On a Mac you can have different desktops open… when you have Brave windows organized in each desktop and relaunch Brave for an update they do not re-open in the desktops that you had them in… it’s quite frustrating as Safari, Chrome, Firefox all re-open in the correct desktop.
Is there any chance that you could fix this??
I too find it super annoying.
When I restart the computer, macOS remembers on which virtual desktops the windows were open. But when updating Brave, all the windows are piled on the first virtual desktop, and I need to spend a minute moving them back to the correct desktops.
Restarting macOS when Brave shows “Relaunch Brave to finish updating” doesn’t update Brave, so that doesn’t work as a workaround either. 
Thirding this. If I relaunch brave, once I select my user profile after relaunching, all open windows are dumped into Desktop 1. I have to go through each, remember which desktop they were in, and move each accordingly.
Interestingly, if I Force Quit Brave, the windows do get placed into the original desktop they were located in.
I have the same problem. It’s just a huge hassle to move my windows to the right spaces after each browser update.
After so many years this issue has to be resolved. I don’t see that this would be difficult as other browsers like Firefox can do it for a long time.
Updating that as of the most recent version of Brave, Version 1.66.113, I am still experiencing this issue on MacOS.
Windows tend to go back to the right desktop after a Force Quit of Brave, but upon Relaunching Brave, such as after updates– all Brave windows open in one desktop, rather than their original location.
Issue persists after most recent Brave update- Version 1.66.115 Chromium: 125.0.6422.112 (Official Build).
Am also encountering a new window opened at launch with an empty tab for every existing open window. (e.g. if total 12 windows open at time of relaunching Brave, 24 windows will open at next launch; the 12 original windows, and 12 new windows with a single empty tab in each.)
It’s a shame nobody cares. I saw so many topics here which were auto closed and nothing happened. I’m considering switching to another browser.
Still occurring as of recent Brave update, Version 1.67.119 Chromium: 126.0.6478.114 (Official Build).
I tried testing if having an external display connected was causing the issue, since after relaunch it would at least put my external display Brave windows back to the external display, while everything else opened in Desktop 1 on my Macbook. Disconnecting my external display did not fix things however- all windows were dumped into Desktop 1 on my Macbook.
Still encountering issue as of latest update, Version 1.68.128 Chromium: 127.0.6533.73 (Official Build) (arm64).
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Apologies for letting this thread close without a proper response. I’m wondering if anyone here can tell me if they are still encountering this issue after updating to the latest stable build (v1.70.126 at the time of writing this)?
Thank you
Still encountering.
Version 1.70.126 Chromium: 129.0.6668.100 (Official Build) (arm64),
macOS Sequoia 15.0
Including after a Force Quit of Brave, which in the past, usually did not lead to this issue for me. And unsure if related, but the additional startup issue noted above in Reply #5, in which a new empty window is opened at launch for every pre-existing open window, continues to occur- not after every relaunch, but frequently (have not been able to discern any pattern yet).
For this one I think this issue describes that behavior:
Not sure about what is causing the original macOS desktop issue that users here facing though. For anyone here experiencing it, does it happen only after relaunching after an update? Or is it after any type of browser relaunch? Browser windows always appear in the correct spots for me on my macOS (Sonoma) machine — three desktops across three different monitors.
I don’t feel like it’s profile specific but would it be possible for anyone here to either create a new profile and test to see if this behavior is the same? Alternatively, you could try downloding the Beta build of the browser and testing to see if that produces the same results as well.
Thanks for providing the Github link, it is a different issue than that one though. It is a normal new window that is being opened (multiplied by however many windows existed before relaunching)- one that looks exactly the same as if I had intentionally opened a new window.
Regarding the main issue discussed in this thread:
It previously used to only happen when relaunching after an update, but it happens in more contexts now. For example, it also happens after Force Quitting on Mac (previously, Force Quit was a reliable way for me to retain window positioning next time I launched Brave).
I can confirm it happens across all Brave profiles on my machine. And on two separate Macbooks, both with dual monitor setups (whether they are connected or disconnected to external monitor). Both logged into the same Brave Sync profile.
I have not tested whether the issue occurs with an entirely new profile, but can report back once I test. Will also try with the beta build.
@jojojojo,
Additionally would it be possible for you to share a short screen recording of the behavior so I can get a clearer picture of what exactly is happening?
@Mattches Can confirm this behavior is repeating for me with an entirely new profile as well.
Currently using Version 1.73.89 Chromium: 131.0.6778.69 (Official Build) (arm64). MacOS 15.0.1.
I have not yet tested this on the beta build yet- would need to do this on a separate machine as I don’t want to risk losing my 20+ active Brave windows on my primary machine.
@jojojojo,
After doing some digging, it looks like this might actually be a macOS issue, rather than a Brave specific issue. I’m curious to know if Brave and/or Chromium based browsers are the only applications in which this issue occurs? For example, if you were to open Chrome in a similar configuration across your desktops, then try to reproduce the issue, do you see the same behavior?
Ah, good thought- I just tried Chrome and the same behavior is reproducing (did same test from my previous message). I never used Chrome nor any other Chromium based browsers as my primary browser (I migrated from Safari → Brave), so I can’t confidently say how long Chrome has been ignoring which desktop each window was open in.
Safari works as intended- windows open up where they were prior to quitting.