Sync simply locking-up entire browser tab. Does not work

Browser Support Desktop Support
1

Cannot enable Sync on a new install of Brave Browser (release or Nightly) on a new laptop with a new install of Windows 10 (all updates applied)
How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Install Brave. Go to Sync settings. Copy and paste in the sync words. Press the button to confirm/accept. Tab locks-up. Sync never works.

Expected result:
It should work. It works on 3 other laptops on the same network. And on various mobile devices.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
Latest Release (also affects latest nightly. Uninstalled Nightly, installed Release - same problem)

Additional Information:
None. I’ve never seen it behave this way. I can’t see anything ‘under the hood’. It’s not producing any onscreen errors. The entire tab locks-up. Other tabs seem unaffected.

2

The forum suggested some threads that seemed similar, but only after I posted this one. The suggestions before-hand did not come close.

I read that, which seemed to indicate more information can be seen by going to brave://sync-internals/. There’s no reference to that on the Sync page.

On the right-hand side, on the device that would just lock up on the tab, it was showing “Initial GetUpdates” then “GetUpdates Response” with an “Received error: Protocol error (THROTTLED)”

Looking at the detail of the message (clicking on it), “exceed limit of active devices in a chain”

Ah, ok. Finally, a usable error message in plain language. See, was it really that difficult? to code in a notification to end-users, when it fails and why? Better than completely locking up the browser tab, and not allowing anyone to click on anything, with no error whatsoever.

Going to the list of devices on a brave/laptop/windows10 device, that was on the sync chain already: The problem is an underlying design-flaw in Brave Sync. Devices on the chain, are labelled according to the manufacturer. If you have several of a single type of device, it all appears as the same device name - there is no way to tell the sync devices apart. There’s no way to rename, them, either.

Also, the X remove feature, does not work. It does nothing at all. Yes, it prompts the user to confirm, if they want to remove the device, but then it does nothing, not a damn thing. How long has Brave sync been around? And it’s still this buggy.

3

Ok, the convoluted and unnecessarily complex workaround for the bugs in Brave sync:

  1. Use a mobile device (android) to guess which nodes to delete. You don’t actually know, because no information is shown on mobile, beyond the Make & Model of devices on the chain, which can be duplicated many times. Therefore, that does not help, until the bugs are fixed. The desktop/laptop version of Brave, shows you a date next to the make/model of the device, and sorts them, from newest to oldest activity, but does not let you remove them when this error-lockup is encountered, even on a device that was already on the chain (for instance, another laptop with sync previously enabled and working). The only solace, is the android device you are currently viewing the Sync chain settings on, will show (this device) next to the name. Don’t remove that one!

  2. With the remaining actively-used devices, go to each one, and open up Brave. From their Brave sync settings, remove them from the current Sync chain (don’t delete it!), and use the sync passphrase from the device in step 1, to add devices back onto to the chain.

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