Aggressive Cache in Brave Makes Websites Freeze

[jcubic]

From time to time when you open a website, it freezes without even opening an HTTP request. It may be related to Service Worker usage with aggressive HTML cache that you can’t turn off. This happens only in Brave. Google Chrome or Chromium don’t have any such cache.

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Description of the issue:
How can this issue be reproduced?

Here are two pages that hangs from time to time:

Fast and reliable end-to-end testing for modern web apps | Playwright

Jakub T. Jankiewicz - Web Developer

Expected result:

No webpage freezing

Brave Version( check About Brave):

Brave 1.84.139 (Oficjalna wersja) (64-bitowa)

Chromium: 142.0.7444.163

Additional Information:

I use force reload of service worker in dev tools, but it didn’t help you need to clear all browser data to open the website, do multiple attempts to open it, or use incognito mode to see the website. Not always possible.

[289wk]

@jcubic

Reminder, your post from August 2025:

How to clear HTML cache?

I just run website with local server: npx http-server dist That runs on http://127.0.0.1:8080 and the content of the HTML is a project I run a few days ago. Not my new project I run just now. Dev Tools disable cache doesn’t work. There is some kind of cache on the browser level added by Brave. I never had such issues in Google Chrome. If I run in private mode, the website show current up to the HTML. How to clear Brave added HTML cache? Such cache should not exist in the browser. Is there …

There, you noted: “Dev Tools disable cache doesn’t work” (re your issue).

My reply → You have the option to select what to clear (for example: Cached images and files), using Brave Browser > Settings’ tools:

‘How to clear HTML cache? - #2 by 289wk’

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In order to help you test more:

The following is a text file showing the Windows OS user’s Brave Browser User Data folder structural portions - that list the locations of cache and some other items:

Brave_Browser_User_Data_cache_and_other_storage.txt (4.8 KB)

That text file shows at line 72, the Service Worker > CacheStorage folder location.

PS. You might have a network DNS issue.

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Otherwise, @Mattches of Brave Support probably has better ideas / info; and @Saoiray may also. (Thanks in advance.)

[jcubic]

The answer to that question don’t solve the problem. This is not Chromium Cache only Cache added by Brave. And I will not delete everything the browser has just to open the website with Service Worker.

Note that The page don’t open, you can’t use Dev Tools.

[289wk]

@jcubic

I have not asked you any questions, in your previous post, nor at your current post, above.

I did not write anywhere, that you should “clear everything” or “delete everything”. AGAIN, you can select something to clear/delete, FOR TEST PURPOSES.

More help / another suggestion:

You can open a Brave Browser New Window or open a Brave Browser New Private Window, and not enter any URL address ← leave that field blank. THEN, open a Developer Tools window for that new, blank Brave Browser window.

In the Developer Tools window, click on the Network tab, and then ENABLE the Disable cache checkbox:

(Screenshot taken on a MacOS computer.)