Can no longer start Brave, can in Icognito

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41

Same here, Brave crashes eveytime I try to launch it. I read some old threads and have sent the crash reports accordingly.

42

Something that can be tried - for a more technical person.

Go into the profile folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\) and then navigate to the default profile (should be like %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default), there is going to be a file called Preferences there.

I am curious what value is shown if you open that file in Notepad. Search for avatar_index. The default value is supposed to be 26 I believe.

That value is of interest - if it’s set to something unusual (especially a negative number), you can try manually setting that to 26 and saving the Preferences file.

43

it was set to 34 on mine. Changed to 26, but no difference.

44

Same, it was 29 for me.

45

hey everyone,
created an account as I have the same issue today. When I click on the icon to open the brave browser it crashes when the profile selection window pops up.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled. - didn’t work
Did an update. - didn’t work

Tried adding

–disable-extensions

to the target line. Didnt work

Added

–incognito –

to the target line. It launches the browser in incognito mode and shows bookmarks from the profile I last used.

Added

“C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe” --profile-directory=“Test Profile”

to the target line. It works and brave opens but as soon as I click on the profile icon it crashes again.

Using Windows 10 Pro, 22H2 Version, 19045.4529 OS build.

46

Renaming the folder and opening the browser works for me, but its not a good solution as I cant use my data and profiles.

47

No change disabling extensions. Nightly works in incognito, standard does not work at all. Beta is fine.

No profile directories there on my machine. Adding a flag to open Brave with X or Y profile just results in an error on apply that there is no such file path.

48

Having the same issue in this thread. Tried with no extensions, same crash. Works opening in incog, but unable to export any settings or open profile, settings, etc.

Beta works(without copying over any data, I’m sure it would crash otherwise), not sure about Nightly. Unclear why it is suddenly not working, but it seems to be a checksum issue mentioned at the start of the thread. Updated to the latest version via install, no dice.

Checked the user account number, it was set to 29. Updated to 26. No difference.

It was working today, but suddenly just stopped working after closing and trying to reopen it. I manually sent my crash logs via Brave://Crashes in incognito.

System:

Win 10 Pro 22h2 (Build 19045.4651)
Ryzen 9 5900x
64gb DDR4 Gskill 3600mhz
AMD 5700XT
Gigabyte Aorus Master x570

49

I have the same problem. Yesterday all worked fine and today Brave is not starting.
I havent done any update or anything else.

If I rename my profile folder i can start Brave, while it is creating a new profile folder.

I have already reinstalled Brave, still doesnt work.

–disable-extensions = doesnt work
–incognito – = doesnt work

I have also installed FireFox and have importet all my Brave Settings (favorites, passworts, etc.) into FireFox. Then I have renamed the Brave profile folder, opened Brave to create a new Profile and have then importet the FireFox settings into Brave, it also workes.

50

Hello, I found a fix on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/1ebt0ds/i_fixed_an_issue_with_brave_not_starting_on_win10/

In %LOCALAPPDATA%\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\ there is a file Local State. Removing this allowed me to launch brave again. I did lose session data/cookies but my tabs, extension data, most settings, etc remained the same.

However, restoring my old Local State and playing around with it until it worked I found that if you change

    "profile": {
        "info_cache": {
            "Default": {
                "active_time": 1721904418.126235,
                "avatar_icon": "chrome://theme/IDR_PROFILE_AVATAR_28",

this avatar_icon key to 26 instead of 28, the browser also launches. I saw earlier some people had different numbers so I imagine that might be different here too, just change it to 26. I have not tried restarting but I can at least launch brave now.

Obligatory use at your own risk :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
51

Removing the Local State file doesn’t solve the issue for me either

52

Hi All,

On Win10, try opening a profile manually from the command prompt -

brave --profile-directory=“Profile 1”
or
brave --profile-directory=“Profile 2”
etc…

That opens, but as soon as I either click the settings button, the profile button, or right link on a URL, it crashes.

53

I renamed the Brave-Browser. My results are-- Brave opened, but as a brand new, I assume latest, version. Nothing on it. No bookmarks, etc. A new folder was made in the Appdata folder. I now have a folder named Brave-Browser and a folder named Brave-Browser2. When I launched the private window, it is now opening from the browser2 folder. I’ve tried the other suggestions without success. How do I get rid of the browser2 folder as I continue to use Brave private window? Can I simply delete it?

54

Well, that little exercise erased all my bookmarks, everything. I’m back to square one. I deleted the renamed folder, but while it’s gone it permanently changed the browser. Yes, Brave now launches, but with nothing. I can import some bookmarks, but… Well, looking on the brighter side, it’s cleaned things up. :slightly_smiling_face:

55

My Brave also broke yesterday. I can open it once I renamed the user folder but that wipes everything. I have no bookmarks or anything. So Brave is working just not with my current profile. For me it doesn’t even open I don’t get a process in the task manager or anything.

Are yall going to patch this and then I can rename my profile again and it will work or how can I get my bookmarks and tabs out of my current user profile to a new one??

Also I didn’t install any new extension or anything just closed it from the day before and opened it yesterday to find it not working.

56

Yeah, same issue here. I lost all my profiles which means I probably lost all cookies/pw/bookmarks that were in each of them :confused:

57

On Win10, try opening a profile manually from the command prompt -

brave --profile-directory=“Profile 1”
or
brave --profile-directory=“Profile 2”
etc…

58

I tried this and it didn’t work.

Also incognito mode or no extensions or no GPU

59

I suggest you to ready the redit post of @lieuwe_berg
I have a different outcome and documented it all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/1ebt0ds/i_fixed_an_issue_with_brave_not_starting_on_win10/

60

Didn’t work for me. Just opened a new profile.