Sync stopped working after updating to 1.51.110

Browser Support Sync
1

Description of the issue:
I get a message at the top of the Brave window saying “Sync service could not be started, Brave Sync is not working”.
And sure enough, Sync is not working.

Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary): 1. 2. 3.

  1. Start Brave
  2. Get warning about Sync service not being started.
  3. Sync is actually not working

Reproduces how often:
every time

Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu):
Version 1.51.110 Chromium: 113.0.5672.77 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Type of devices currently running on the Sync chain in question:

  • Linux computers
  • Android phone

Additional Information:
After updating to the latest version I noticed that Sync was not working anymore.

This happened on 2 Linux computers:

  • one running Debian 11
  • one running Fedora 37

Both computers run KDE Plasma (albeit different versions: 5.20.5 on Debian and 5.27.4 on Fedora).

I checked and the KDE wallet is open and there’s an entry for “Brave Safe Storage” there.

4 Likes
2

could you go to brave://sync-internals and click on request start ?

3

I clicked “Request Start” multiple times, but nothing happens.

Here’s the “Dump status” from brave://sync-internals/:

======
Status
======
{
  "actionable_error": [
    {
      "stat_name": "Error Type",
      "stat_status": "uninitialized",
      "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
    },
    {
      "stat_name": "Action",
      "stat_status": "uninitialized",
      "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
    },
    {
      "stat_name": "Error Description",
      "stat_status": "uninitialized",
      "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
    }
  ],
  "actionable_error_detected": false,
  "details": [
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Transport State",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "Disabled"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "User Actionable Error",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "None"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Disable Reasons",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "Not signed in"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Sync Feature Enabled",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Setup In Progress",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Auth Error",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "OK since browser startup"
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Summary"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Client Version",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "Brave Browser Linux 113.1.51.110 (c4236862955e005c2187105415ac4a2ecf86dff1-refs/branch-heads/5672_62@{#3})"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Server URL",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "https://sync-v2.brave.com/v2"
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Version Info"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Requested Token",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "n/a"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Received Token Response",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "n/a"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Last Token Request Result",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "OK"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Has Token",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Next Token Request",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "not scheduled"
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Credentials"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Server Connection",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "not attempted"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Last Synced",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": "Never"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Sync First-Time Setup Complete",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": true
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Sync Cycle Ongoing",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Local Sync Backend Enabled",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Local Backend Path",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Local State"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Throttled or Backoff",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Retry Time",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Notifications Enabled",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Network"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Explicit Passphrase",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Passphrase Required",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Cryptographer Ready To Encrypt",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Cryptographer Has Pending Keys",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Encrypted Types",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Has Keystore Key",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": false
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Keystore Migration Time",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Passphrase Type",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Explicit passphrase Time",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Trusted Vault Migration Time",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Trusted Vault Version/Epoch",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Encryption"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Sync Source",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "GetKey Step Result",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Download Step Result",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Commit Step Result",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": "Uninitialized"
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Status from Last Completed Session"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Notifications Received",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Updates Downloaded",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Tombstone Updates",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Successful Commits",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Running Totals"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Server Conflicts",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Committed Items",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Transient Counters (this cycle)"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Updates Downloaded",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Committed Count",
          "stat_status": "uninitialized",
          "stat_value": 0
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Transient Counters (last cycle of last completed session)"
    },
    {
      "data": [
        {
          "stat_name": "Passphrase is set",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": true
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "Passphrase decryption failed",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": true
        },
        {
          "stat_name": "OS encryption available",
          "stat_status": "",
          "stat_value": false
        }
      ],
      "is_sensitive": false,
      "title": "Brave Sync"
    }
  ],
  "type_status": [],
  "unrecoverable_error_detected": false
}
4

@Alexey could you assist ?
Seen you assisting on issues relating to sync. Thanks!

1 Like
5

Hello,

Let me try to help.

@clupasq it seems it is related to Brave Safe Storage .

Could you please share your Brave Sync section from brave://sync-internals/ . It may look like
image

Thanks.

6

Sure, here it is:

image

7

thanks @clupasq

yes, Passphrase decryption failed indicates that issue happens because sync could not decrypt own seed to start work.

In this case in addition to sync, password manager and security cookies are also not working.

Not sure why this may happen. Could you just in case check, is brave-keyring installed:
apt list --installed | grep brave ?

