I am experiencing several issues with Brave Browser on my iPad.
When multiple tabs are open, the screen occasionally flickers, flashes, or refreshes unexpectedly. The browser also crashes from time to time during normal use.
Additionally, there is a problem with YouTube playback. When I open a YouTube video, it often does not start playing immediately. Instead, I have to wait around 5–10 seconds, and sometimes even longer, before the video begins. If I refresh the page, the video usually starts automatically, but the delay remains.
Expected behavior:
No screen flickering or unexpected page refreshes.
No random browser crashes.
YouTube videos should start playing immediately after opening.
Actual behavior:
Screen flickering occurs when multiple tabs are open.
The browser occasionally crashes.
YouTube videos take several seconds to start playing.
I started having the same problems a month or so ago. It’s not as if I have dozens of tabs open, usually only about four or five. I have to restart Brave at least once or twice per day but usually more and I’m not spending more than two hours using Brave per day.
Most annoying is if I have searched on a site and opened one of the results in a new tab then go back to the search tab, it refreshes and the results change. Also, if I am completing any kind of form, I have to copy any lengthy text and paste it into Notes in case the page refreshes and I lose all my typing when I swap tabs.
It happened previously on an earlier version of Brave and on a different iPad (I actually upgraded my iPad having been given the impression that the iPad was responsible for the problem after reporting it on here).
My history seems to either be very selective in what is being retained or vanishing after a day or so. I regularly visit GitHub - daily almost - yet I can never find it in my history and have to search for pages on the site.
I really like Brave but I have to say, I’m wondering if I have to move on.
[edit] I can’t confirm the YouTube problem because YouTube had become so unwatchable on Brave that I only open a YouTube page and start playback so that it appears in my YouTube history and watch on SmartTube on my television.
Recently, YouTube started blocking me completely when logged in:
Ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service
It looks like you may be using an ad blocker. Video playback is blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.
Ads allow YouTube to be used by billions worldwide.
You can go ad-free with YouTube Premium, and creators can still get paid from your subscription.
If I log out of YouTube, it plays, no ads. But of course, I don’t see my feed, history, etc. so, somehow they’ve fingerprinted this iPad. I have a second older iPad that is working fine with Brave. I tried deleting cookies, etc.
For YouTube now I’m launching AdGuard Pro from Brave and it is playing videos flawlessly, better than Brave ever did.
On the flickering issue, sometimes I can’t even see the webpage due to areas blocked out. Sometimes rotating to portrait mode allows me to see the page.