Troubleshooting technical issues is much easier when both the user and support agent practice clear communication. For this reason, we have provided the template below for you to fill out with information about your issue. Please provide as much detail as possible so we can most efficiently resolve your problem.
Description of the issue: Hi, been loving Brave for years, first real bug I’ve found is in Youtube where the video will freeze for about a quarter second, every 8 seconds. Audio is perfect the whole time. Pretty consistent on my phone (including after restarting), can’t find a fix or a cause on my end. Started today or very recently, as far as I’m aware.
How can this issue be reproduced?
(At least on my phone) Open Youtube and watch a video.
The video feed briefly freezes for a moment, consistently every 8 seconds or so.
Seems to happen on any video I try to watch.
Expected result: Normal playback, as I’ve had with Brave for years
Brave Version( check About Brave): 1.90.121
Mobile Device details: Moto g52 5G (up to date on software)
Try: Block fingerprinting ← Disable that switch in the Brave Site-Specific Shields settings (Brave Lion icon near the right end of the URL address field).
You might also reduce the strength of Trackers & Ads blocking.
Hi, thanks for the suggestions! I disabled block fingerprinting while on Youtube and tried a couple of videos for a minute, seemed exactly the same. My trackers & ads blocking was on “standard” already, and when I reduced it to “allow all”, still the same issue. I’m happy to try out more, if there’s any other suggestions
I tried both brave://settings/clearBrowserData and brave://settings generally but only got “This site can’t be reached” in return. brave://components worked (from the information in the link) and everything on the list there was already up to date. On Youtube I have the option to “shred site’s data”, would this be any use? Also, I have a fair amount of tabs across a few windows, for easy access to music and other work things – could that be the issue? Though I’ve had about this many for a while and only noticed the issue about a day ago
If you can go to brave://flags and search for video and see if you have Hardware-accelerated video decode that might be Disabled? Then do the complete Moto G52 power down and shutdown described below.
(ChatGPT: “If the YouTube interruptions continue even after disabling video decode, there are a few other Android/Brave fixes worth trying - especially codec-related flags, battery optimization settings, or testing whether the issue only happens on VP9/AV1 videos.”)
Re Tabs - make note of what you have, close all Tabs; and then Exit / Quit everything.
For the Motorola Moto G52 5G, a full shutdown is straightforward:
Press and hold the Power button (right side of the phone).
If the power menu appears:
Tap Power off
Tap Power off again to confirm.
If holding Power launches Google Assistant instead of the shutdown menu:
Press and hold Power + Volume Up together for about 2 seconds.
The power menu should appear.
Tap Power off.
Start up your Moto G52, run Brave Browser - use 1 Tab only to visit YouTube and test.
You might look through the settings for Safe Browsing and test by disabling that.
In general, the Google Eco-System is fussy about persistance of “your ID” (hardware + software). And / or some other cause for re-establishment of the back-and-forth flow of traffic: browser < – > website.
Detective Work, if interested
I sometimes use the Brave Browser > Developer Tools > Network window to see where the browser “hiccups” or “glitches” ← and you notice a pattern that repeats.
IF new to the use of DevTools, there is definitely a learning curve. You would be going from automobile driver training to flight school.
WHEN you have questions, I suggest asking an AI service, “What is ______?” Tell the AI service, you are “using Brave Browser (Android), that is encountering repetitive video freezes at YouTube … almost every 8 seconds.”
In brave://flags every setting for “hardware” was already enabled, including the one you specified. Have already tried rebooting the phone, but will try noting down the tabs and quitting + rebooting if this issue persists.
I could only find “developer options” and not “developer tools”, and in that there’s nothing like an option for “network window” so I think I may be lost on that part.
Investigating further: weirdly I have the same issue when using the Chrome app to watch Youtube (after their adverts, haha) and weirdly I do not have the issue at all when using the Youtube app itself to do the same. So this sounds like it may be an issue beyond Brave itself, but in that case I’m confused where/who I would even ask for support if it affects Youtube playback in Brave + Chrome but not in the app?
At ‘brave://flags’ did you DisableHardware-accelerated video decode and then do the complete power down and shutdown, followed by a startup of the Android device and test Brave Browser (using only 1 Tab open)?
That’s a pretty major step and at the moment, considering I get the exact same issue trying to watch Youtube on the Chrome browser, surely it can’t just be a Brave issue, now I’ve looked further into it? And if so, would I be best going to Youtube’s support instead? I can’t see how anything I can do in the Brave app would also fix the same issue in Chrome, but I’m not super deep into understanding this stuff
Since there was no further reply: considering I’m finding the same issue on Chrome when watching Youtube videos as well as doing it on Brave, but not in the Youtube app, would it be sensible to go to Youtube’s support desk, or would you recommend somewhere else?
At ‘brave://flags’ did you DisableHardware-accelerated video decode and then do the complete power down and shutdown, followed by a startup of the Android device and test Brave Browser (using only 1 Tab open)?
You wrote:
“In brave://flags every setting for “hardware” was already enabled, including the one you specified.”
That evaded the objective: Disabling hardware acceleration ← as a test, so, as you wrote: “there was no further reply.”
You can always choose help from YouTube at any time.
While I have other options, I’d prefer to avoid the massive time-consuming task of noting down every single one of my Brave tabs and going through a lot of work to do all of that process, maybe not even get a result, and then the work to put it all back again. I do have things to do with my day other than trying to figure out a bug in your app.
Stats for nerds:
Brave: about 6-8 frames dropped, all at once, repeatedly about every 600 frames or so (vp09, 720p)
Chrome: same as above and on the same video
Chrome in incognito: same as above and on the same video
Firefox: 0 frames dropped here, again on the same video, same vp09, same 720p
Youtube app: 1 frame dropped on the same video (on start-up, so no issue here)
note: every time on adverts, 0 frames were dropped during adverts on any of the apps
Issue occurs in portrait and fullscreen. On 480p (tested in Brave) it drops about 5 frames about every 600. I even knocked the quality down to 144p and it still repeatedly dropped 1 frame about every 600 frames or so, while saying it was running on av01 (again tested in Brave app)
Also, at ‘brave://flags’ did you DisableHardware-accelerated video decode and then do the complete power down and shutdown, followed by a startup of the Android device and test Brave Browser (using only 1 Tab open)?
Is this referral something I’ll hear back from? And please see both times previously where I’ve explained why I’d rather not go through all the effort to test that and maybe not even get any worth from it, while there’s other easier options still to try
Same for me on my phone, at least for Youtube. I don’t really know where to ask beyond this, so I’ll be on Firefox to watch things for a while (only one single ad and only at the start, which is manageable)