Hi, Mattches thanks for your response,
I’m currently using version:
- Brave, Version 1.73.105 Chromium: 131.0.6778.265 (Official Build) (64-bit)
- Windows 10 Pro, version 22H2
However, this is an issue I’ve had for a long time, as I previously described in a post back in May, 2024; using Brave, version 1.65.126. I’d also like to mention, that since then, I’ve had a complete reinstall of my Windows OS, and I’m still having the issue.
I understand you’ve tested it, but as I’ve said in my post, this is not something that I can replicate easily or reliably. It seems to be very random, and just closing Brave as you’ve described doesn’t cause the issue 100% of the time, but is still common enough to notice.
However, it’s just about guaranteed to happen to me after I’ve shutdown my PC for the night.
My typical routine is:
- Shutdown all Brave browser windows I have open using the X in the top right of the window;
- I have “confirm close” enabled, so I also accept that.
- Close what ever other remaining windows for other programs I have open.
- Finally, just press shutdown on my PC. (Start > Power > Shutdown)
My PC is generally shutting down 1-2 minutes after I’ve fully exited Brave.
Once I turn my PC back on the next day (or when ever it might be), it’s extremely common for Brave to retain all data from the previous session. I pretty much just expect it at this point, but it’s extremely frustrating. Each time I start up my PC, I have to launch Brave knowing I’m just going to close and re-open it again, in order to clear site/extension data.
I also noted that sometimes my pinned tabs will disappear the next time I open Brave. If I’m lucky, I can recover them though the history menu and “restore window”. A few times now though, they have been wiped with no reason, and no way to recover them.
I assumed this might be related to closing the “primary” window first, which contains all of my pinned tabs, and then closing other windows last. I’ve tested it briefly, and it seems maybe somewhat close to the problem, but I’m still uncertain. Regardless, for a long time now, I’ve always made it a point to close this primary window last, but I still occasionally lose my pinned tabs.
While I’m unsure how relevant this is to Brave, I think it could be worth mentioning this, just in case:
A long time ago, there was an issue on Chrome browsers, which would clear all pinned tabs if the Chrome browser was initially opened using a link from an external application. It was eventually fixed in an update and I never experienced it again. When I installed Brave however, while it is far less frequent and and doesn’t seem to have the same cause, I was immediately reminded of it again.
Apologies for the wall of text.