Brave browser turned transparent and cannot be used or uninstalled

@bbamska I made a reply based on experience on one device but I went through to experiment on another and encountered your same problem. So I deleted the last one to share this.

You may need to use --disable-gpu --use-gl=swiftshader at which point it loaded for me. Then you can get to brave://flags and change the setting for ANGLE.

Oh, and this seems to work as well.

cc: @steeven, @kamil

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Thx for your reply, but this method doesn’t works for me either, :cry:. Same results.

@bbamska are you making sure Brave is completely closed and then you’re launching from the desktop icon where you edited and you’re not launching from taskbar?

For target you should be able to have one of these two and it work:

"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --disable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap

or

--use-gl=swiftshader

or perhaps just

--disable-gpu

The quotation marks need to be there and all.

Thanks @Saoiray. @bbamska yeah that would be helpful to know.

Thank you. After completely ending the background processes in Task Manager and then using your method, it works.

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Hey guys I changed the compatibility settings to run the application as Windows 8 and it works fine for me

Thanks man, this works and i can keep the OpenGL option, which is the only way the browser doesn’t freeze while i’m watching youtube…

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Hi, which way worked for you? I did the disable gpu method and then changed flag open to default but the playback is choppy on youtube. I then enabled acceleration hardware in brave settings and put angle graphics back to opengl but the playback is still choppy. I don’t think acceleration hardware is enabled on the pc level like it should be.

I originally disabled it by running this in the cmd line

“C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe” —no-experiments --disable-gpu

How do i enable it again?

NVM got it working

@nogagreflex

Probably the place to start reading and studying:

  • https://community.brave.app/t/brave-browser-turned-transparent-and-cannot-be-used-or-uninstalled/637975/73
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Same here. Is there a fix for that?

Thanks I got it back working with ksantaur’s tip.

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To repost my info from other topic:

The Redirection Bitmap is supposed to prevent screen flashing and is enabled by default. However, in Brave, it’s causing a blank screen when launching with OpenGL or D3D9. This change comes from upstream Chromium, but the issue doesn’t and seems to happen in Chrome as well, so it looks like there’s some specific incompatibility with Brave that needs to be identified and resolved.. So this will be something that likely will have to be handled upstream by the Chromium team if it’s going to be resolved.

There are two ways people have been getting around this:

1. Fix: Resetting ANGLE via GPU disable

One method is to launch Brave with the command to disable the GPU. This is either:

  • --disable-gpu
    or
  • --disable-gpu --use-gl=swiftshader

You will need to make sure you have completely exited Brave before you launch after the above changes. If Brave is running in the background, it won’t apply the change.

Once done, this forces the browser to avoid using OpenGL or D3D9. While the GPU is disabled, the you can go into brave://flags and change ANGLE back to Default, D3D11, or D3D11on12. After that, Brave will work regardless of where it’s launched from. The GPU disable command can be removed, and Brave continues to work normally.

This restores expected behavior without needing a permanent command-line flag, so I consider this a true fix.

2. Workaround: Disable Redirection Bitmap

The other method is to launch Brave with the flag --disable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap. This allows Brave to continue using OpenGL or D3D9 without showing a blank screen.

However, this only works as long as Brave is launched using that shortcut with the command line. If it’s opened in another way, the issue will still be there. Since it requires an ongoing manual step of only opening from that specific shortcut, I’d call this a workaround, not a fix.

Both approaches work, but only the first one resets the browser to a stable, default state. The second one is helpful for specific setups but might lead to future issues as adjustments are made on future releases.

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The work around worked perfectly for me! THANK YOU!!

@Saoray’s workaround “fix” worked for me. Copy and paste what he shows in step 2 in Properties > Target. Leave a space at the end after Brave.exe and paste it. “--disable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap". Even with hardware acceleration on (I need it personally), it works without lag! Make sure it is the shortcut or it won’t work

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@JoshCanuckIV yeah, both would let you have hardware acceleration. The one you chose is where it only works when you launch from that desktop shortcut, but it will allow you to use OpenGL or D3D9.

While you have the browser launched with this method or the other, you could go to brave://flags and change ANGLE to Default or one of the D3D11. Then can remove the --disable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap or whichever you used to get it launched.

Just keep in mind that if you use the one you did and haven’t changed the ANGLE setting, then if Brave opens from taskbar icon or any other location, you’ll see that blank screen again. This is because the --disable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap wouldn’t be applied.

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Cool. Forgot to change the Angle to default. Just did that, launched brave without –disable-features=RemoveRedirectionBitmap at the end in Target. Launched perfectly without it. My videos still work without lag on YouTube with Hardware Acceleration on just the way I want it. Appreciate it!

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This solved my problem. Thanks. Windows 11 Home, Ryzen 5 3600, Radeon RX 580

While the solution works, it prevents me from using OpenGL, the fix where you can use OpenGL is just temporary like what was stated and I wish there was a permanent fix. I’ve been using the brave browser with the true fix but I’ve been getting horrible amounts of screen tearing, it makes it really hard to use Brave and it’s extremely annoying to work with… if there’s a true fix to using OpenGL (because this was the only fix that worked to stop screen tearing with hardware acceleration), that would be amazing.

The things I’ve tried where the different ANGLE backend settings that worked with the true fix, enabling prerendering, trying Vulkan, etc. None of them worked so I just reset them to default. If there’s any fix that works with this true fix, I would be glad to know, other than that thank you so much for finding us a fix to this problem for those of us who used OpenGL, we appreciate your help!

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I see you didn’t put a space between the “ and the – . It has to be “(…)brave.exe” --disable-gpu”, with a space.