Can I get an older version of Brave?

My Brave browser automatically updated to a version (88.1.19.86) that does not run on my Mac OS 10.10.5 system. How do I revert back to what ever it was or get the older version that was working a couple hours ago?

Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Just happened after I re-started
  2. Gives me error message: “You can’t use this version of the application “Brave” with this version of OS X.
    You have OS X 10.10.5. The application requires OS X 10.11 or later.”

Expected result: I hope to get the version that works with my OS 10.10.5 back

Brave Version( check About Brave): 88.1.19.86

Additional Information:

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The one’s you want start off with “Release” like “Release v1.19.86”… I guess after installing turn off auto updating…

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I was kind of hoping for a release version, not a nightly unstable version, what ever I was using last. I’ll try the 1.19.86 - Thanks.
If I ever get my old version of Brave back up and running I sure will turn off updates! If they are not smart enough to check what version of OS my machine is running and not do an update that will invalidate the software - rookie move there Brave - I want nothing to do with any automatic updates.

they’re all mixed on the site… you have to go and search the entries…

This is the immediate previous version that isn’t a pre-release…

edit: 1.19.86 is the current version

Cool, thanks. I’ll try it and post my results.

Update:
That worked. I downloaded the .dmg 1.18.78 version, renamed the Brave browser in my Applications folder “BadPOSbrowser”, and dropped the v1.18.78 downloaded version in my Applications folder and then started it up - and it works just like it did yesterday before the idiotic update, with all my bookmarks there and working again. I don’t know about passwords but I can live with it either way.
Now I just have to find out where to turn off automatic updates and I will be back in business.
Any ideas how or even if I can do that?

That worked - see my edit of last post.
Any ideas how or even if I can turn off auto-updates?

you can try this… https://www.webnots.com/7-ways-to-disable-automatic-chrome-update-in-windows-and-mac/

go to #5 and do the steps for mac but instead of searching for ksupdate, what you’re looking to change is the url for SUFeedURL - change the url to something that doesn’t exist…

edit: I’m only guessing this might work…
edit 2: You might want to save the original url somewhere in case you want to reverse the change…

You need to uninstall updates

This may be helpful: macOS Tips - How To Disable Automatic Mac Software Updates

Look at the How To Disable Automatic Mac App Store Updates section.

I did try it but Brave does not even start up if I modify the update website in the info.plist. I’ll keep looking but Brave thinks that the automatic updates are a feature not a bug so they do not want it modified so as not to work.

Also (for the other guys) it is not a Mac update, is is a feature of the Brave browser and it updates itself without Mac Update doing it.

UPDATE: The suggestions below might work, but what about just locking Brave in the Finder? That is, go to Applications, right-click or control-click Brave, and in the ensuing window, check the box next to Locked. In theory, that should prevent changes.


Also, it looks like the devs heard the users’ complaints, albeit too late for those using older OS. This is what I get in Nightly on Big Sur, now:
image

–End UPDATE–

It might be worth trying command line switches. Here’s a link to my source. Here are two promising ones:

  • --check-for-update-interval - How often (in seconds) to check for updates. Should only be used for testing purposes.
  • --disable-component-update - no description

I tried using both (20 years in seconds for the first) and they didn’t return an error, but I don’t know that they worked, either.

What I’d suggest is writing a tiny AppleScript to issue the command you want to try:
open -a 'Brave Browser.app' --args --check-for-update-interval=630720000 (that’s 20 years expressed in seconds); or
open -a 'Brave Browser.app' --args --disable-component-update

The script would look like this (use Script Editor image - should be in /Applications/Utilities):

if application "Brave Browser" is running then
	
	tell application "Brave Browser" to quit
	do shell script "open -a '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --disable-component-update"
else
	
	do shell script "open -a '/Applications/Brave Browser.app' --args --disable-component-update"
	
end if

tell application "Brave Browser" to activate

You could do both commands by adding one after the other like this:
open -a 'Brave Browser.app' --args --disable-component-update --check-for-update-interval=630720000
I tried that and it didn’t throw an error, but, again, don’t know if it worked, either.

If you copy and paste, make sure no stray formatting codes have been included. Also, I use Nightly, so if I left that word in the app name by mistake, just omit/delete it.

Once you’ve written that in Script Editor, save it, then also save it as an Application some place you’ll remember, then go to that folder and drag the new Application to your Dock and use it to launch Brave instead of clicking Brave’s icon (every time). I do this with a script to make the cache tiny and it works great.

If you need more help, let me know. If it works, please also let me know.

Not sure what you did, but changing the feedurl worked for me…

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I guess that’s the simplest solution.

how can someone disable “auto updates”?

I need this feature as well. We started using Brave last week to get away from Firefox for daughter’s online school. We have an older mac running 10.10. Not planning to buy a new mac, not yet. This morning I discovered Brave had updated itself and of course would no longer work. Had to hastily find & download older version to get daughter going with school but I can’t keep doing that if Brave continues to update itself. This seems like a very logical/reasonable thing to have in the software. At least ASK before updating so we have a choice. Giving users no choice in the matter is more like something Gates (windows) would do. And actually, updating itself past the point of being able to function seems like something the software should detect before proceeding. Does it not?

If you read my replies to this thread, I show how to disable brave’s autoupdate…

  • Quit the browser
  • Open /Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/Info.plist
  • Change the URL value of SUFeedURL to soemthing that doesn’t go anywhere like https://127.0.0.1 - Copy the old address somewhere to be able to change the value back.

  • Save changes
  • Open brave browser and possibly relogin to some sites…

:nerd_face:

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Thanks. Will dig into that. I also used another suggestion above and locked the app.

Please refer to my comment here for information on this:

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Firefox was working fine. I stopped using it and uninstalled to move to Brave. I don’t think Firefox was updating itself as I’ve had it for years and that hadn’t happened. Normally, seems like it would notify me of an available update, but did not force it on me. Perhaps it was about to and I just happened to uninstall right before?? Don’t know. Regardless, it’s a bit “nanny-state” to write software that doesn’t give users the option to make our own decisions regarding updates. Just my humble opinion, of course. Hoping the app lock or other above suggestions work so I can continue using Brave. Thanks for the notice.

Much more elegant, @megaspaz. Nice work.

FWIW, using Finder’s “Locked” option also worked; the installer can’t copy the updated file into the application’s Contents and reports as much, then gives up when dismissed.