Brave on macOS crashes regularly - Still!

I have the same problem. Crashes immediately on launch. Have uninstalled, deleted and reinstalled Brave from scratch multiple times. No change. Crashes immediately, can’t even keep a window open. Don’t run Accessibility keyboard so that’s not the issue.

I really want to like and use Brave but how can you when such basic functionality can’t be relied upon.

Running build 80.1.3.118 on OS 10.14.6

Hi, @beerstine. Were all your reinstalls with 1.3.118 and earlier? Current version is Brave 1.4.95 Chromium: 80.0.3987.122 (Official Build) (64-bit), so you might try updating, though others appear to have had no luck there. You can either use brave.com/download or get the standalone DMG from https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases/download/v1.4.95/Brave-Browser.dmg. Seems to work fine in my 10.4.4 VM (so did your version, though).

Have you tried launching with the terminal commands that turn off sync or hardware acceleration? Those are
     open -a '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --disable-gpu
and
     open -a '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --disable-brave-sync

Installed the version you recommended. Crashed on first open. Opened on the 2nd attempt and disabled hardware acceleration in preferences, browsed for awhile, then closed it and it now crashes on launch again repeatedly. Never ran Sync on any of my previous versions.

I don’t consider opening through Terminal to be an acceptable solution. An app that can’t be opened and maintain a simple window is an app that can’t be used.

I agree generally, @beerstine. The suggestion of opening with the Terminal commands was for troubleshooting. That said, I use an AppleScript application to open Brave using a Terminal command to limit its cache size because I have a relatively small SSD.

I’m not sure how much comfort this might bring, but someone with the same combo you originally posted filed an Issue on GitHub, though I’m pretty sure it’s not the first related Issue created:

@Mattches, I saw you posted in another (mostly unrelated) thread a bunch of upcoming/recent fixes related to Tor and macOS, including earlier versions of macOS - are there any fixes that relate to this weird crashing thing?

Opening with those Terminal commands also doesn’t work. Immediate crash.

@beerstine,
Honestly not sure what the situation you’re encountering is. I do know that, as @hnktong mentioned, we’ll have some fixes going out for users running older versions of macOS. If you’d like to know ahead of time, you can try downloading our Beta browser and see if you get the same crashes or not.

Downloaded Beta, still immediate crash. Is there anywhere I can send a crash log?

I’m about to give up on this. It’s not worth the hassle. Other browsers work, yours doesn’t.

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brave://crashes shows you a page w/ all the crash logs. You then just click “Send now”.
But don’t expect any reaction on it! I’d send maybe about 10 and did not get single response on any of them. Despite the easily reproducable crash is NOT fixed!

Sadly @randomshear I have had it disabled forever and am still getting the issue of crashing on opening. If we could upload text files for the crash report it may help them find the problem… (large hint there Brave folks!)

@cogitate

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Can’t keep a window open long enough to even enter an address. This may be the fastest crashing app I’ve ever used. Speed crashing is a feature, not a bug!

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I’m using an AppleScript:
do shell script “rm -R /Users/username/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware”
when I shutdown my computer. (normal CLI works too, of course).
That’s it! Log out and back in and Brave starts up… until you quit it.

@Aa-ron, @Mattches: You have all available infos! And people are willing to support you in any way to solve this issue! But not reacting or giving feedback is the wrong way! You will loose advocates for your great work!
So, please put this in a higher priority (AND fix it) and let us know!

@pixi,

  • Do you have any extensions installed in the browser right now? If so, which ones?
  • Do you get the same [crash] results if you use a new/fresh profile?
  • Have you checked your OS Security/Privacy page to see if Brave processes are getting blocked here?
  • Is Brave.app blocked on some permission it needs?

:point_up: We actually are missing one of the most basic requirements about your setup – which is the OS you’re using. macOS yes but…High Sierra? Catalina? El Capitan?

