Clearing Cache/Cookies on Exit

I’ve been using Brave for about a year now, and while there are many things that I like about the browser, there are just as many things that are really frustrating me. One of which being that there is no direct support, and I have to make a community post which often goes unnoticed and unanswered…

Regardless, the reason I’m making this post is to report another issue to do with clearing cache/cookies when I exit Brave.

I have my settings set to:

  • On Start-up: Open the New Tab page
  • Continue running background apps when Brave is closed: False
  • Delete browsing data - On Exit:
    • Download History
    • Cookies and other site data
    • Cached images and files
    • Passwords and other sign-in data
    • Auto-fill form data

Delete browsing data is what’s important here, as it just doesn’t seem to work. Normally, after using my PC, I will close all windows and then shutdown. The next time I turn on my PC and open Brave (typically the next day), everything has retained information from before. All websites that I had previously logged into are still logged-in, they still have associated cache/cookies and my password manager extension is still signed-in. Why?

In order to clear my data, I’m forced to close Brave and re-open it. Which is even weirder, because sometimes I’ll do this in the middle of using Brave, and it just wont delete anything. I have to actually restart my whole PC, just to force Brave to clear cache/cookies.

Furthermore, quite often, tabs that I have pinned will just vanish the next time I open Brave. I’ve tried so many different things to replicate it, but each time a variable changes, it just doesn’t seem to be the cause. So I have no idea.

If anyone has any information on any of these issues, I’d greatly appreciate it, as Brave is a great browser, but these things are really killing my experience, honestly.

Thank you

2 Likes

@o_xerxes,
The clearing of data on exit should be working as you expect it to. Testing on my end, after I close the browser window (clicking the x on the top-right of the window) clears all data types that are checked in the On exit window.

Can you please tell me what version of the browser and Windows you’re using at this time?

Hi, Mattches thanks for your response,

I’m currently using version:

  • Brave, Version 1.73.105 Chromium: 131.0.6778.265 (Official Build) (64-bit)
  • Windows 10 Pro, version 22H2

However, this is an issue I’ve had for a long time, as I previously described in a post back in May, 2024; using Brave, version 1.65.126. I’d also like to mention, that since then, I’ve had a complete reinstall of my Windows OS, and I’m still having the issue.


I understand you’ve tested it, but as I’ve said in my post, this is not something that I can replicate easily or reliably. It seems to be very random, and just closing Brave as you’ve described doesn’t cause the issue 100% of the time, but is still common enough to notice.

However, it’s just about guaranteed to happen to me after I’ve shutdown my PC for the night.

My typical routine is:

  1. Shutdown all Brave browser windows I have open using the X in the top right of the window;
    • I have “confirm close” enabled, so I also accept that.
  2. Close what ever other remaining windows for other programs I have open.
  3. Finally, just press shutdown on my PC. (Start > Power > Shutdown)

My PC is generally shutting down 1-2 minutes after I’ve fully exited Brave.


Once I turn my PC back on the next day (or when ever it might be), it’s extremely common for Brave to retain all data from the previous session. I pretty much just expect it at this point, but it’s extremely frustrating. Each time I start up my PC, I have to launch Brave knowing I’m just going to close and re-open it again, in order to clear site/extension data.


I also noted that sometimes my pinned tabs will disappear the next time I open Brave. If I’m lucky, I can recover them though the history menu and “restore window”. A few times now though, they have been wiped with no reason, and no way to recover them.

I assumed this might be related to closing the “primary” window first, which contains all of my pinned tabs, and then closing other windows last. I’ve tested it briefly, and it seems maybe somewhat close to the problem, but I’m still uncertain. Regardless, for a long time now, I’ve always made it a point to close this primary window last, but I still occasionally lose my pinned tabs.

While I’m unsure how relevant this is to Brave, I think it could be worth mentioning this, just in case:

A long time ago, there was an issue on Chrome browsers, which would clear all pinned tabs if the Chrome browser was initially opened using a link from an external application. It was eventually fixed in an update and I never experienced it again. When I installed Brave however, while it is far less frequent and and doesn’t seem to have the same cause, I was immediately reminded of it again.

Apologies for the wall of text.

@o_xerxes ,

You wrote:

“All websites that I had previously logged into are still logged-in, they still have associated cache/cookies and my password manager extension is still signed-in. Why?”

What is your “password manager extension”?


Brave Browser Settings > Shields
Please add the status of:

  • Block scripts
  • Block cookies
  • Forget me when I close this site

@289wk

What is your “password manager extension”?

I use LastPass.

I’m sorry, but your answer is not a solution to my problem. Overall blocking cookies/scripts is not my objective, and neither is forgetting a site each time I close it. That would make browsing very difficult and tedious.

I’m trying to retain cache/cookies, only during the current session, and then forget it when my session is closed (Brave is closed/exited). Each time I start Brave, my cache/cookies should be cleared, as per my current settings.

@o_xerxes ,

You wrote:

“Overall blocking cookies/scripts is not my objective, and neither is forgetting a site each time I close it.”

So all 3 of the GLOBAL, Brave Browser Settings > Shields

  • Block scripts
  • Block cookies
  • Forget me when I close this site

. . . are disabled.

@289wk

I apologize, I misunderstood your response, thinking you were asking me to disable those things, and not just report their current status. My mistake.

Those settings are not enabled; i.e:

  • Block scripts: Off
  • Block cookies: Block third-party cookies
  • Forget me when I close this site: Off
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@o_xerxes,

When you do this and the browsing data does clear, do you just close and relaunch the browser normally? No wait time between closing and relaunching?

I’m also wondering if you would be willing to download the Beta build of the browser and see if you can reproduce the issue in the Beta as well.

