Visiting any brave.com page throws 503 error

Browser Support
,
1

Description of the issue:
Brave update on Macbook does not work, saying “Can’t update Brave”.

Visiting https://brave.com/latest/ result into 503 ERROR “The request could not be satisfied.”

I am not sure if the following behaviours are relate, but I’ll share:

  1. Leo also fails with message “There was a network issue connecting to Leo. Check your connection and try again.”

  2. In general, it seems anything that needs to access to https://brave.com/ fails with the 503 error including /downloads and /latest

The sites are perfectly accessible when using Private Window With Tor. The behaviour is the same on mobile.

This has been the case for a at least a few weeks.

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

Actual Result (gifs and screenshots are welcome!):

Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.07.32
Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.07.323456×472 156 KB

Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.08.27
Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.08.271480×1302 81.4 KB

Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.08.57
Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.08.571920×403 43.4 KB

Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.14.13
Screenshot 2025-04-12 at 18.14.13934×1890 86.6 KB

Expected result:

  1. Updates to work.
  2. brave.com to be accessible

Reproduces how often:

Always.

Operating System and Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu):

Version 1.75.178 Chromium: 133.0.6943.98 (Official Build) (arm64)

Additional Information:

2

@kwaninilazima

Disable ALL extensions that you may have added to Brave Browser.

For downloading the installer (mentioned later, herein) and viewing instructions online, use another Internet browser.

Test, using that other Internet brower, to reach:

  • https://brave.com
  • https://github.com
  • https://support.apple.com

IF NOT successful, see note, at end of this reply.

IF successful, proceed:

The following steps apply to the Mac.

Versions of Brave Browser stable releases:

https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/blob/master/CHANGELOG_DESKTOP.md

Click on the latest Brave Browser version number; and in the resulting window:

Scroll down to and download the universal installer:

Screen Shot 2025-02-18 at 7.33.44 AM

Where Brave Browser has usually been installed on the Mac:

/Applications/Brave Browser.app

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Brave Browser ... .plist

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/

/Users/username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Brave Browser ... .crash

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.brave.Browser.plist

/Users/username/Library/Saved Application State/com.brave.Browser.savedState/

And the “Brave Browser … .diag” reports within:

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

You might not find:

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware

. . . do not worry about that.

After studying that Brave Browser (MacOS) installation structure, locate the BraveSoftware folder at:

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware/

Backup that BraveSoftware folder to a safe location ← meaning, NOT in any Brave Browser installation path. Best, to also copy that folder to an external drive.

Study how to start up your Mac into Safe Mode:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac

Exit / Quit everything and Shut Down your Mac, per the instructions re Safe Mode.

After the Mac starts up in Safe Mode, follow the “Verify your Mac started up in safe mode”, per the instructions re Safe Mode.

IF not verified, repeat the steps to start up in Safe Mode.

IF verified, Delete the following 3 items:

The BraveSofware folder at:

  • /Users/username/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware/

The com.brave.Browser folder at:

  • /Users/username/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/

The com.brave.Browser.savedState folder at:

  • /Users/username/Library/Saved Application State/com.brave.Browser.savedState/

Shut Down the Mac. Wait a minute. Proceed with a normal Start of the Mac.

Run the installer:

Screen Shot 2025-02-18 at 7.33.44 AM

PS. If you are not able to reliably connect to:

  • https://brave.com
  • https://github.com
  • https://support.apple.com

Your Mac might have trouble with un-reliable DNS servers that the Mac uses for domain name resolutions → ie navigating the Internet.

3

Thank you for your response.

I can access all other websites in the world (github, apple, etc) except brave. Also the error message when visiting brave.com comes from CloudFront, which means we are past DNS resolution.

I can now confirm it is not a browser or an OS specific issues. I cannot access brave.com on Android too, I get the same 503 error from CloudFront on all of Brave, Chrome and Opera.

Here is a screenshot from chrome on desktop:

Screenshot 2025-04-13 at 07.08.13
Screenshot 2025-04-13 at 07.08.131920×604 52.9 KB

As I mentioned, I can perfectly access brave.com when using Tor, so might this be a country specific issue?

I’ll update the title because this no longer seem like an issue specifically with updating Brave browser on mac, an issue with accessing brave.com

4

@kwaninilazima

Please confirm, that you updated the Brave Browser version on your Mac.

In addition, please provide:

  • MacOS version numbers
  • Android device Brave Browser version numbers
  • Android OS version numbers

I am using a VPN.

I used a MacOS Terminal.app window command, traceroute, to track down the actual “brave.com” server that my Mac’s Brave Browser is connecting to:

$ traceroute brave.com
traceroute: Warning: brave.com has multiple addresses; using 54.192.51.4
traceroute to brave.com (54.192.51.4), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

Skipping the bulk of the hops / nodes . . . to the last traceroute hop / node:

14 52.94.82.172 (52.94.82.172) 75.207 ms
server-54-192-51-4.yul62.r.cloudfront.net (54.192.51.4) 56.452 ms 55.904 ms

The line beginning with “14” shows IP address 52.94.82.172 ← that is an Amazon.com DNS server.