@Mattches this topic is the successor of " Brave on macOS crashes regularly " which was locked by @Aa-ron

Although all your questions are answered there I can repeat:

  • Do you have any extensions installed in the browser right now? If so, which ones?
    – Adblock Plus
    – floccus
    – uBlock Origin
    – Nimbus Screenshot & Screen Video Recorder
    – Tabs to Front v2

  • Do you get the same [crash] results if you use a new/fresh profile?
    – YES!
    – And disabling/removing extensions doesn’t change anything either.

  • Have you checked your OS Security/Privacy page to see if Brave processes are getting blocked here?
    – Not sure what you mean by “OS Security/Privacy page” but there is no FireWall, Little Snitch does not block anything and other tools do not exist.

  • Is Brave.app blocked on some permission it needs?
    – No idea what you mean by that. But I did not block anything.

The crash is a Cache/memory issue, as stated before! Asa I remove the abovementioned folder and log out/back in, Brave starts w/o any problem!

Does that help?

If it was a cache/memory issue, then a new profile or fresh installation (including downloading/using Nightly, Dev, or Beta builds, which I understand you have tried) would resolve the issue, or at least give vastly different results. When you delete that folder in ~Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-browser, the next time you launch the browser, it will recreate a new version of that directory.

This same thing happens (roughly) when creating a new browser profile – it creates a new directory in ~Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-browser with the new profile name, with no cache/browsing data, extensions, etc. The fact that, as you’re saying, the browser will open and run for some amount of time after deleting the profile directory then login/log-out (which you likely don’t need to do, btw) and then eventually crash, points towards data of some kind being saved, cached, installed or otherwise stored on your system (or in your browser) that causes the browser to crash.

In your previous post, you mentioned that you were using macOS 10.13.6 which could be part of the issue but it’s hard to tell.

:point_up: What I mean here is, on your mac, open finder, go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy and check to see if anything “Brave” related has been caught/flagged by your OS security.

  • What about 3rd party Anti-virus software? Do you have any running in the background on your OS? What about any automated system maintenance – for example, a file/cache cleaner (like ccCleaner) that runs and cleans your system?

@Mattches You see me a bit puzzled now… I don’t know how to express it better…
I did NOT state I delete a Cache-folder inside ~Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-browser. There is not such a thing like a “Cache”-folder there (from what I can tell). The only folder I see there is “ShaderCache”.
But I leave the Brave-browser-directory completely untouched!

I have deleted the Brave-browser-directory and created new profiles etcetc. but that didn’t help at all.

What I delete, as you can see on the CLI-command in my post above, is ~/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware, which is in the Cache folder of the System!

As it is obvious (to me) that reading from this cache folder causes Brave to crash, preventing to read (if possible) might be a hot fix.

There is no Firewall, no FileVault, no GateKeeper, there are no restrictions here!

And there are NO apps whatsoever which could interfere with Brave. Little Snitch is the only app running!

@pixi,
Have you tried to launch and use Brave without little snitch running? I’m aware that there shouldn’t be any interference but if you haven’t tried yet would you mind humoring me?

@Mattches I have now disabled LS and guess what? Nothing has changed.

@pixi,
The sarcasm is unnecessary – I’m simply ruling out all the possible options.

Can you go to brave://crashes and 1 – ensure you send the crash reports if you haven’t already, which I believe you have, and 2 – after doing so, reply here with a few of the Crash Report IDs listed so I can get additional developer eyes on the situation?

This is the one left today:
Uploaded Crash Report ID ee6bbde5e5156b1c (Local Context: a70e9b97-fe46-41e6-96ac-095d45b04ec7)

And here some more from this morning:
Uploaded Crash Report ID 808a0a10dff61ff5 (Local Context: ccf3803c-6bf6-4a2f-bbf2-a0cbe64569b1)

Uploaded Crash Report ID b7c3567a163daab3 (Local Context: e3f759a6-1a8f-44b6-a7a5-a2b86de54859)