Clearing Cache/Cookies on Exit

Browser Support Desktop Support
, , , ,
21

@Mattches,

I tired something different this time, and the settings worked as they were supposed to.

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

Normally, at the end of my session, I’d close Brave and then shutdown my PC right after. This time, I instead:

  1. Closed and relaunched Brave.
    • Cookies, extension and other data were cleared, as expected.
  2. Signed into my password manager extension (LastPass), and a few sites so I’d have something to check against (Twitch, Netflix & this forum)
  3. Exited Brave again, as I normally would and then shutdown my PC.

8-10 hours later, I turn my PC on, and upon launching Brave, all site/extension data had been cleared as intended.

So I’m not sure what’s going on. I’ll repeat the same process again tonight and see if I get the same working-as-expected results. After that, I’ll go back to my typical routine, and see if I get the issues that I’ve been having.
Maybe it’s something to do with how long I have my session open?..

Just to add as many details as possible, I usually sign-in to my emails using an incognito window. In this case, Twitch required an authentication code, and so I used an incognito window to sign-in during this test.

This window is normally open until I exit Brave, but I’ve always made a point to close it before closing the main Brave window.

22

Just an update:

I was just closing/relaunching Brave before shutting down my PC to repeat yesterday’s test and no data was wiped. All cookies and extension data were still present. No noticeable differences from typical use.

I had an incognito window open which I closed first. Then I closed and relaunched Brave. All tabs were closed (except pinned), but my extension was still logged in, and so were any websites I had previously signed-in to.

Just a side note:
I have opened/closed the incognito browser a few times during this same session with the primary window still open/active; signed-in/out of various things.

I’ll still close/relaunch Brave again until the data has wiped before shutting down my PC, and repeat yesterday’s test.

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

Edit:

After a few tries, I couldn’t actually get Brave to delete the data when exiting. I checked the Task Manager, and there were still a few lingering Brave processes, along with what I assume is the main process. It had 11 sub-processes, and was using 500mb memory and 0% CPU usage. Brave was fully closed at this time, and I have Continue running background apps when Brave is closed disabled.

I killed the process and reopened Brave. All tabs were closed, including my pinned tabs, but I was shown a popup offering to restore session, saying Brave hadn’t shutdown correctly. I pressed accept, and my pinned tabs were restored, but all extension and site data was wiped. I then relaunched Brave again, and signed in to write this update.

I sometimes use New private window with Tor as a sort of a secondary incognito window, when I don’t want to close the first. Is it possible that when closing one of these other windows, they aren’t actually fully closed? And therefore holding the current session hostage? Although, that wouldn’t really make sense, since it’s a separate session from the normal Brave window.

I should also mention that I don’t always use Tor, and so it’s not always a variable to my problem. But the main incognito could be, as I use that very frequently.

23

Re unanswered posts… yeah copy that. Sigh.

24

@Mattches,

Day 2 of doing the same shutdown routine and after launching my PC & Brave, all data has been wiped and is working as expected. From now on, I’m going back to shutting down as I normally do, without the relaunch-before-shutdown process.

25

@Boston,

I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. Are you having the same issues as I’ve been having?

26

You had mentioned that you were having issues with unanswered posts and I’m experiencing the same. I submitted my issue and followed up 2 or 3 times asking for a moderator / Brave employee to reply but got nothing. Different technical topic, but same issue regarding not getting a reply.

27

@Mattches,

So I’m back to shutting down my PC as I normally do (without relaunching Brave first), and the browser doesn’t wipe any data when I continue the next day…

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

  • Relaunching Brave will clear intended data 90% of the time
  • The other random instances, Brave remains running in the background once closed, and still retains data upon relaunch
    • Must be killed in Task Manager
  • Relaunching, and then closing Brave just before shutdown will work as intended on next start-up
  • If Brave is not relaunched before shutdown, data has a very high chance to persist on next launch, the next day
28

@o_xerxes given the inconsistent behavior on this I’m not sure what else we can do/check/suggest with respect to fixing this issue. Additionally, a couple of team members have reported back to me saying that they cannot reproduce the issue either.

Can you please tell me what specific extensions you have installed in the browser? Is it just LastPass?

29

@Mattches,

given the inconsistent behavior

While relaunching might sometimes be hit or miss, launching after PC start-up is a pretty sure thing, happening almost every time. The only time it doesn’t happen is when I relaunch Brave before shutdown.

