This isn’t a problem per se but more of question but this seemed like the best section to post it
Whenever I finish browsing I always delete browsing data under Advanced and select all boxes
I do this with all browsers I use (including other Chromium based ones) but Brave seems to take 3-5x as long regardless of the amount of data to be deleted
So my question is - Is this just the way Brave works or is there some issue with my setup ?
Again not necessarily a problem if it means Brave is more ’thorough’ when deleting data
Definitely not intended – I just tested on my end and clearing all browsing data happened instantly. Do you have any extensions installed at this time? Wondering if there may be some conflict there that causes the process to hang for a bit before completing.
I only have uBlock Origin enabled and I have a total of 10 extensions (disabled most of the time) Would they have any effect while disabled ?
However I noticed this slowdown even before I installed them. (The only one I’ve had since almost the beginning is the Google Translate add-on)
When you said you tested it do mean the ‘Basic’ or ‘Advanced’ option ?
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Ok I just tested the Basic delete option and it does it instantly like you said
However the Advanced option still takes 30 + secs despite there being supposedly 0mbs of data to delete
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After trying different combinations I now know the issue is with selecting Time Range > All Time
This is what causes the process to take so long (even with the Basic option) and even when there’s nothing to delete i.e I can perform it 2x in quick succession and it still takes a while .
I do not, on my end regardless of time period selected or which options are checked my browser clears data instantly. I still think this is profile specific.
Can you try creating a new browser profile, visiting a few sits to accumulate some browsing data in the new profile, then test to see if you get the same behavior there?
Ok I did this - and no the new profile does’t have this issue
I have a lot of Bookmarks - could this cause this ? (The only thing I can think of that’s different between an old and new profile) But then again I have even more on Firefox which doesn’t have this problem
So what could be causing this ? As I said it happens even with all extensions disabled
Since the new profile doesn’t show the issue it’s likely something contained within your original profile. And no, since you’re not deleting bookmarks data I don’t see why the number of bookmarks you have would have any effect on this.
It is possible that an extension is causing this issue, even if disabled. I know that it is a hassle to un/reinstall them but I’m not sure what else to suggest here other than that. This does not appear to be a widespread issue and there isn’t much else in your browser profile that would cause this behavior.
Regarding extensions can I just just go to Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\Extensions make a backup , delete the folder , test it and then paste it in again to recover my extensions ?
As I said I’ve had this issue for a while and the only extension that might predate it is the Google Translate extension - all the others I installed after I had already noticed it
I’ve had few cases of Brave crashing + a few power cuts while it was running
Could some file pathways / data have become corrupted ?
Then close the browser (if your on macOS, you’ll need to right-click the icon in the dock and select Quit for this process to trigger) and see if the browser closes right away. Then relaunch and confirm that the data was deleted.
I did what you said - The browser closed instantly but I noticed that re-opening took longer than normal (around 20 secs) but still not as long as deleting data with All Time selected
Removing the extensions (using the method I described above) did nothing but I through further testing I was able to narrow the problem down to ‘History’
Brave-Browser\User Data\Default\History - The file here is 15mb in size even after selecting delete ‘All Time’
I remembered that back in around 2022 when I first installed Brave I experienced a crash that caused me to lose my browsing History so I used something to retrieve an old History file to retrieve my data by copying it into the folder (can’t remember the exact process if I used some recovery software or not)
Anyway I assume that having a 15mb file but with no listed History in the browser itself means something is corrupted and it might simply have been accumulating more data over the years without it ever being deleted causing the lag
Edit heres a topic I made a while back when it was just 9mb
How do I go about getting a clean History file again ? Does Brave store any backups like it does with Bookmarks.bak ?
To clarify, you’re saying that even after clearing all History in the browser (and you don’t see browsing history if you go to Settings --> History), if you look at the History file in your \Brave browser\User data\default folder it shows the file size as 15mb?
I went ahead and deleted the file but it did nothing
However I noticed something new
As I was deleting the data I observed the Favicons-journal file increase in real time from 0mb to over 20mb and then drop back down to 0 after the process had finished
This was followed by the History-journal file briefly increasing in size from 0 before also dropping back to 0
Is this normal behaviour ? because it seems directly correlated with the lag
This is the exact sequence of events
Delete History —> Favicons file instantly increases from 25mb to 45mb —–> Favicons-journal increases gradually from 0mb to 27mb before dropping back to 0mb (repeats this 2x)
→ Favicons drops back to 25mb —> History file instantly increases from 15mb to 25mb —>
History-journal gradually increases from 0mb to 15mb before dropping back to 0 (repeats this 2x) —> History file drops back down to 15mb
I installed Brave Beta and copied the Favicons & History file into it and it causes the same issues described above which just further confirms that it is fact something to do with Bookmarks that is causing the problem
I also did a 2nd test by exporting my Bookmarks into a HTML file which results in a 50mb file
Then when I import this into Brave Beta this results in a Favicons file over 100mb in size !
Favicons would be cleared out when deleting browsing data as far as I know, yes. I do not know what to tell you about the file sizes, however. Those all do seem like their sizes are too large, but it also may be due to amount of bookmarks you have.
The original issue you were facing is that the delete browsing data option was taking longer than it should to complete the process. What I would recommend is that you try exporting all the relevant data you have in the browser right now – passwords, bookmarks, etc. via the in-browser Export option.
Then, once you have all the data you want to ensure remains intact, go ahead and uninstall the browser and clear out any User data left behind (note that when you uninstall on Windows, you should be prompted as to whether or not you want to delete the associated browsing data as well – elect to do so).
Reinstall the browser, import your bookmarks and passwords again, and I suspect the issue will be gone.
1 - Why would Favicons be cleared - I thought they’re permanent ? They certainly don’t disappear each time I clear data
2 - As I mentioned above when I delete the Favicons file the problem resolves itself - but then all my Bookmarks lose their icons
so the problem seems to be a combination of the corrupt History file (already deleted) and the Favicons file. When I export the Favicons file to Brave Beta it causes the same problem there so are you saying I should export this to the new install as well ?
3 - I can open the old History file in notepad which gives me a list of URLs going back years which means Brave was storing this even when I was deleting it
Is there some way I can repair the the Favicons file i.e by opening it in Notepad and deleting some lines of text ?
I think this will all be resolved by simply un/reinstalling the browser after you export your bookmarks or passwords. When you reinstall and re-import your bookmarks, it should load your favicons from your bookmarks/favorites as you visit those sites.
Going this route means that you are only working with the exported bookmarks/password data, and not the [potentially corrupted] files you’re seeing in your User data folder.