8 
$> apt list --installed | grep brave

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

brave-browser/stable,now 1.51.110 amd64 [installed]
brave-keyring/stable,now 1.13 all [installed,automatic]
1 Like
9

thanks, at least brave-keyring is installed

Could you please do these steps, to find more details, why decryption fails:

  1. Close browser
  2. Open terminal
  3. Run the command in terminal
    /opt/brave.com/brave/brave --enable-logging=stderr --v=0 -vmodule=*/os_crypt/*=3
  4. Look on log messages on the top, maybe there is something about decryption with additional details?
  5. Close browser and open it from the regular shortcut.
10

at step 3
/opt/brave.com/brave/brave --enable-logging=stderr --v=0 -vmodule=*/os_crypt/*=3

11

Here are the relevant bits:

[414382:414382:0505/161708.067234:WARNING:chrome_main_delegate.cc(589)] This is Chrome version 113.1.51.110 (not a warning)
[414382:414382:0505/161708.095311:WARNING:chrome_browser_cloud_management_controller.cc(87)] Could not create policy manager as CBCM is not enabled.
[414382:414382:0505/161708.443862:VERBOSE1:key_storage_util_linux.cc(54)] Password storage detected desktop environment: KDE5
[414382:414382:0505/161708.443877:VERBOSE1:key_storage_linux.cc(121)] Selected backend for OSCrypt: KWALLET5
[414382:414382:0505/161708.446628:VERBOSE1:key_storage_linux.cc(204)] OSCrypt using KWallet as backend.
[414382:414382:0505/161708.448372:ERROR:chrome_browser_cloud_management_controller.cc(162)] Cloud management controller initialization aborted as CBCM is not enabled.
[414382:414382:0505/161708.466214:VERBOSE1:os_crypt_linux.cc(216)] Decryption failed: could not get the key
[414382:414382:0505/161708.466248:ERROR:brave_sync_prefs.cc(132)] Decrypt sync seed failure
[414382:414382:0505/161708.486974:WARNING:external_provider_impl.cc(512)] Malformed extension dictionary for extension: odbfpeeihdkbihmopkbjmoonfanlbfcl.  Key external_update_url has value "", which is not a valid URL.
MESA-INTEL: warning: Performance support disabled, consider sysctl dev.i915.perf_stream_paranoid=0

[414382:414382:0505/161708.577910:VERBOSE1:os_crypt_linux.cc(216)] Decryption failed: could not get the key
[414382:414382:0505/161708.577936:ERROR:brave_sync_prefs.cc(132)] Decrypt sync seed failure
[414382:414382:0505/161708.591864:WARNING:bluez_dbus_manager.cc(247)] Floss manager not present, cannot set Floss enable/disable.
[414439:414439:0505/161708.655747:WARNING:sandbox_linux.cc(393)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
1 Like
12

I just opened another computer that I haven’t upgraded yet.
Also Debian 11 + KDE.
Brave: Version 1.50.125 Chromium: 112.0.5615.165 (Official Build) (64-bit)

The sync works fine, just as before.

Here are the corresponding logs:

WARNING:chrome_main_delegate.cc(594)] This is Chrome version 112.1.50.125 (not a warning)
WARNING:chrome_browser_cloud_management_controller.cc(87)] Could not create policy manager as CBCM is not enabled.
VERBOSE1:key_storage_util_linux.cc(54)] Password storage detected desktop environment: KDE5
VERBOSE1:key_storage_linux.cc(121)] Selected backend for OSCrypt: KWALLET5
VERBOSE1:key_storage_linux.cc(204)] OSCrypt using KWallet as backend.
ERROR:chrome_browser_cloud_management_controller.cc(162)] Cloud management controller initialization aborted as CBCM is not enabled.
 support disabled, consider sysctl dev.i915.perf_stream_paranoid=0

WARNING:external_provider_impl.cc(503)] Malformed extension dictionary for extension: odbfpeeihdkbihmopkbjmoonfanlbfcl.  Key external_update_url has value "", which is not a valid URL.
WARNING:sandbox_linux.cc(393)] InitializeSandbox() called with multiple threads in process gpu-process.
WARNING:bluez_dbus_manager.cc(247)] Floss manager not present, cannot set Floss enable/disable.

Also, the diff between the “not working” logs (top) and the “working” ones (bottom):

image
image1113×633 203 KB

I think the most important part is in green, in the top panel.

2 Likes
13

thanks for the help @clupasq

With the details you gave I also could reproduce it on my VM, GitHub issue, so working on it.

1 Like
14

Just to let you know, I am also having this issue on Arch/EndeavourOS with the latest binary release. Tried downgrading but it had the issue too. Not sure if the latest release corrupted the configurations or this old release was broken too.

15

Same on Kubuntu 22.04 + Version 1.51.110 Chromium: 113.0.5672.77

16

Also, if useful to know, the Brave Safe Storage Key exists in my KWallet, and has a value. The value looks a little short to me, compared to the tokens we saw shared around when setting up sync. 22 encoded digits (prolly base64) plus ==

17

Ah, just saw the release uplift on github. Thanks @Alexey !

18

Same issue on both my Kde Neon desktops on upgrading to v1.51.110

19

I’m having same issue with openSUSE Tumbleweed

20

“Disable Sync” removed all my sync’ed devices and I had to start over, but Sync engine restarted and now it works properly. Great! Thanks!

1 Like