Brave is locked into private mode, and changing settings is no longer possible after running shell script

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1

Description of the issue: After running a shell script with the purpose of always starting Brave in private mode by defauilt, Brave appears to be locked into private mode, and changing settings is no longer possible.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Run this shell script in order to always start Brave in private mode by default on Mac OS: do shell script “open -a /Applications/Brave\\ Browser.app --args --incognito”

Expected result: Brave always opens in private mode. However, it is no longer possible to change any settings or install extensions, or even display the Brave version (“about Brave”).

Brave Version( check About Brave): 142.1.84.135

macOS Version: macOS Sequoia 15.5

Additional Information: The shell script was run a couple of years ago on an earlier version of Brave, as it was a convenient solution to always have Brave start in private mode by default. I have not been able to find a way to undo the script’s actions. Reinstalling or updating Brave did not help.

2

@Artoo

Please edit your Original Post (“OP”) above, in order to include:

  • Brave Browser version numbers (see how to retrieve in following lines)
  • MacOS version numbers

Your current Brave Browser version can be found, by entering the following command in a Terminal.app window:

cat "/Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/InfoPlist.strings" | egrep CFBundleGetInfoString

The shell script that you wrote, is an AppleScript command. Entering the command in a Terminal.app window, the command would be:

open -a "/Applications/Brave Browser.app" --args --incognito

You should be able to adjust Brave Browser Settings while using Private Browsing (“incognito” ie Private Windows), but I suspect, that after an unknown number of Brave Browser updates, a fresh start is necessary.

By fresh start, I mean a complete purge of Brave Browser software on your Mac. Of course, doing that AFTER securing backups of bookmarks and passwords (if you use the browser’s Password Manager).

If Brave Browser is set to be the default Internet browser, then pick another browser.

If Brave Sync has been used ← Disable it.

Where Brave Browser has usually been installed on the Mac:

/Applications/Brave Browser.app

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/CrashReporter/Brave Browser ... .plist

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Caches/BraveSoftware/

/Users/username/Library/Caches/com.brave.Browser/

/Users/username/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Brave Browser ... .crash

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.brave.Browser.plist

/Users/username/Library/Saved Application State/com.brave.Browser.savedState/

And the “Brave Browser … .diag” reports within:

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

You might not find:

/Users/username/Library/BraveSoftware

. . . do not worry about that.

. . . and following the purge, a fresh installation of Brave Browser.

That is, if you believe necessary. There is some possibility, that the permissions for:

/Users/username/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware (or somewhere therein that folder; or, in some other location) . . . have been altered and need to be fixed.

3

Thank you very much. I have reached the point where I completely purged all locations you listed above.

While that does not appear to have resolved the issue (I can still not change any settings as the settings menu item is visible but not available), the menu now shows an entry called “Managed by your organization”, which opens the page brave://management with the following text:

“Your browser is managed by your organisation. Your administrator can make changes to your profile and browser remotely, analyse information about the browser through reporting and perform other necessary tasks. Activity on this device may also be managed outside of Brave. Learn more”

The link behind “learn more” leads to the following page:

https://support.brave.app/hc/en-us/articles/360039248271-Group-Policy

Therein, I can see that on macOS, group policy is supposed to be stored in the following location, but there is nothing to be found in that location on my device. The website mentioned above provides some policy templates for Windows but not for macOS.

 ~/Library/Preferences/com.brave.browser.plist/

I am unaware of having activated any kind of policy and this is a personal laptop, not a corporate device. Is there any policy template available on the web, or some other solution that could resolve this issue?

4

@Artoo

“completely purged all locations”

Of course, followed by a restart of computer.

Then Brave Browser would not be installed.

5

@Artoo if you remove the command line flag and/or do not use your shell script to launch the browser, does it launch as intended in a standard window? And if so are you able to access the browser settings as well? Does the Managed by your organization message disappear?

6

Of course! Problem solved - thank you very much!

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7

Thanks - restarting after the above procedures solved the issue. Forgot the basics :laughing:

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