I encountered a severe issue after updating to the latest stable version: I couldn’t launch the browser at all.
Before the update, I had around 40 tabs open with the “Continue where you left off” setting enabled. As a result, every time I tried to start Brave, it would freeze and crash immediately due to the load.
Since I couldn’t access the UI to change settings, I found a workaround. For those who are locked out of their browser, the temporary solution is to manually modify the Brave configuration file to force-disable the Vertical Tabs feature. This solved the crashing issue for me.
Here are the steps to do it (With the help from Gemini):
The Cause:
The Vertical Tabs feature has been broken due to upstream modifications in Chromium, combined with a lack of adequate checks and consideration by the Brave team when merging these changes. Consequently, using Vertical Tabs with a large number of open tabs causes the browser to freeze or crash.
For users who can still open Brave:
If you are currently able to launch the browser but experience crashes when attempting to restore a previous session with multiple tabs, or when closing a single tab while many are open: Please go directly to Settings > Appearance and uncheck “Use vertical tabs”.
For users who cannot open the browser at all:
If you are locked out because the browser crashes instantly on launch (like in my case), the temporary solution is to manually modify the Brave configuration file to force-disable the Vertical Tabs feature. Here are the steps:
Step 1: Ensure Brave is Completely Closed
Make sure there are no Brave processes running in the background. Check your Task Manager (Windows) or Activity Monitor (macOS) to be sure.
Step 2: Locate the User Data Folder
Navigate to the directory where Brave stores your user profile.
- Windows: Press
Win + R, paste the following path, and hit Enter:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\
- macOS: Open Finder, press
Cmd + Shift + G, and enter:
~/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/
- Linux:
~/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/
(Note: If you use multiple profiles, the folder might be named Profile 1, Profile 2, etc., instead of Default.)
Step 3: Backup the Configuration File
Find the file named Preferences (it has no file extension).
Crucial: Copy and paste this file to a safe location (e.g., your Desktop) as a backup. If you make a syntax error in the next steps, you can restore this backup to avoid losing your data.
Step 4: Edit the Preferences File
-
Open the Preferences file with a text editor (Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on macOS, or a code editor like VS Code).
-
The file contains a long string of JSON text. Use the “Find” function (Ctrl + F or Cmd + F) to search for the keyword:
"vertical_tabs"
-
You should find a section that looks something like this (it might be compacted into one line):
"brave": {
...
"vertical_tabs": {
"enabled": true,
...
},
...
}
-
Change "enabled": true to "enabled": false.
Step 5: Save and Relaunch
- Save the file and close the text editor.
- Launch Brave.
- The browser should now open with standard horizontal tabs, which should resolve the freezing issue caused by the vertical tab rendering on startup.
Hope this helps!
Q: Why was I able to use Vertical Tabs before? / Why does it crash sometimes but not others?
A: According to ongoing discussions on GitHub (which are not yet fully verified), the root cause seems to be linked to the scrolling mechanism of the Vertical Tabs sidebar.
- The Trigger: The crash appears to occur when the sidebar contains enough tabs to become scrollable (or when closing a tab causes the list to scroll/adjust). This implies that the threshold for the crash may vary depending on your monitor resolution, display scaling settings, and the number of tabs open.
- The Timeline: This explains why you might have been able to launch the browser successfully at first. With fewer tabs, the sidebar doesn’t need to scroll, so the browser remains stable. As you browse and accumulate more tabs, opening them might not crash the browser immediately. However, the moment you attempt to clean up or close a tab, the sidebar tries to adjust the view or scroll, triggering the bug and causing the freeze/crash. This leads to the common report: “My browser crashes as soon as I close a tab.”
- Startup Crashes: When using the “Continue where you left off” feature, Brave attempts to load all your previous tabs simultaneously. If you have many tabs, this immediately forces the sidebar into a scrollable state, triggering the bug instantly upon launch.
- Pinned Tabs: Specifically, if you use Pinned Tabs, it has been observed that the vertical sidebar might enter a “scrollable” state even with very few tabs open (which seems to be a separate UI bug). This can prematurely trigger the main crash issue.
Disclaimer: This bug is still under active investigation. The details above are a summary of community observations from GitHub issues and may not perfectly reflect the technical reality in every case. However, the bottom line remains: The only reliable workaround for now is to temporarily stop using Vertical Tabs.