For your pinned tabs, I would recommend you try using tab groups for a while and see if that works around the issue, as you can save tab groups as well and should be able to reopen them at any time.

@Mattches,

I just turned my PC on, and today is a day my pinned tabs decided to clear. :slightly_smiling_face: I was lucky this time and could restore the window from history to recover them.


When you do this and the browsing data does clear, do you just close and relaunch the browser normally? No wait time between closing and relaunching?

Yes, I close and relaunch Brave normally, almost straight away, with little wait time between. Everything opens and loads as you’d expect it to.


Just to note:
Sometimes I’ll turn on my PC and it will be idle for an extended period of time before I open Brave (or even anything else). Other times, Brave will be the first thing I open, immediately upon start-up & login. Regardless of the “rest-time”, the issue almost always occurs, happening more times than it doesn’t. Like I mentioned before, it’s become an expected experience.


I’m also wondering if you would be willing to download the Beta build of the browser and see if you can reproduce the issue in the Beta as well.

Sure, I can give it a try for a while and see how it goes.

@o_xerxes note that you don’t have to uninstall your current Brave installation — just install the Beta and use it for a bit and see if the issue reproduces at all.

1 Like

@Mattches,

I currently have it installed and it will now be my active browser for a while.

I’d like to mention that I tried a few times to replicate a typical shutdown/reboot, closing Brave with a number of tabs open, using both release and beta versions. After each shutdown, neither browser retained data, as intended.

However, thinking back, I’ve had to shutdown Brave and reboot my PC in the past for one reason or another, and I don’t think I’ve had the issue during these reboots. Maybe occasionally, but not often. I’m not sure how or why, or even what sense it would make, but maybe there is something to do with how long the PC is shutdown for. Because when I shutdown my PC and leave it until the next day, it’s pretty much guaranteed to have the issues I’ve described.

Regardless, I’ll see how the Beta behaves over the next few days and report back.

I appreciate your help with this.

1 Like

No worries and yes please let me know what you find out after using the Beta.

1 Like

@Mattches,

As I mentioned before, I’ve previously tired to close Brave and shutdown my PC to replicate the issue, but it was always working as intended. However, I’ve just had the same issue using the Beta version after leaving it for a long time.

I closed Brave as I normally do, and then shutdown my PC from the start menu. Around 8-10 hours later, I turn on my PC again, load Brave (Beta), and all cache/cookies are still present as well as extension data. I had to do the usual procedure of closing Brave again just to reopen it in order to clear the previous session’s cache.

Brave, Version 1.75.161 Chromium: 132.0.6834.83 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)

@o_xerxes,
Thank you for testing and confirming. Truly unclear as to why this is happening (or not happening).

This behavior should be pretty straight forward. Can you try testing for me (like right now — no need to shutdown the PC) and tell me if you select only one data type (lets say “Download History” for example) whether or not this one data type gets cleared?

  1. Launch Brave, download something (literally anything — maybe just images off a search)
  2. Check download list and ensure that what you just downloaded appears here
  3. Return to Settings --> Delete browsing data --> On exit
  4. Check only the Download history option and ensure everything else is left unchecked
  5. Click save
  6. Close the browser
  7. Relaunch the browser

Are the downloaded items still present?

1 Like

@Mattches
Done.

I downloaded the Brave icon svg from the header of this site, which then appeared in the download history. Unchecked all “On Exit” settings, except “Download History” and then relaunched the browser.

The download history has been deleted, as expected.


(Just to be clear, the screenshot is from after the relaunch, which is why it says 0 items)

@o_xerxes,
Interesting. Can you try the same test again, but this time do so for both Passwords and other sign-in data and Cookie and other site data (both checked). Check those boxes, login to a site or two, then go ahead and close and relaunch the browser and check to see if you are still logged in to those sites on relaunch.

1 Like

@Mattches,

I normally have Brave’s password manager settings disabled:

Settings > Autofill and passwords > Password Manager > Settings:

  • Offer to save passwords and passkeys: Off
  • Sign in automatically: Off

For this test, I enabled Offer to save passwords and passkeys, but left Sign in automatically disabled.


I signed into Twitch and then changed the “On Exit” settings to match your response. Refreshed and reopened the tabs, just to make sure (idk) and then relaunched Brave.

  • Cookies have been deleted and Twitch and other websites are not signed in
  • Brave’s Password Manager data has been wiped
  • LastPass extension has been signed out (good)


(Before relaunching Brave)


I started writing part of this response here, before doing these steps. Once I relaunched Brave and logged back in to respond, my response was still written out. I’m not sure if that’s the browser caching, or if it’s a feature of your site through my account, but I thought I should mention it.
Edit: I think it’s more likely that it’s the website caching it server-side, actually

@o_xerxes

:point_up: Yes, this is a feature of Discourse (the forum software used for this site).

So it seems like the On exit functionality is working as intended…mostly. I suppose the next step would be to try again, and check all the options you normally would, close the browser then relaunch and see if it continues to work.

Not sure why but perhaps there is some weird bug occurring when a certain number (or certain combination) of options are selected here.

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@Mattches

Yea, I’m really not sure. Like I said, relaunching Brave will usually work as intended, maybe 95% of the time. The other 5% is completely random upon relaunch.

I can even shutdown/restart my PC, in an attempt to try and intentionally reproduce the bug, and again, the On-Exit settings will work as intended, seemingly every time. But, after shutting down, and starting up my PC after a long time (usually the next day/morning), it’s pretty much guaranteed to retain data that it shouldn’t.

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Yeah very strange. I’ve asked some team members if they have any idea as to why this might be happening so lets wait to see what they say. In the meantime, tonight go ahead and make sure everything is checked and shutdown your PC like you normally would and let me know if the issue occurs again when you boot back up.

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