Brave Beta 1.97.42 - existing profiles no longer open on Windows, new profiles work, downgrade fixes immediately

Evan123 · September 17, 2026, 2:39pm

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Existing profiles no longer opening on Windows devices

opened 02:33PM - 17 Sep 26 UTC

OS/Desktop

### Description After updating Brave Beta to 1.97.42 (Chromium 154.0.8037.41, 6…4-bit), all pre-existing browser profiles fail to open on Windows. The profile selector appears normally, but clicking any existing profile results in no browser window or a crash. Newly created profiles work fine. Downgrading to the previous Beta build immediately resolves the issue with the same profile data intact. Crash IDs: 0fbf0200-40e3-6010-0000-000000000000 05bf0200-40e3-6010-0000-000000000000 bdbf0200-40e3-6010-0000-000000000000 Community Reports: https://community.brave.app/t/brave-beta-1-97-42-existing-profiles-no-longer-open-on-windows-new-profiles-work-downgrade-fixes-immediately/658406 https://community.brave.app/t/the-latest-brave-origin-beta-and-brave-origin-nightly-wont-launch-which-is-strange/658417 https://community.brave.app/t/brave-profile-wont-stop-crashing/658375/5 ### Steps to reproduce - Have one or more existing profiles in Brave Beta. - Update to Brave Beta 1.97.42. - Launch Brave — the profile selector appears normally. - Click any existing profile. - Result: No browser window opens, or Brave crashes. - Create a brand-new profile. - Result: New profile opens normally. ### Actual result All pre-existing profiles fail to open. Crash reports are generated in some cases. ### Expected result Existing profiles should continue to open normally after updating. ### Reproduces how often Intermittent issue ### Brave version (brave://version info) 1.97.42 ### Channel information - [ ] release (stable) - [x] beta - [x] nightly ### Reproducibility - [ ] with Brave Shields disabled - [ ] with Brave Rewards disabled - [ ] in the latest version of Chrome ### Miscellaneous information _No response_

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Brave Beta 1.97.42 - existing profiles no longer open on Windows, new profiles work, downgrade fixes immediately

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