Brave browser not opening or working on Windows 11/10

If your Brave browser is not opening or working on your Windows 11/10 computer, this post may help you fix it. According to the affected users, if this issue occurs on your system, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• The Brave browser does not launch after double-clicking on its shortcut.
• If the Brave browser opens, it displays a black or white screen.
• The Brave browser opens for a few seconds and closes automatically.

Some users have tried opening Brave as an administrator and it worked. But there were no bookmarks and other data in Brave browser.

Brave browser not opening or working on Windows 11/10

The following solutions may help you fix the issue:

1. Whitelist Brave browser in Windows Defender or third-party antivirus Firewall.
2. Turn off the Hardware Acceleration in Brave browser settings.
3. Add and remove a flag from the Brave Browser shortcut.
4. Reset or Reinstall Brave.

Let’s have a deep look at these troubleshooting methods.

1] Whitelist Brave browser in Windows Defender or third-party antivirus Firewall

All antivirus programs run in the background to provide users with real-time protection from threats. Sometimes, these programs trigger false alarms and block other software. Hence, it is possible that your antivirus Firewall is preventing the Brave browser from opening or working properly. We suggest you whitelist the Brave browser in Windows Defender Firewall or your third-party antivirus.

2] Turn off the Hardware Acceleration in Brave browser settings

If whitelisting the Brave browser in Firewall does not solve the issue, turning off the Hardware Acceleration in Brave browser settings may help.

The steps to do this are listed below:

1. Right-click on the Brave browser shortcut and select Properties.
2. Click on the Shortcut tab.
3. In the box next to Target, type --disable-gpu at the end of the path. You have to type this text outside the quotes. See the above screenshot for detail.
4. Click Apply and then OK. This should launch the Brave browser.
5. Now, double-click on the Brave browser shortcut to launch it. After you launch the Brave browser, click on the three horizontal lines on the top right side and select Settings.
6. Scroll down the left pane and expand the Advanced settings. Select System.
7. Turn off the button next to the “Use hardware acceleration when available” option. Relaunch the Brave browser to let the changes take effect.
8. Now, close the Brave browser again and delete --disable-gpu from the Target path in Brave browser properties.

This should fix the issue.

3] Add and remove a flag from the Brave browser shortcut

If after disabling the Hardware Acceleration in Brave Browser, the issue still persists, try this fix. Add and remove a flag from the Brave browser shortcut. The steps to do this are listed below:

1. Open the Task Manager and see if the Brave browser is running in the background or not. If yes, kill the task.
2. Create an empty folder at any location on your system.
3. Right-click on the Brave browser shortcut and select Properties.
4. Click on the Shortcut tab and type --user-data-dir=“location of the folder that you have created" at the end of the path mentioned in the box next to the Target.
5. Click Apply and then OK.
6. Double-click on the Brave browser shortcut. The browser should be launched this time.

If the Brave browser starts properly, your issue has been solved. Now, close the Brave browser and kill all its background tasks from the Task Manager. After that, repeat step 3 and delete the flag you typed in step 4. Click Apply and then OK.

Read: Brave browser high CPU and Memory usage

4] Reset or Reinstall Brave

Reset your Brave browser and see if that helps you. The method has been described towards the end of this post.

If none of the above methods solved your issue, it means that either the browser is not installed correctly or some of its files may be damaged. In such a case, reinstalling the Brave browser may help. But before reinstalling it, you have to delete the Brave-Browser folder.

Follow the instructions below:

1] Open File Explorer, click on the address bar and type the following path. After that, press Enter.

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware

Do note that in the above path, you have to type your username before AppData.

2] Select the Brave-Browser and delete it.

3] Launch the Control Panel and go to “Programs > Programs and Features.”

4] Look for Brave browser in the list of installed programs. Once you find it, right-click on it and select Uninstall. Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the Brave browser.

5] Download the latest Brave browser installer from the official website and install it again.

Let us know if anything here helped you.

Related: Brave browser not loading pages on PC.

How do I update my Brave browser on Windows?

The following instructions will help you update Brave browser on Windows 11/10:

1. Launch Brave browser.
2. Click on the three horizontal lines on the top right side.
3. Click About Brave.

After that, Brave will automatically start checking for the latest updates and installing them.

Read: How to remove all Cryptocurrency options from Brave browser

How do I restore my Brave browser?

Restoring the Brave browser means resetting it to the default settings. This option is useful in case your extensions and other settings have changed without your knowledge. In addition, you can also reset the Brave browser if you are unable to change or delete your saved bookmarks and passwords.

The steps to restore Brave browser on Windows are listed below:

1. Open Brave browser.
2. Click on the three horizontal lines on the top right side and select Settings.
3. Expand Additional settings on the left pane.
4. Click on the Reset settings option.
5. Now, click Restore settings to their original default. When you click on this option, a popup window will appear asking for your confirmation. Click Reset settings.

That’s it.

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