How to turn this off: "Brave blocked this file because this type of file is dangerous."

Just like it says in the subject line: I want to turn this off.

I looked through the database
setting brave://settings/security to “off” does not work, nor did it for the other posters it seems.

Description of the issue:
Brave stops some files from downloading and does not inform me that it has decided to “protect” me from myself. Instead, when I go looking for the file I clicked to download, nothing is there because of this “feature”.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Launch Brave
  2. visit https://www.resilio.com/individuals/
  3. click on the button that says “Free Download” (top button, red-orange)
  4. choose “Download Free Sync Home” (on the left)
  5. watch your Downloads folder on the Dock bounce indicating the file was downloaded
  6. watch the useless animation in Brave scoot a ghost fairy or something up to the Downloads icon on the Brave extensions bar
  7. BELIEVE deep in your heart that your file is on your computer because TWO pieces of software—one of which is BRAVE—have visually confirmed this for you!!
  8. get ready to open that sweet file
  9. your ‘palms are sweaty , knees weak, arms are heavy’ … but there’s nothing there because BRAVE don’t care to tell you that it is a liar
  10. get pissed, get angry, vow revenge on the idiot who thought this was great idea—plot to find them and then stand over them for the rest of their lives (or maybe just a week or two) asking them if they are sure what they did is actually what they wanted to do, for their protection that they did not ask for and probably do not need and cannot easily disable because making people do is better than letting them choose to do …

That is all this “feature” is doing … asking me if I am sure this is what I want, as in do I really want this .dmg file because like, you know, like, it could really, like, harm, like my computer

But this is dumb and unhelpful because BRAVE does not tell me how this file could harm my computer.

Actual Result (gifs and screenshots are welcome!):
No file is downloaded
I was not able to successfully take a screenshot without my middle finger ending up in the capture somehow, so you will have to imagine what it looks like when you click to download a file and the Downloads folder in the Dock bounces like it got that file and the website you downloaded from thanks you for downloading and Brave does a big over-action to show you that the file is in the downloads

Expected Result:
the file should be in my Downloads folder because MacOS and Brave showed me that that was what happened.

Reproduces how often:
Every time Brave, not me, decides some file is naughty (?), sus (?), from the wrong side of the tracks (?)

Seriously, how was the list of files-that-might-harm-your-computer decided? Where is this list? Why can’t I see the list? Why can’t I edit the list? This is privacy issue, by the way, I hope Brave devs can grok that.

Brave Version:
Version 1.58.131 Chromium: 117.0.5938.92 (Official Build) (arm64)

Reproducible on current live release:
Yes, If I knew which version added this file nanny, I would rollback to that. If this file

Additional information:
MacOS 13.6 (Ventura)

  • I never want to see this file nanny again.
  • I want this “feature” to die, die, die, die, die in a cold box of moldy pop tarts.
  • I think whomever thought this was a good idea should get the heck out of my computer and stop trying to be my mom/teacher/babysitter/nanny/hero.
  • It is not helpful.
  • It is saving anyone
  • It is not useful.
  • It is not intuitive.
  • It is anti-user.
  • It is closed, not open (Hello? I want to edit the list of “harmful” files).
  • It is fake security.
  • It is control.
  • Have I articulated clearly how silly this feature is and how deep my disdain for it is?

Yes, and next time maybe just provide the details of the issue, because what the additional angry rhetoric and “comedy” just makes it longer to read/sift through to find the useful information and in itself is “not helpful”.

As for the issue, I believe this to be a function of the “safe browsing” feature, but I’m not clear on why disabling it didn’t resolve the issue. It may have to do with the fact that you’re several updates behind (which includes updates to the safe browsing feature itself), because I was able to download the file you linked to without any issue with Safe Browsing on.

I’ve reached out to the team for some additional input here — in the meantime, do you have any extensions installed at this time? Additionally, is it only this website that you cannot download from? Or is it any website you try get a .dmg from?

Isn’t Safe Browsing only for websites, not for files?

1 Like

@FYNBSB,
Have you always had Safe Browsing disabled or did you just disable it for this? If you have always had it disabled, I actually think you might need to enable it to get around this issue.

If you only disabled it for this issue or if enabling it still doesn’t allow you to download the file, you can use the Override download danger level flag at your own risk —

Simply go to brave://flags and search for it and set it to Enabled.

1 Like

There are two components to Safe Browsing:

  1. browsing protection: checks URLs you visit against a local list of bad (phishing, malware, etc.) sites.
  2. download protection: checks download files against local lists and a reputation service operated by Google

See https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/15222663599629-Safe-Browsing-in-Brave for the details of how this works in Brave.

2 Likes

Update. Got it.
Updating produces the same confusing behaviors, e.g. going through the over-actions of “hey your download is in the Downloads folder” completely useless and misleading waste of system resources which is just a New Jersey salute to the user …

TLDR / too many words to sift through:
updating Brave does not fix the problem or make anything less ridiculous

It is any website I want to download a .dmg file from.

I have 8-10 extensions enabled but none of them are about downloads … so kind of a dead end, no? Anyway here is the list for shucks and giggles:

  • Allow Right-Click
  • Google Chat thread links & quote reply
  • Styler Beta
  • Draftback
  • Color Tab
  • Google Docs Offline
  • Google Translate
  • Tab Count
  • Toggle JavaScript
  • Close Duplicate Tab
  • GChat copy thread link & quote reply
  • OneTab
  • Tweaks for Google Chat

This is the best advice, because it removes the mommy-knows-better-than-you nonsense erroneously and belligerently mislabeled as “safe browsing”.

TLDR / too many words to sift through:
Setting the Override download danger level flag to Enabled makes the download warning go away and files download as expected.

FINALLY, as a wordsmith and an amateur grammarian, I take great issue with the misleading language around this whole implementation of “safe browsing”. ALL of the language about what it is, what it does, why it is there, what it is doing for you is misleading.

If “safe browsing” is not going to download files, then Brave should not have an animation which suggests the file is downloading when it is in fact not downloading at all.

It is disingenuous. But I would go farther and say that Brave’s developers have not thought this function or the UI implications through which misleads the user. I think this is malicious laziness, whether it was a deliberate decision to think about the UI animations of “safe browsing” or not, the end result is that is makes Brave a liar.

What should happen when “safe browsing” is triggered is a different animation to call the user’s attention to the Downloads folder. This could be as simple as a yellow exclamation point appearing on the icon or perhaps even an alert informing the user that the file they expect to be downloaded or downloading is not downloaded and has not even started to download.

The user needs to know that downloading the file requires a specific action from them when their file is considered unsafe.

Thank you for this URL, it is a very informative read.