Brave is downloading 100 megabytes every time it starts

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1

Description of the issue: Every time Brave starts, it downloads around 100 megabytes from the Internet.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Simply start/restart Brave.
  2. Observe network traffic.

Expected result: I would expect it to download (a lot) less than 100 megabytes.

Brave Version( check About Brave): Version 1.73.101 Chromium: 131.0.6778.139 (Official Build) (64-bit)

(this is on Windows 10)

Additional Information:

Here’s an example of the traffic I’m seeing when starting Brave:

HTTPS GET        redirector.brave.com /edgedl/release2/chrome_component/addga4pss7vwbnmay73ahfxnhuhq_127.5/mfhmdacoffpmifoibamicehhklffanao_1… 200 …on/octet-stream  1.8m
HTTPS GET        redirector.brave.com /edgedl/release2/chrome_component/addga4pss7vwbnmay73ahfxnhuhq_127.5/mfhmdacoffpmifoibamicehhklffanao_1… 200 …on/octet-stream  1.8m
HTTPS GET        redirector.brave.com /release2/chrome_component/addga4pss7vwbnmay73ahfxnhuhq_127.5/mfhmdacoffpmifoibamicehhklffanao_127.5_wi… 200 …on/octet-stream 10.6m
HTTPS GET        redirector.brave.com /release2/chrome_component/addga4pss7vwbnmay73ahfxnhuhq_127.5/mfhmdacoffpmifoibamicehhklffanao_127.5_wi… 200 …on/octet-stream 10.6m
HTTPS GET        redirector.brave.com /dl/release2/chrome_component/addga4pss7vwbnmay73ahfxnhuhq_127.5/mfhmdacoffpmifoibamicehhklffanao_127.5… 200 …on/octet-stream 39.8m
HTTPS GET        redirector.brave.com /dl/release2/chrome_component/addga4pss7vwbnmay73ahfxnhuhq_127.5/mfhmdacoffpmifoibamicehhklffanao_127.5… 200 …on/octet-stream 39.8m

Any idea what it’s doing or attempting to do?

2

Brave Browser (BB) is trying to complete the downloading of components.

In a BB New Window, go to:

brave://components

You can monitor the status.

1 Like
3

Interesting - it appears that the issue is with the “ScreenAI Library” component. While Brave is downloading its 100 megabytes, it displays “Status - Downloading” for this component:

downloading

After it has stopped downloading (after about 100 megabytes), it displays “Status - Update error”:

error

None of the other components has this issue - they all say “Status - Up-to-date”.

Apparently this is a known issue:

1 Like
4

Update: This issue seems to be gone in Brave v1.73.104 (released on December 19, 2024), which removed the ScreenAI component entirely.