Brave informed me of an update.. went downhill from there

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1

Description of the issue:
Brave informs me, every time I open it, that there is an update.

How can this issue be reproduced?
I click the “UPDATE” link in the upper right corner to download/install updated Brave.

It opens a page to the download; I download and run the installer; it creates a new instance, it does NOT update what I have installed. It’s a new, separate version.

Brave keeps displaying ‘UPDATE’ over the hamburger menu icon. It’s driving me up a wall.

Expected result: Update my current version, not install a new version. (Yes, I’m new to Linux; trying my best.)

Brave Version( check About Brave): v1.79.126

Additional Information: Between this, and the fact that Brave does not have a Master Password for the Password Manager, I’m about to just leave this as it is and use it STRICTLY for YouTube videos, and use FireFox (HAS A MASTER PASSWORD FOR PASSWORD MANAGER) for literally everything else.

2

Ran “sudo apt update” and got the following:

Ign:1 http://packages.linuxmint.com xia InRelease
Hit:2 http://packages.linuxmint.com xia Release                                
Hit:3 https://ocean.surfshark.com/debian stretch InRelease                     
Hit:5 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                  
Hit:6 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease          
Hit:7 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease               
Hit:8 https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease               
Err:6 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease          
  The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0686B78420038257
Hit:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease                         
Hit:10 https://packages.mozilla.org/apt mozilla InRelease                      
Hit:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease                
Hit:12 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease              
Hit:13 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/mozillateam/ppa/ubuntu noble InRelease 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
17 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0686B78420038257
W: Failed to fetch https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/dists/stable/InRelease  The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0686B78420038257
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Are the public keys not available, or is it that my system just can’t get to the public keys?

3

Okay.. zero response.. thank you for confirming that my choice of making Brave a “YT only” choice for videos is justified.. passwords will be removed/deleted in favor of Firefox Password Manager that actually protects passwords with a Master Password, when Brave obviously cannot, or at the very least has no desire to do so.

Since everyone has decided that (after 14 hours) my question isn’t worthy of any response, I won’t bother anyone with any more questions.

4

@Capsaicin_Commando

Possibly, Brave team member @fmarier will know how to proceed. Thanks for the details in your report of an attempt to update, above:

‘Brave informed me of an update.. went downhill from there - #2 by Capsaicin_Commando’

5

Looks like something went wrong during installation. You should automatically have the public key for our repository.

Can you try again using the one-line install command at the top of https://brave.com/linux?

6

Thank you for your reply!

I can.. I would lose all of my plugins and their settings.. bookmarks I can export, of course. Guess I can try to do that, tomorrow.

CC

7

No, you won’t lose anything. Your settings, extensions, bookmarks, etc. are all stored under ~/.config/BraveSoftware/ (i.e. in your home directory.

The installer only touches system-wide files, mostly in /opt/brave.com/. It doesn’t touch anything in your home directory.

8

Of course, it never hurts to take extra backups and make exports of important things, just in case :slight_smile: But it shouldn’t be necessary if you’re just running our one-line installer.

9

Thank you for that insight!

The current Brave browser that I have was not installed via Terminal. Not sure if that makes a difference, or not. Can’t remember if it was a flatpak, or not.

Let’s face it.. I just can’t remember. :smiley:

But I will (most likely tomorrow) make necessary backups and give it a shot. Keeping my fingers crossed.

It would be nice to have a version of Brave that isn’t a major version or two behind what is reported as current on the website. I’m hoping this will cure that. If it doesn’t, that’s okay. I’m learning Linux Mint. That’s huge, in my opinion.

Again, thank you for your time and attention.

CC

10

Well, I did as you suggested. I did make backups of Password Manager, Bookmarks, and the settings from some of my extensions. Just in case.

Uninstalled the original (just noticed that it was a flatpak). Copied/pasted the command in a Terminal window. Launched Brave.

Everything gone. Bookmarks, nothing in Password Manager, no extensions.

Is there a way to switch to my original profile? Or is there some setting to get this new Brave to point at everything in my original profile?

If not, then I can take time to reinstall every extension (I had five, total) and import from my backups.

Thank you for your time and attention.

CC

11

I’ll start rebuilding from here.

Thank you for your insight.

CC

12

The flatpak is slightly different because it keeps the user profile in a different place. It’s still in your home directory, but it’s at this location instead:

~/.var/app/com.brave.Browser/config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser

You may be able to copy that directory where the native packages expect it, but if you have started rebuilding manually, then it’s probably better to just finish it manually.

From now on, updates will be done at the same time as the other packages on your system (e.g. using apt update && apt upgrade).

1 Like
13

Sweet! Thank you for your time and advice!

CC