem to have code dyslexia!

94

@Michael_C Only the steps from Brave does not launches, even after deleting User Data - #88 by szilardszaloki (Brave does not launches, even after deleting User Data - #73 by szilardszaloki is not needed).

95

The Preferences file edit worked for me, thanks! Just a little difficult to find where the correct end of the “today”:{…} section was a dozen lines down in the unbroken text file.

I see that the “today” section comes back. Does this mean that the sudden issue was triggered by some variable daily content in this section, and it might happen again at random?

96

The issue was related to Brave News. However, we introduced a fix on the server side, so as of a few minutes ago, you shouldn’t need any of the workarounds posted above (and can even opt in to Brave News again).

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