[Bug] Brave malfunctions on quite a few websites, including Brave's own website, even with "Shields" down

Description of the issue:
Brave malfunctions on quite a few websites, including Brave’s own website, even with “Shields” down.

Steps to Reproduce
1a/b. Launch Brave
2a. Visit “https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018228951-How-do-I-submit-a-bug-report
2b. Or “https://www.ruten.com.tw/” (especially with translate to English on)
3a. Try expanding any of the dropdown sections “Before posting”, “Using the template” and “Additional explanation”
3b. Wait for page to load (fails)

Actual Result
3a. Try expanding any of the dropdown sections “Before posting”, “Using the template” and “Additional explanation” - dropdowns don’t work. Only works when using a private window with “shields down”.
3b. Nothing loads properly except a search bar, even with “shields down”. Only works when using a private window with “shields down”, but still breaks when attempting to make any purchases on this marketplace platform (With and without English translations; I can’t read Chinese so tried operating the website by switching between translations on/off). Shield keep turning back on on it’s own during the transaction phase breaking everything.

Expected result:
3a. Dropdowns should work, at minimum with shields down.
3b. Website should load when shields are down. Shields should STAY DOWN/off when turned off.

Reproduces how often:
Always

Operating System and Brave Version
1.73.101 (Windows x64)
1.76.73 (Windows x64)

Reproducible on current live release:
Yes

Additional Information:
Tested on Windows 10 x64 22H2
For the website described in 2b/3b: I tried to follow the trails of what was happening, and here is my hypothesis:
The website hands off payments information to another service/website, which then hands off information to a bank, which then returns information to the intermediary payment system then eventually goes back to the website, all using our browser.
Due to Brave consistently turning on shields AND not having a working global shields-down/off button/toggle (it doesn’t work!) the whole payments system breaks.
I’ve observed this exact same problem across other websites too, unfortunately I didn’t note the links (just used Firefox or (Pardon my language) Google Chrome instead) - the only reason I remembered about 2b/3b was due the absolute frustration this whole process caused. It ended up with my account being locked out from attempting to purchase due to too many failed attempts (payment chain kept failing).
Also due to how often brave breaks for websites I visit (around 1/3), I’ve gone in and disabled the “Block Scripts” toggle in settings. No difference.
I wish I wrote down the websites. The whole frustrating experience where everything keeps breaking made me switch to other browsers, even, pardon my language, Google Chrome, just to get things done.
Unfortunately given Firefox’s recent blatant privacy violation change to their EULA, I don’t want to keep having to rely on Firefox.
Brave is a good replacement for (pardon my language) Google Chrome. When it works.

Something is fundamentally broken with the way “Shields Down”/off works. It just refuses to turn off outside of private browsing, and even in private browsing mode it keeps turning on the moment we move to another link.

Suggested Fix
PLEASE fix and return the ability for users to disable shields globally!

We need the ability to disable every single “privacy enhancement” capability, at least per session, even for non-private windows.
Whatever Brave is doing to webpages, there are just too many websites that just does not work with it.

EDIT
2a/3a Resolved Was most likely user error. See post below by @289wk and subsequent post for details.

Forgot to mention in my original post:
I also tested with every single privacy setting manually turned off and used private mode: that website mentioned in 2b/3b above along with others that has to move between different website domains to function, all fail no matter what I tried.

Settings manually turned off during testing:
Shields:

  • Trackers & ads blocking → Disabled
  • Upgrade connections to HTTPS → Disabled
  • Block Scripts → off
  • Block Fingerprinting → off
  • Block cookies → Allow all cookies

Privacy & security:

  • Auto-redirect AMP pages → off
  • Auto-redirect tracking URLs → off
  • Prevent sites from fingerprinting… → off
  • Send a ‘Do Not Track’… → off

Go to brave://settings/clearBrowserData Advanced tab

Time range: All time

ENABLE:

  • Browsing history
  • Download hsitory
  • Cookies and other site data
  • Cached images and files

Click Clear data

Exit / Quit BB. Start BB, and then . . .


A. Test issue by disabling anti-virus.


B. Disable ALL extensions added by the user. “ALL” means all of them, added by the user ← who sometimes will cling to some extensions, and thus fail to properly test the issue.

Then test the issue without such extensions.

Then test the issue, with each extension individually enabled - no combinations of enabled extensions . . . while trying to find the troublemakers (if any).

After those tests, exit / quit Brave Browser, and then . . .


C. Launch Brave, go to Menu --> More tools --> Add profile and create a new browser profile (this will not overwrite the user’s current profile, and the user is free to delete the new profile after testing).

Close the user’s original profile window so only the new profile window is open.

Test the issue.


In a Brave Browser New Window, go to: https://test.nextdns.io/

That simple webpage should develop immediately. Please take a screenshot of the result and post, here.


Thank you very much!
It would appear that at least one of my brave browsers did have an extension I forgot about (NoScript). This one runs inside a VM for my general web browsing.

Weirdly enough I remember testing it in both instances (including the Brave outside the VM, which has zero extensions) and the help page’s scripts were also malfunctioning there at the time. Since it works right now,

I’ll edit the original post to cross out 2a/3a as that’s now working.

For 2b/3b: I’ll run some tests. Pretty sure that one wasn’t working on the brave without extensions at all (outside VM) when I tested with 1.73.101, which is odd. I am unable to rule out (self) stupidity since the problems were experienced when I was trying to buy PC parts for an emergency repair, well past my usual sleep time.

Will find something to buy and test again (will still need to use the built-in translator tho) then repost the results within the next few days.

Edit
Forgot to mention all browsing history and cookies are non-existent for both Brave browsers tested. Browsers run under Sandboxie-Plus and are auto-cleared upon all instances closing.