BUG: duplicate bookmarks in search that don’t exist!

Brave Browser Mobile Support
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I’ve found a weird bug I just found that has JUST started either on either 28th Aug or in the last day or so.
Someone had a similar issue back in 2021 too (See this thread)

It was not happening for me even last week, but now it is so it’s a new bug and it only affects iOS and iPadOS, NOT the web browser.
The web browser is fine and searching doesn’t show any duplicates if use search bookmarks.

When I open the bookmark window on iOS and iPadOS apps and search for a bookmark, the results show a 2nd bookmark in the same folder but that doesn’t exist.
There is no duplicate bookmark, but the bookmark search on iOS and iPadOS thinks there is.
If you manually look for the bookmark in bookmarks, there is only one bookmark as it isn’t really duplicated. Only the search shows duplicates on iOS and iPadOS.

I do use brave sync between web and my 2 apple mobile devices (which I also use for accessibility reasons)

There is no duplicate bookmark, only a duplicate showing when you use the bookmark search on iOS and iPadOS.

If I delete the duplicate on iOS, brave crashes. Probably because it doesn’t exist.

If I delete and resave the link from the bookmark window on iOS, it duplicates it in search again

If I delete the bookmark on the website and save it again on the website, the duplicate doesn’t show in the bookmark search on iOS

Clearing cache etc, doesn’t help. Hard closing or restarting your device doesn’t help.
And as it happens on both my iOS and iPadOS devices, it seems it definitely points to a brave apple app bug.
I have done all basic troubleshooting.

This didn’t used to happen either. It wasn’t happening the other day, as I use brave all day and night on all my devices, so not sure if this started with the latest brave version or the latest iOS version.

Try yourselves on apple mobile devices and open the bookmark window and search for various bookmarks, as it’s random with which it happens to, so you might have to search for a few different ones.

I’m not sure how it decides which to duplicate, but there are many bookmarks I have this with.
Some were definitely saved initial on mobile devices, but can’t be sure about all as I use the web browser a lot too and have a lot of bookmarks.

On the 29th Aug I am also seeing 3 and 4 duplicates now on some bookmarks when I search for random ones, not just 1!
Some just show 1 duplicate, others show 3 or 4.

I have reported this bug to the brave team on X too as I have reported many bugs in the past so I have worked with them before.

I have the .ips crash logs which I have DM’d to the brave team on X.

I did some testing on 29th Aug:
If I search a bookmark on iOS and it shows duplicated, if I open my web browser on my synced PC rather than the app and delete the bookmark that is showing duplicated on iOS (remember they are not really duplicated, they just show as that on iOS so you can’t see any duplicates on the web browser), and resave the bookmark using web, it doesn’t show as duplicated on iOS anymore.
But that isn’t a fix because its a bug with the brave app bookmark search on iOS and iPadOS as nothing is really duplicated, they just show as that when you search for some of them, and it is random which it affects.

Still not sure if the duplicate is just happening with bookmarks saved initially on iOS or not as I have hundreds of bookmarks so I can’t be sure as I don’t know what device most of them were initially saved on as I use brave sync and it only happens to some bookmarks, not all.

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How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Open bookmarks menu on iOS or iPadOS

  2. Search for a bookmark

    (it happens to random ones, can’t figure out how it decides which, so try searching for various ones. Some bookmarks I’ve definitely saved using the mobile app and many are duplicated in search, but I can’t comment on where they were all initially saved as I have lots of bookmarks)

  3. Some show as duplicated in the bookmarks, but there is no actual duplicate bookmark in the bookmarks, only in the search on the bookmarks on iOS

You can also try saving a few bookmarks using the mobile app brave and then search in the bookmark window to see if it shows duplicated.

Expected result:

should only be 1 result in bookmarks search

Brave Version:

Latest version - Version 1.81 (134)

Mobile Device details:

iOS 18.6.2 and iPadOS 18.6.2

Additional Information:

Tested on web and can confirm this is bug is only on iOS and iPadOS.
I use brave sync on all my devices and the bug happens on all apple devices but does NOT happen on web browser.
The duplicated URL’s do not show when you search bookmarks on web browser, only on when you search for a bookmark on iOS or iPadOS.
It is NOT really duplicating the URL’s. It just shows them as duplicated when you search for bookmarks on the apple apps.
So you can’t just delete them from bookmarks.html on the web browser as they are not really duplicated and it affects random ones.

Photo:

I searched “the” and got two identical bookmarks when only one exists.
If I use my web browser or if I look in the iOS brave bookmarks directly it shows 1 correctly.
It only affects the searching of bookmarks on the brave app on iOS devices.

IMG_2097
IMG_20971149×413 49.1 KB

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@ukheather

Given that there are more than 1 “sync”, please edit your Original Post (“OP”) above, and therein, be specific about what “sync” you are running:

  • Google / Chrome
  • Brave Sync
  • iCloud Sync

I would export the Brave Browser bookmarks to file (that will be a “bookmarks.html” file), and then get that “bookmarks.html” file onto a computer where I could open and edit that file on a larger display. Searching for duplicate URL addresses.

Then, get rid of such duplicate bookmarks. Followed by, copying the fixed-up “bookmarks.html” file to each Apple device - but DO NOT YET import that file!

Delete all of the Brave Browser bookmarks on the iPhone and on the iPad . . . and then disable all sync processing.

Do a complete Exit Quit of iOS apps and complete “hard” / “forced” Restart:

Apple iOS - iPhone - completely quit an app:
-https://support.apple.com/en-us/109359

Apple iOS - iPhone - complete, “forced”, “hard” restart:
-https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/force-restart-iphone-iph8903c3ee6/ios

Apple iOS - iPad - “forced” restart:
-https://support.apple.com/guide/ipad/force-restart-ipad-ipad9955c007/18.0/ipados/18.0

Followed by, importing the fixed up “bookmarks.html” file - for each Apple device.

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brave sync is what I meant as I am using brave not chrome.

As I said, the duplicates are not real. They are not in the bookmarks.html as its a bug on the brave apps on apple. There is nothing to delete.

Exporting the bookmarks to delete the duplicate doesn’t work as this is a bug and there is no duplicate. its just a bug with the bookmark search on brave apple apps.
The duplicates are not real. That is the issue.

The apple brave apps just randomly show some bookmarks as duplicated. Doesn’t matter if they are old or new. it randomly happens to some.
I can make new bookmarks on iOS and it may or may not claim there are duplicates of them. That is why it is a bug that needs fixing as it is claiming there are duplicated bookmarks when they do NOT exist.

I can even see some of the bookmarks that claim to be duplicated, delete them, then resave them and it may show them as duplicates on the apple apps.

These are NOT real duplicates.
The issue is it keeps happening because its a bug in the app that needs fixing.
If you just delete bookmarks, that is not a fix as it will still show random bookmarks as duplicated on the apple brave apps again as it keeps happening.

Hard closing the app or force restarting doesn’t help.

As I said, this is on ANY ios device, both my ipad and iphone which shows its a bug.

I worked in IT for many many years and have reported many bugs over the years including many of them to Brave and have spoken to the team many times, so I always do basic checks before reporting a bug.

To reiterate, this is a bug in braves apple apps with the bookmark search.

Updated my main post as I found new information out while testing today such as confirming it is fine on web, so this just affects brave ios and ipados and some other things.

I am also currently speaking to the Brave team on X about this too and working with them on this as I have done with brave bugs in the past too.