Download fails silently after choosing location to download - fixed in Ubuntu by installing xdg-desktop-portal

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@20252025 Also for what it’s worth, I pinged ChatGPT to see what suggestions it might have. I’m not as familiar with Linux. For now, also wanted to share the below for what it’s worth, in addition to my prior reply.

Not sure if any of it will help, but seems fairly legit and may give more clues. Beyond that, may just rely on @Mattches. Can reference https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/42473 as may be related and I just am doing a +1 now for your topic as well as one from another language that posted today.

:test_tube: Suggested Next Steps:

  1. Run Brave with Verbose Logging
    This might reveal errors related to the download process:

    brave-browser --enable-logging=stderr --v=1 2>&1 | tee brave-log.txt

    Then attempt a PDF download and inspect the brave-log.txt output for any errors or warnings.

  2. Check Brave’s Internal Logs
    Look inside:

    ~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser-Nightly/Default

    See if there’s a file like chrome_debug.log. If so, delete it first, reproduce the issue, then check for new content.

  3. Test in an X11 Session Instead of Wayland
    Since you’re using Wayland, try logging out and choosing “Ubuntu on Xorg” from the login screen, then repeat the download steps. Some file dialogs and permissions behave differently under Wayland.

  4. Try Chromium (Vanilla)
    Install Chromium using:

    sudo apt install chromium-browser

    Then test the same PDF download. If Chromium also fails, the issue may stem from a shared Chromium/GTK/Wayland layer, not Brave specifically.

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