Brave Disk I/O even in idle

Browser Support Desktop Support
1

Description of the issue:

I noticed that brave browser (installed binary on gentoo from brave-overlay) is always writing to disk, even when I just open it without doing anything. It’s literally just sitting there, writing to cache and other things without being used.

I moved my cache folder to another disk (mounted /media/misc) to save my NVME drive. I’m getting 512KBps to 1MBps in some moments in idle. Around 80MB/minute in idle. It’s very suspicious with no extensions enabled.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Install brave binary on gentoo from brave-overlay

  2. Open the browser

  3. Get the pid and monitor file access using strace: strace -e trace=file -p {PID}

Expected result: No disk writes on long idle

Brave Version: Brave: v1.81.122, Chrome: 138.0.7204.157

Additional Information: Here’s the strace output on “idle” (it’s definitely not idle)

stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/nngceckbapebfimnlniiiahkandclblb/LOG", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=401, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf/LOG", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=398, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf/LOG.old", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=395, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf/LOCK", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf/MANIFEST-000001", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=41, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf/CURRENT", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=16, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf/000003.log", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/LOG.old", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=401, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/MANIFEST-006133", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=360539, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/CURRENT", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=16, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/LOCK", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/008744.ldb", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=353988, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/008746.ldb", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=1388392, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/008747.log", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=2744316, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/008748.ldb", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=1372264, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Local Extension Settings/mnojpmjdmbbfmejpflffifhffcmidifd/LOG", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=401, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ads_service", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ads_service/database.sqlite", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=262144, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ads_service/database.sqlite-journal", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ads_service/client.json", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=78, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/ads_service/confirmations.json", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=53, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/History", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=55672832, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/History", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=55672832, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/History-journal", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=8720, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Cookies", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=917504, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Bookmarks", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=676899, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Favicons", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=10846208, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Top Sites", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=20480, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Visited Links", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=131072, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Web Data", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0600, st_size=917504, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_CLOEXEC|O_DIRECTORY) = 241
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Extensions", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Extension Rules", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=100, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Extension Scripts", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=172, ...}) = 0
stat("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Extension State", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=154, ...}) = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/.org.chromium.Chromium.LAE9tA", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 241
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/.org.chromium.Chromium.LAE9tA", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/stat", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 241
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cca30, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cca30, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cca30, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cca30, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc7f0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc7f0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
...
 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc5b0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc5b0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc680, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc680, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc970, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc970, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc860, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc7a0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc7a0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc7a0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc7a0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc5c0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc5c0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal", 0x7fe2620cc8b0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
newfstatat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal", 0x7fe2620cc8b0, 0) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/.org.chromium.Chromium.pHIcfD", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 160
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/.org.chromium.Chromium.pHIcfD", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.NqubfQ", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 160
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.NqubfQ", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Preferences") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/stat", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 160
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/stat", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 160
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.P8NQ5U", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 160
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.P8NQ5U", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Preferences") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sync Data/.org.chromium.Chromium.AYttWN", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 160
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sync Data/.org.chromium.Chromium.AYttWN", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sync Data/Nigori.bin") = 0
.....
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/.org.chromium.Chromium.pHIcfD", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Local State") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.NqubfQ", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 160
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.NqubfQ", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Preferences") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/stat", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 160
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/stat", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 160
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.P8NQ5U", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 160
rename("/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/.org.chromium.Chromium.P8NQ5U", "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Preferences") = 0
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/home/USER/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Default/Sync Data/.org.chromium.Chromium.AYttWN", O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 0600) = 1600
2

@aybroid

Brave Browser = “BB”

Suggestions

A) For test purposes: Disable Brave Sync

B) For test purposes: In a BB New Window, go to brave://extensions. Look for an extension with ID: cnjifjpddelmedmihgijeibhnjfabmlf ← Disable and remove that extension. (And, what is that extension?)

C) There is a network security issue, about which, writing to:

cert9.db-journal → "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-journal" fails with message: (No such file or directory)

cert9.db-wal → "/home/USER/.pki/nssdb/cert9.db-wal" fails with message: (No such file or directory)

Yet those writing attemps repeat.

D) For test purposes: Create a new BB user Profile for test purposes, and use that new Profile only - to see if the same issue occurs. Keep the new BB user profile simple; do not import data; do not allow Brave’s “bells and whistles” (egs. Brave Rewards, Brave Talk, etc.). After creating the new BB user profile, exit / quit everything and restart the computer.

Monitor the BB Task Manager.