"Send to Device" Tab Sync Fails from PC to Android (Phone to PC Works)

Brave Browser
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Description of the issue: “Send to Device” tab sync fails from my Windows PC to my Android phone. However, the reverse direction—sending a tab from my Android phone to my Windows PC—works correctly. My phone never receives the “Send to Device” notification from my PC.

Steps to Reproduce (add as many as necessary): Ensure both my Windows PC and Android phone are connected to the same Brave Sync chain with Bookmarks, Passwords, and Settings enabled (History sync is disabled on both devices).

  1. On my Windows PC, open any webpage and use the “Send to your devices” option to send the tab to my Android phone.

  2. Wait for the notification to appear on my Android phone while keeping the phone awake with the Brave app open in the foreground.

Actual Result (gifs and screenshots are welcome!): The “Send to Device” notification never arrives on my Android phone, even after waiting more than 5 minutes. No error message appears on either device. The tab appears to be sent from the PC (no failure message), but nothing happens on the phone.

Expected result: The tab should be delivered to my Android phone within seconds, and a notification should appear in Brave’s “Recent Tabs” or as a system notification, allowing me to open the sent tab.

Reproduces how often: 100% of the time. The issue is consistent and reproducible every single time I attempt to send a tab from PC to Android.

Operating System and Brave Version(See the About Brave page in the main menu): 100% of the time. The issue is consistent and reproducible every single time I attempt to send a tab from PC to Android. Windows 11, Brave 1.95.101 Chromium: 153.0.8010.37 (Official Build) (64-bit), Android 12; Build/59.2.C.3.3;31;REL

Additional Information: I have already taken the following troubleshooting steps with no success:

  • Deleted the existing sync chain and created a new one from scratch.

  • Disabled “History” sync on both devices to avoid the known sync bottleneck.

  • Confirmed both devices are on the same sync chain and show as connected.

  • Kept the phone awake with Brave open in the foreground during testing.

  • Reversed the sync chain creation order (started from Android instead of PC).

  • Reinstalled Brave on the Android device and re-joined the sync chain.

Bookmarks, passwords, and settings sync correctly in both directions. The issue is isolated specifically to the “Send to Device” tab functionality from PC to Android. No errors appear in brave://sync-internals.

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@username15 thank you for the thorough report. Just testing on my end and this seems to work fine on both Win 11 and macOS.

I would make sure that you have Open tabs enabled in the Sync option on your desktop and History and tabs Sync option enabled on your Android device.

I also got a notification on my Android device saying that a tab was sent from my Windows 11 laptop, so everything seems to be in working order. Go ahead and verify that those data types are enabled in the Sync settings – if not, go ahead and enable them and test again.

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I had to uninstall and reinstall Brave on the android, it worked for a day then it stopped. I just moved on now.