Safari allows this. Firefox has it too. But why does Brave delete all of my open private tabs when I close the app? It is very irritating. I just want to browse without Brave keeping history and cookie data on the device, while keeping my open tabs until I choose to delete them.
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There is an option under brave shields and privacy that says close tabs on exit. (more towards bottom of page) you can try toggling that off (if it is on).
@User73321346,
We actually have an open issue to add this feature on our Github:
Hello,
This issue was marked as closed and a feature was added to allow users toggle to keep private tabs open.
I notice that this feature doesn’t extend to “Private Only” browsing and when this mode is enabled, tabs still automatically close. The toggle to keep Private tabs is also removed in this mode.
It would be nice if I could have the mode enabled while still keeping private tabs open until I choose to close them.
Thanks.
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@Gehavec987,
That defeats the purpose of private tabs and will not likely make it into the browser. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Thank you for the reply.
Currently, I use the Private Browser with the toggle to keep the Private tabs open. This means that even when I close the entire browser, the Private tabs stay open (until I close them). But that means that I have to constantly switch to the Private mode to access them (though a minor inconvenience).
I was wondering if the Private Only mode could also utilize the toggle so that only Private browsing is allowed, but the tabs remain open unless they are closed. Since the feature already exists to retain Private tabs unless closed, this would merely be a feature extension.
I am using iOS and the feature already exists to keep Private tabs open (just not when Private Only mode is enabled). Unless there is a reason why normal Private tabs and tabs in Private Only mode are treated differently.
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I believe the mentality here is that opening Private tabs is something that the user is expected to be “in charge of”. That is, the user is dictating that they want to open some specific sites in Private windows for whatever reasons they may have for doing so.
The intention of “Private browsing only” is that essentially no matter what you do, no data is recorded anywhere and all traces of anything you were doing in the browser disappear once the app is closed.
IMO, if they were to “extend” this feature then they would essentially become the same thing and there would be no need to have both of them. Since, as you said, this functionality already exists, I would just continue using Private tabs.
the problem is Brave is trying to impose users’ workflow contrary to real world user expectations.
since the code is already there as you say in the normal mode, why not expose that option for those who really use Brave in always on private mode? we run in private mode not because hiding our traces from our devices, but protecting our activity from tracking websites.
so from this point of view it really makes no logic to effectively have the code shipped and restricted to a certain scenario. if the code wasn’t there, ok, we’d understood there are no resources to deliver the feature; but the code is really there, but conditional.
please, reconsider. thank you.
Because, again, if there would be no difference between the options. If you want Private tabs to persist, then launch Brave, open some private tabs and also ensure that the Keep private tabs option is toggled “on” (Settings --> Tabs --> Private tabs). Any Private tabs you have open will persist even after closing the browser, which I believe is the exact behavior you’re looking for, it just requires an extra tap to view them.
If you want no trace of anything you do in the browser to remain once it’s closed, then you’ll use Private browsing only mode.
will external links open in the private mode, though? Because that is also absolutely a must. it would make again no sense to keep some tabs private while opening links from other apps in normal mode.
so if in that case the externals links open in normal mode, then a new options is needed: “always open links from apps in private mode” (edit: oh wow, Google Chrome already has this! https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS#:~:text=When%20you%20open%20a%20link,an%20Incognito%20tab%20in%20Chrome.&text=Privacy%20and%20Security.,in%20Incognito%20on%20or%20off.
filed feature request https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/49971
If you are viewing your Private tabs in Brave (that is tap the open tabs box to view all tabs, the tap Private on the bottom left of this page to enter private browsing and view your Private tabs), links from other apps will open in Brave in a Private tab.
Here is a short recording of this I took on my iPad. In the video I
- Have Brave open
- I tap the open tabs box
- Tap
Privateon the bottom left to enter private browsing - I switch to the Youtube app and tap one of the links in the video subscription and select to open it in my default browser (Brave) – when it does, it opens in a Private tab.
thank you for taking your time to do the screen recording. but that behaviour is invalidated the moment iOS decides to terminate Brave (or user force closes the app) - which is something I encounter on a daily basis - so the feature needs to persist across cold app restarts.
see my recording how it behaves
“Sorry, new users can not upload attachments.” - see it on imgur https://imgur.com/a/rEhsslO
@ml35 what you’re describing would be the intended behavior unless you change your settings. You are saying to keep private tabs but you’re not telling it to only open in private, right? In which case when you end the session, the private session is over and it defaults back to normal viewing. This is completely logical and expected.
To clarify, if you go to Settings → Shields & Privacy, then you have an option for a toggle on Private Browsing Only. If you do this, it will ONLY open in private windows. It will give you a warning about how it’s going to close all open tabs and log you out of all sites (clear cookies), so you’ll have that. But if you’re truly just wanting private only, it might be what you need to do.
@ml35 sorry if that sounded a bit repetitive earlier, but there are some unusual combinations in what you’re describing.
If your goal is simply to clear everything when you’re done, the Shred option is meant for that.
If you want to keep private tabs available over time, there’s Keep Private Tabs, though that somewhat goes against the idea of private browsing since it preserves what’s meant to be temporary. At least it’s set up so when the session does completely end, it purges data.
Then there’s Private Browsing Only, which forces everything to open in private mode. However, it intentionally avoids keeping your data between sessions. If it did, it would just be standard browsing with a different label, storing cookies and site data until you manually clear them.
So I’m trying to understand what you’re aiming for here. It sounds like you want to retain tabs indefinitely while staying in private mode, but at that point it’s functionally the same as regular browsing. Could you explain a bit more about what outcome you’re trying to achieve?