Description of the issue:
I think I’ve found a bug within cookies & shields…
In “On-device site data”
(brave://settings/content/siteData)
I have set:
“Delete data sites have saved to your device when you close all windows”
I’ve since visited some sites that have
“third-party cookies”
& I THINK… I AM ASSUMING…
I may have in the PAST chosen
“Allow all cookies” within those individual website shields settings
(likely testing, maybe they were being buggy at the time 
)…
hence allowing “third-party cookies”
BUT I HAVE SINCE SWITCHED THEM BACK to “Block third-party cookies”
I then go and look in “On-device site data”
again (brave://settings/content/siteData) and see:
Under “Allowed to save data on your device”
those third-party cookieD websites with a description under them saying:
“embedded on (problem website)”
& INSTEAD OF the three dots menu to the right that gives the options (normally) to:
“Block”
“Clear on site close”
“Edit”
“Remove”
It is a trash can that is not able to be selected, making it so I can NOT delete them.
&
Under “Not allowed to save data on your device”
at the very bottom of the list, those same sites appear and have a description under them saying “Including third-party cookies on this site”
(and AGAIN, a trash can on the right, again unable to be selected / instead of the three dots.)
I also check in brave://settings/content/all and see cookies from those websites.
(Obviously since it shows up in “Allowed to save data on your device” as mentioned above - though I CAN manually delete them there)
I then go to “Shields status”: brave://settings/content/braveShields and don’t see anything there.
I then go and check “Third-party cookies”: brave://settings/cookies and don’t see anything there either.
So I’m curious, is this a bug (I’d assume so) or how do I get rid of those problem sites that are still sticking around? And stop the cookies in the future from populating again (and/or permanently) if I ever happen to visit those websites again, since they save cookies to my device.
Also, I do have the master switch of “Forget me when I close this site” ON and it is also on, on those problem sites as well… in case that makes any difference.
I have also cleared “Cookies and other site data” & “Cached images and files” in brave://settings/clearBrowserData and that didn’t do anything either.
(I’d rather NOT wipe “Site and shield settings” if I don’t have to).
How can this issue be reproduced?
(Again, I’m assuming this is this situation / this is my theory of how these old websites and cookies/shields/settings are showing up, otherwise I don’t know how to get them on… er… off)
-
Go to a website with third-party cookies
-
Change the Brave Shields cookies settings FROM “
Block third-party cookies” TO “Allow all cookies” -
Change the setting BACK to default of “
Block third-party cookies” on those problem websites. -
Check various site data/cookie settings info and no longer see them there.
Including:
“brave://settings/content/siteData”
&
“brave://settings/content/all” - especially if I delete them from there.
& to a lesser extent, see nothing in (though I already do):
“brave://settings/cookies”
“brave://settings/content/braveShields”
IF IT’S NOT THE MINOR SHIELDS CHANGE as discussed here, I have sometimes gone into the Site Settings Menu (the far left menu where the padlock used to be) and chosen:
“Cookies and site data” - “Manage on-device site data” - “three line / hamburger menu” - and then the appropriate setting for a given website for me, though typically as I’ve said I’ve set the default to - “Delete data when you close all windows” - and THAT is ALSO the current setting for all of those problem websites cookies, including the third-party cookies (even if I did allow them in the past, again I reverted them back)…
Expected result:
To be able to delete cookies (and or shield?) settings
and/or not have them show up anymore,
until if/when I visit them again and have it be only temporary.
Brave Version: 1.83.120
Chromium: 141.0.7390.122
MacBook M3 Pro
Sequoia 15.7.1 (waiting for 26.1 - but I’m pretty sure it’s not an Apple thing).
If it’s relevant, it seems I’m not the only one who have had this problem, people from the past have as well, though maybe slightly differently (as I do know, to reset things back to default, but as I’ve said trying to reset things hasn’t fixed it).
June 2025 - Most recently @XtremeLord who also references some of the issues/below links as well: [Site Data] Unable to Remove or Edit sites in [brave://settings/content/siteData & brave://settings/cookies]
December 2020: Unable to remove sites from "Sites that can always use cookies"
May 2020: Unable to delete cookies & site data . . . why?
Jan 2020: Cannot delete Allow sites entered in Cookie and Site Data
Jan 2020: Removing frozen Cookie and Site data entry
Hope this helps others for future reference I guess