Brave freezes when saving downloads via "Save As"

Every time i try to download a file and use the Save As option, the browser freezes. I have this issue on Windows and Linux (PopOS 20.04). I love the Brave Browser, but this bug makes it unusable, is there any way to fix this? Both Operating Systems are completely up to date, and i do not experience this issue with any other browsers.

@llars0689 ,
Thanks for reaching out. Can you tell me what version of the browser you’re using when you see this behavior? Additional, does this happen any time the Save as... dialog box appears? That is, does this happen for any site or any file type downloaded?

Hi Mattches,

The version im on is: Version 1.19.88 Chromium: 88.0.4324.96 (Official Build) (64-bit)

It was happening with pretty much any file type, whether it was exe’s, jpeg, png, html, etc… and it was happening consitently, every time i opened the Save As window.

But now… I tried toggling hardware acceleration off and it seemed to help a bit and made the issue more intermittent… Then I toggled it back on and its not happening quite as often, although it still is happening occasionally. Its very odd, not sure what caused it, as its now not happening quite as often, so im not sure if the hardware acceleration was even the problem. Sometimes it looks like its about to freeze, as it gets stuck on loading the Save As window and then it will complete and work, other times it just locks up and i have to kill the process. Previously, i was using Microsoft Edge (chromium build) and Chrome and never had these issues. Im also on a new build/installation of Windows 10 20H2 with all updates completed. Specs are below, which can confirm its not a system resource issue.

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X
RAM: 64GB DDR4
GPU: nVidia RTX 2060

Thanks,
Luke

1 Like

@llars0689 ,
Do you have any extensions installed in the browser at this time? Also, can you try creating a new browser profile and see if you get the same results when trying save a file there?

Hi Mattches,

I had NordVPN and NordPass extensions enabled.

As a test, i uninstalled them, used my current profile, and the issue still persists.

So i created a new profile, and unfortunately, it still persists also.

Prior to this, i also completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Brave Browser, but that didn’t fix it either.

About a month ago, i had also tried the Brave Browser on a Windows 10 20H2 build, and had the same problem which caused me to ditch the Brave Browser and go back to Chrome. But i wanted to give it a shot again on a new PC, but still the same problem. It also happens in my Windows 10 VM in VMWare Workstation and ive had the same issue in PopOS 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.04.

It is becoming a little more intermittent and happens about every 3rd or 4th time i try Save As… nothing else is running on my PC besides the Brave Browser when the issue happens also.

Thanks,
Luke

1 Like

@llars0689 ,
To be honest I’ve never encountered this issue myself. Let me reach out to some team members and get some additional eyes on the issue. I appreciate your patience.

@llars0689 ,
Also, have you only tested this on OS that run on VMs?

Hi Mattches,

On my laptop, im running PopOS 20.04 and it happens occasionally on that also, which doesn’t have any VM’s, but it does have VMWare Workstation Pro 16 installed, just no actual VM’s.

My main PC which is the one i listed the specs for, i have a couple VM’s hosted on it running VMWare Workstation Pro 16, but they were shutdown at the time of the issue. Which hosts the Ubuntu 20.04 and the Windows 10 VM that had the same issues.

1 Like

@llars0689 does anything show up when you go to brave://crashes?

If so- hit the send button and share the IDs with us. This will help us find the bug :slight_smile:

1 Like

Hi Clifton,

Unfortunately it says the following:

Crash reporting is disabled.

Crash reporting is not available in Brave.

Is there a way to enable it? As i can usually replicate the issue.

Thanks,
Luke

I actually found the option to enable it…

I replicated it once and it froze and crashed the Save As window, but unfortunately it didnt show up in the Crashes… Ill keep trying it a few times and see, as sometimes it crashes the entire app, not just the Save As window.

Thanks,
Luke

I was able to replicate it again, this time it froze the entire application… See the screenshot below… it looks like its normal, but in fact its completely frozen and i cant click on anything, i end up having to kill it via task manager… Unfortunately, again its not in the Crashes though.

So also, i was just trying to attach the screenshot in this message, and it popped up with the Open window to attach, and it froze on there also… see both screenshots below:

1 Like

Hi Luke,

Ah ok - so you’re not experiencing an application crash it seems; program must just be hanging or is deadlocked. Even with crash reporting off, it would show some entries (just not sending them). Maybe if you let it hang long enough a crash will actually happen?

One thing I can think of - do you have a virus software? Windows of course has Windows Defender which you can turn off temporarily. Linux I doubt you’re running anything - so there must be something else happening

Hi Clifton,

On Linux, i dont have any real-time antivirus, only ClamAV scanner. On my Windows PC’s i have Sophos Home Premium, i also have Glasswire Firewall. There was just an update for Glasswire, so i updated to the latest version, but didnt seem to make any difference.

Thanks,
Luke

Just an update… Here is what is in the Windows Event Viewer for the application freezing:

The program brave.exe version 88.1.19.88 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
Process ID: 6488
Start Time: 01d6f8dd419ac4f9
Termination Time: 4
Application Path: C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
Report Id: d10a362d-794b-4bf4-b0e7-cc737b2b6ae6
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Hang type: Unknown

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.