The Amazon AWS server for “brave.com” ← that my Mac’s Brave Browser is communicating with:

server-54-192-51-4.yul62.r.cloudfront.net [ (54.192.51.4) 56.452 ms 55.904 ms ]

Next, I PING’d that cloudfront.net server:

$ ping -c 3 -i 1 server-54-192-51-4.yul62.r.cloudfront.net
PING server-54-192-51-4.yul62.r.cloudfront.net (54.192.51.4): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 54.192.51.4: icmp_seq=0 ttl=246 time=2857.901 ms
64 bytes from 54.192.51.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=246 time=59.703 ms
64 bytes from 54.192.51.4: icmp_seq=2 ttl=246 time=57.512 ms

. . . skipping the longer list of PING results than shown. There were no interruptions, and response times were good.

You might investigate - compare results, using the traceroute command, while:

  • not using the VPN connection
  • using the VPN connection

Also, compare the results, visiting https://www.amazon.com, while

  • not using the VPN connection
  • using the VPN connection

Last time that I ran into the “503” issue, was earlier this year, visiting AMAZON.COM. Sometimes, the “503” message was the result; and sometimes, not.

Sometimes, if I simply waited about 15 seconds and tried https://www.amazon.com again, the connection succeeded.

5

Thank you @289wk. I appreciate your guidance. I have tried to follow your instructions, and I am not convinced this is a network issue.

Just for the record though:

  • The problem occurs on MacOS, Windows, and Android, it does not matter what version. I asked a few friends to check this out too.
  • Problem occurs on any browser, tested on Brave, Chrome and Opera
  • Problem occurs accross internet service providers (tested 3)
  • It is not a temporary problem, I personally have experienced it for at least a month

I also recall that when the problem started, the error message mentioned something about country being blocked. I suspect someone has to have a look at the CloudFront configuration or the brave servers themselves.

I think at this point it will be easier to just switch to a different browser to use latest versions. I posted here because the error message suggested to contact website owner, and I thought it might be helpful:

The Lambda function associated with the CloudFront distribution is invalid or doesn’t have the required permissions. We can’t connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner.
If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.

Thank you again for taking the time to try help with this.

6

@kwaninilazima if it is happening across browsers but not for everyone else (which does not appear to be the case) then it is likely something on your system that is blocking access to the site.

Do you have any anti-virus and/or web security applications you’re using on your system at this time?

7

@Mattches

It happens across browsers, across operating systems, across devices, across people, etc. I tested on my grandmother’s phone 200km away about a week ago, still 503. I just called a friend to try it out, and he still reported 503 error.

If anything on my system was blocking access to the site, I would not be getting the error response from CloudFront. Unless CloudFront was actually running on these MacOS, Windows, and Android devices.

The error message seems to be very clear that whoever is responsible for setting up CloudFront for brave website needs to be made aware and check out those 503’s on the access logs:

The Lambda function associated with the CloudFront distribution is invalid or doesn’t have the required permissions. We can’t connect to the server for this app or website at this time. There might be too much traffic or a configuration error. Try again later, or contact the app or website owner.
If you provide content to customers through CloudFront, you can find steps to troubleshoot and help prevent this error by reviewing the CloudFront documentation.

Thank you @Mattches

8

Brave Community search result for criteria 503 error cloudfront

https://community.brave.com/search?q=503%20error%20cloudfront%20order%3Alatest

April 2025:

Visiting any brave.com page throws 503 error

April 2025:

503 Error When Accessing Brave Website and Browser can not search for Updates

Brave Community search result for criteria 503 error lambda

https://community.brave.com/search?q=503%20error%20lambda%20order%3Alatest

April 2025:

Visiting any brave.com page throws 503 error

April 2025:

503 Error When Accessing Brave Website and Browser can not search for Updates

Brave Community search result for criteria 503 error AND NOT involving:

  • Brave Rewards
  • BAT
  • Wallet
  • Payout
  • Ads . . . issues:

April 2025:

Visiting any brave.com page throws 503 error

April 2025:

503 Error When Accessing Brave Website and Browser can not search for Updates

February 2025:

503 Error and Access to Brave in Tanzania

January 2022:

Cpu load on specific websites

December 2021:

Cannot access Brave website (503 - No healthy IP available for the backend)

March 2021:

CloudFlare Challenge get stuck in Infinite Loop

December 2020:

Brave publisher website is not opening! Error 503 first byte timeout

9

Hey @kwaninilazima - What is your current region? Please take a look at the list of regions unavailable for Brave services.

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/34271483229581-Unavailable-Jurisdictions-for-Brave-Services

1 Like
10

Hello @Evan123, that explains it. Thank you very much.