Brave hijacked by Russian search engine

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Description of the issue: Brave browser is resorting to Russian (Yandex)
How can this issue be reproduced? Every time I open the browser and search, Yandex is taking over

  1. I tried re-installing and clearing cookies and all, no difference

  2. I have no extensions as far as I’m aware

  3. I have never installed or chosen Yandex it just happened when I was in South America

  4. I want to use Brave, but if I cant get rid of this strange hijacking, I will stop using it

  5. Can anybody help?

Expected result:

Brave Version( check About Brave):

Additional Information:

2

@Brahve

You wrote “I open the browser and search” - What is your default Internet browser? What is your default search engine?

I recommend using the Brave Search Engine webpage’s Search Field ←- not the URL address field.

In a Brave Browser New Window, go to: brave://prefs-internals

The default search engine that has been chosen, will be found under default_private_search_provider_data . . . you might take a look.

Some things that might interfere:

  • cache
  • cookie
  • browsing history (“power of suggestion?!” maybe)
  • corrupt setting(s) storage (“preferences/settings file got dinged?”)
  • extension(s)
  • hosts file? (possibly an entry with yandex.com IP address: 5.255.255.77 search.brave.com)
  • malware
  • some other application
  • some redirect setting/switch
  • sync with other computing devices
  • Windows Registry?

Take a look at:

How to Locate and Fix Redirect Loops
‘https://sitechecker.pro/site-audit-issues/redirect-loop’

How to fix website redirection issues on Windows
‘https://helpcenter.trendmicro.com/en-us/article/tmka-19040’

When I Click on a Website It Redirects Me Somewhere Else
‘https://host4geeks.com/blog/when-i-click-on-a-website-it-redirects-me-somewhere-else’

3

Sorry for the delay in replying: RL issues have kept me from scrolling back this far🤷‍♀️.
Thank you for responding to my plea for help🤗.
Nope, it didn’t matter if I searched from the search bar or address bar (the problem began with the “new page Search bar” after the latest Brave update…Which coincided with a Windows update. Anyway it didn’t matter which method I used, I was redirected to Yahoo search results. As I’ve never used Yahoo as a search engine, ever, that I can recall, but especially since I switched to Brave in 2020, it was truly a bizarre choice.
(I began using MS Edge🤮, temporarily, and using my phone to access my logins. Whew! I was scared to death that uninstalling Brave and d/l & installing a new copy of Brave, that I’d lose all my logins & passwords; even on my phone!)
Whatever the problem was, it fixed itself 3 days ago: My Windows 10 laptop did another update at the same time as my Avast A/V. The Avast asked if I wanted it to update my Brave too. I said fine. When I woke up that AM, my pc showed it had restarted, so I cautiously clicked on my Brave shortcut and voila: It acted like it’d never had a problem! :raising_hands::latin_cross:
I love Brave, most of the time; the only time I have a problem is with the “image search” being so limited. I usually switch to DDG search at those times🤷‍♀️
Thank you, again for your time & attention.
Melissa
Btw, I switched to Brave in 2020 when I discovered that Firefox had suddenly been taken over by folks who didn’t like my politics and was actually impeding my searches and blocking conservative sites & videos. So happy I switched!:footprints::latin_cross: Bless y’all!

4

@Rev20_7PTL

Please establish routines for preserving your data - “just in case”.

How to Back Up Passwords that are stored by Brave Browser

Scrolling down the webpage at:

https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018185951-How-do-I-use-the-built-in-password-manager

A note states:

“Export Passwords - Selecting Download file will export all credentials you’ve saved in your browser as a .CSV file onto your system. Note that anyone who has access to your system will be able to open and view this file, so it is recommended that you delete this file once you’ve used the file for its intended purpose.”

Tips on how to encrypt that .CSV file:

Be sure to safely store a copy of that CSV file on an external drive.

How to back up your Bookmarks as an HTML file

Two ways to get to the Bookmarks Manager.

One way:

  1. Launch Brave and open the Main menu: newmenuicon.png
  2. Select Bookmarks --> Bookmarks Manager
  3. Open the More options menu at the top right
  4. Select Export and choose where you want to store the exported file.

Another way:

  1. In a new Brave Browser window, go to: brave://bookmarks
  2. Locate the “Organize” (vertically-arrayed 3-dot) menu button in the upper-right area of the window; click on that
  3. You should get a pop-up menu, in which you click on the “Export bookmarks” selection and choose where you want to store the exported file.

The exported file name: “bookmarks.html”

Be sure to safely store a copy of that HTML file on an external drive.

After the initial installation and setup of Brave Browser (“BB”) for Windows OS users, the original BB user profile data is within the Default folder:

  • C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default

You should verify that location; in a BB New Window, go to brave://version and scroll down to Profile Path.

Without BB running, and before doing anything else, also make a backup of the User Data folder . . . placing the backup somewhere that is safe and NOT within any BB installation path.

PS. A variety of problems are solved by:

In a BB New Window, go to the Basic tab at: brave://settings/clearBrowserData

Enable:

  • Cookies and other site data
  • Cached images and files

Click the ‘Delete data’ button.

Exit / Quit everything and Restart your computer.

5

I’m scared to death to allow the new “update” now! Y’all don’t know why Brave went wonky, early this month…

6

So just to clarify, the search engine redirect issue is no longer present?

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Nope, it seemingly “fixed itself” during the last updates…Whether it was the Windows update or the Brave update? :woman_shrugging:
Thanks!
Now though, I’m afraid to let Brave update again! It ain’t broke, quit “fixing”!:grin:
MelJ

8

I just gave up using Brave on that laptop. Too many hours spent trying to figure out how to fix it. Not worth my time. Maybe a complete fresh windows reinstallation would fix it but I have too much other things to do. Thanks for the help though🙂

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