Can you please tell me what specific extensions you have installed in the browser?

30

I’d be interested to see if this has anything to do with any of those extensions — would you be willing to test the behavior with those extensions disabled?

31

It would be a couple days of pain for sure, especially without LastPass, but I could have the release version of Brave open in the background in order to get login details when I need them.

I’ve been using the beta version of the browser since this topic, so I’ll continue with it for now. I’ll uninstall/delete all extensions and relaunch Brave to get it back to a “clean” state. I’ll let you know tomorrow if I still have the same issues.

This will not be fun

32

As a work around if you are running on MacOS or GNU/LINUX you could give this wrapper script a try.

start-private-browser.bash

You may access help by running the script with the help argument :

eg :smile:
chmod 755 /path/to/start-private-browser.bash
/path/to/start-private-browser.bash --help

What this script is doing is starting up a version of brave which stores the data in a different place each time it is called. This lets you start as many separate instances of brave as you like.

Then when you close the last window all the data from that session is also deleted.

Maybe it helps you out in the mean time. Fingers crossed.

33

@wonder89

Sadly, I’m using Windows, but thank you.

@Mattches,

After a couple days of running without any extensions installed, so far, all previous issues have not come up. Restarting my PC has cleared the cache/cookies upon next launch. This is great, however, there is one thing that’s still very strange to me.

Like I said, for this test, I was going to use the beta version of Brave as my main browser, and the release version on the side just to have access to my login info through LastPass. But, strangely, now even the release version behaves as normal, deleting any cache/cookie data on-exit/when I next start-up my PC. Nothing has changed with my installed release version, and it’s the same as when I made this post. The only change is how I use it now.

As you can imagine, the release version mostly just remains idle in the background until I need login info. Could it be that I’m doing something during a session that is “activating” the bug? Maybe also in combination with an extension?

I mentioned before that I often open/close incognito sessions throughout the day, but that never happens in the release version while it’s idle in the background. And for the beta version (my current main browser) the awkwardness of getting login info makes me a little reluctant to constantly close/open it, so I probably do it far less than I normally would.

Regardless, I’ll slowly start adding extensions back and see what happens. Maybe LastPass first? I’m not sure…

34

It could be the case that something was fixed in the latest update that resolved the issue “for free”. Or the issue could still be present and, as you suggested, only occurs when a specific “action” of some kind triggers it. I am interested to know if the issue will start occurring again in the Beta build you’re using as you start adding extensions back in.

That said, if you get to a point where it seems like both browsers work as intended every time they’re closed/PC is shut down you can probably switch back to using the stable build as you were before and we can reasonably assume that something came along with the update to v1.74.50 that fixed the issue.

35

@Mattches,

On the 13th post of this topic, I was already on beta v1.75.161, and I was still describing the issues.

Regardless, I’ve had only LastPass installed for a day or two now, and I’ve had no issues. I’ll keep slowly adding the extensions back.

Brave, Version 1.75.169 Chromium: 132.0.6834.111 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)

1 Like
36

Thank you for the update and willingness to continue troubleshooting the issue with me. Will keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

1 Like
37

@Mattches,

Hi. Sorry for such a late update.

I’m still using the beta version of Brave, and I’m back to my original extensions. So far, I haven’t had any issues. Soooo… I have no idea what the issue is/was. I’m going to go back to the release version of Brave and work backwards, I guess.

It’s always when you need to demonstrate something, it never works out :slight_smile:

Brave, Version 1.75.178 Chromium: 133.0.6943.98 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Brave, Version 1.76.58 Chromium: 133.0.6943.98 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)

1 Like
38

An easy thing I use in between closing/reopening browser: You know mid session…
I have a couple tabs whitelisted everything else remove on browser close.
This can take 48hours or more… Solution for me is this:

brave-::settings:content:all
brave-::settings:content:all1400×874 47.4 KB

brave://settings/content/all
Gives you the overview of sites visited you can remove during your long sesh.

39

One thing I stubled upon was this very useful kinda hidden away version of deletebrowsing data brave://settings/content/all
Basically the same as in Firefox etc where YOU can choose what to remove.

Overe here you can customie what to remove on shutdown or not store at anytime
brave://settings/content/siteData

40

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.