Brave painfully slow on Mac OS 10.15 Catalina (Browser usage not possible anymore). Version 1.31.91

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1

Brave painfully slow on Mac OS 10.15 Catalina (Browser usage not possible anymore). Version 1.31.91

Description
From couple of months Brave new versions on Mac OS 10.15 Catalina are slow to the point that using browser is not possible any more. When opening new tab with any website takes around 20-30 seconds. This same goes when opening settings of browser or clicking on extensions.

I could click on extension icon, it would light up (showing you clicked on it) and popup for it would open also after 20-30 seconds.

clicking_on_extension_nothing_happens_for_20seconds

I didn’t got time to test each version but reinstalled to previous working couple of times, then upgraded to current one, but issue is always there.
v1.29.80 and above all have this issue. Tested at least 5 versions (also v1.31.88)
v1.27.105 does not have this issue.

At this same time Firefox browser works perfectly, website opens almost instantly.

Troubleshooting steps:

  • Disabled secure DNS - no change
  • Tested run on private tab - no change
  • Tested run on temporary new profile, with other profile closed - no change
  • Disabled hardware accelaration - no change

I also checked Brave Task Manager, when waiting for opening a tab (screenshot attached), but most processes have small CPU/MEM usage. Browser process itself usually varies from 10-50 % usage of CPU.

brave_taskmgr_when_opening_tab
brave_taskmgr_when_opening_tab1920Ă—1238 134 KB

Beside that i did javascript / webassembly benchmark (https://browserbench.org/JetStream/) for both Brave & Firefox in private tabs, but seems there is no issue here (screenshot attached, lower score is firefox’s).

firefox_private_windows_jetstream_metrics
firefox_private_windows_jetstream_metrics1640Ă—1850 202 KB

brave_private_windows_jetstream_metrics
brave_private_windows_jetstream_metrics1460Ă—1816 192 KB

I followed few similar threads to apply troubleshooting steps (usually for windows or already closed):

Hardware info:
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
2,9 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3
Intel Iris Graphics 550 1536 MB

How can this issue be reproduced?

Just run affected version on specific Mac OS, where issue occurs

Expected result:

Browser working with acceptable speed. (<2seconds for opening tab / settings / extentions)

Brave Version( check About Brave):
Version 1.31.91

Additional Information:

EDIT: It has been resolved for me in V1.34.81 (Jan 21, 2022), both hardware acceleration enabled & disabled don’t make difference here (and if I remembered correctly it didn’t when issue occured). Posting answer here, since thread is closed.

2

Why are you still stuck with Catalina though? You should be on Big Sur already?
My MacBook pro is couple years older than yours and everything works fine.

3

1/ I needed to test few things on older system
2/ I already am seeing some slowness of system for some time, and next OS version is doing more things in background usually, so usually is a little slower. Especially for older hardware.
3/ It is still supported & updated
4/ I am probably switching this laptop for other in some time, and I am not a fan of updates in Big Sur, that actually takes full admins rights on the OS away from you - https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/

1 Like
4

Not OP, but, today I updated to Big Sur from Catalina because I can’t find anywhere how to remedy the painfully slow experience that OP speaks of. It didn’t help at all.

1 Like
5

I see. Hmmm. That is weird indeed. Because my Mac is older than yours and runs perfectly with Big Sur. I don’t have the issue with Brave being slow :thinking:
Hope you two can figure it out!

6

Ok, so far I got nothing from launching this thread. And newest Brave version v1.32.115 have same issue as previous ones. Switched to firefox, probably I will stay there and stop recommending Brave.

7

Can anyone here encountering this try disabling Hardware Acceleration in settings to see if this resolves the issue?

You’ll find this in Settings --> Additional Settings --> System --> Hardware Acceleration

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