Brave doesn't clear browsing data on exit until all user profiles are closed

[Tonev]

Description

Clearing data on exit is only executed if all user profiles are closed.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open multiple user profiles.
2. Go to brave://settings/clearBrowserData and configure Brave to clear browsing data on exit.
3. Close the user profile you have configured to clear browsing data on exit, while leaving another user profile open.

Actual result:

xEBBXxriU4.mp4

Expected result:

Browsing data should be cleared.

Reproduces how often:

Always

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave	1.25.73 Chromium: 91.0.4472.106 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision	574f7b38e4e7244c92c4675e902e8f8e3d299ea7-refs/branch-heads/4472@{#1477}
OS	Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
JavaScript	V8 9.1.269.36
User Agent	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/91.0.4472.106 Safari/537.36
Command Line	"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --enable-dom-distiller --disable-domain-reliability --no-pings --origin-trial-public-key=bYUKPJoPnCxeNvu72j4EmPuK7tr1PAC7SHh8ld9Mw3E=,fMS4mpO6buLQ/QMd+zJmxzty/VQ6B1EUZqoCU04zoRU= --sync-url=https://sync-v2.brave.com/v2 --lso-url=https://no-thanks.invalid --variations-server-url=https://variations.brave.com/seed --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode,PrefetchPrivacyChanges,PasswordImport,ReducedReferrerGranularity,AutoupgradeMixedContent,SafetyTip,WinrtGeolocationImplementation,LegacyTLSEnforced --disable-features=WebOTP,SharingQRCodeGenerator,InterestCohortFeaturePolicy,TabHoverCards,IdleDetection,TrustTokens,DirectSockets,InterestCohortAPIOriginTrial,FirstPartySets,FledgeInterestGroupAPI,AutofillEnableAccountWalletStorage,HandwritingRecognitionWebPlatformApi,FlocIdComputedEventLogging,HandwritingRecognitionWebPlatformApiFinch,EnableProfilePickerOnStartup,TextFragmentAnchor,SignedExchangePrefetchCacheForNavigations,NetworkTimeServiceQuerying,SubresourceWebBundles,SignedExchangeSubresourcePrefetch,FledgeInterestGroups,FederatedLearningOfCohorts,AutofillServerCommunication,LiveCaption,NotificationTriggers,LangClientHintHeader --flag-switches-begin --enable-features=WebUIDarkMode,PrefetchPrivacyChanges,PasswordImport,ReducedReferrerGranularity,AutoupgradeMixedContent,SafetyTip,WinrtGeolocationImplementation,LegacyTLSEnforced,EphemeralStorage --flag-switches-end
Executable Path	C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe
Profile Path	C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\User Data\Default
Variations	aed3cac0-3f4a17df7146a73c-3f4a17dfc63a3c82-3f4a17df

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release?
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel?
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel?

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields?
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards?
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?

Miscellaneous Information:

[rebron]

@Tonev Settings are profile specific. Do you have automatically cleared setting set for all profiles?

[Tonev]

Hello @rebron!

Yes, I have configured Brave to clear everything but "Site and Shields Settings" on exit. Like I pointed out above, Brave fails to automatically clear history if there is another opened user profile. There are no issues with other browsing data - I can have other opened profiles and Brave will clear data successfully, the issue is only with history. When I close all browser instances (close Brave completely), everything is cleared as it should be.

I'm happy we got to discuss this issue today, as I updated to the latest stable version moments before I recorded the video below.

lckXJU9YyT.mp4

[Tonev]

@rebron

Unfortunately, the issue has gotten much worse. Using the latest stable version, the option to clear browsing data on exit (brave://settings/clearBrowserData ---> On Exit) won't clear anything until all user profiles are closed.

Would you rather have me edit the original post with all new details or should I open a whole new issue? Asking because I see you have set a priority for the current issue, and I don't want me editing the issue completely without "approval" to cause confusion.

[Tonev]

@rebron

I'm sorry you couldn't find a couple of minutes for a simple answer within over a week.

Since properly working user profiles are a must for privacy-concerned users using Chromium-based browsers, I went ahead and updated the whole issue. It's time for actions, I patiently waited for an answer for over a week.

With all due respect, I sincerely believe this issue deserves a higher priority. User profiles are a great privacy tool in Chromium-based browsers.

[ColinHebert]

@rebron sorry for reopening this. My understanding is that currently brave considers "On exit" when the browser is completely shutdown (on MacOS when quitting the application entirely, on Windows when all windows are closed).
It seems that it would be better to consider "On exit" as "When the browsing windows for the profile are closed".

The work initially done in Brave for "on exit" (brave/brave-core#1213) triggers on a browser shutdown (see currently https://github.com/brave/brave-core/blob/v1.34.80/browser/brave_browser_main_parts.cc#L151-L153 ) rather than using BrowserListObserver::OnBrowserRemoved which would allow to trigger a clean up when all windows for a same profile are closed.

See:
https://github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/97.0.4692.71/chrome/browser/profiles/profile_manager.cc#L2333-L2336 https://github.com/chromium/chromium/blob/97.0.4692.71/chrome/browser/profiles/profile_manager.cc#L2254-L2259

Note this is not compatible with Android (BrowserList is not available), so it is most likely preferable to have both BrowserListObserver::OnBrowserRemoved and PreShutdown cleanups.
Given that Brave on Android already has a feature/option to close the browser when all tabs have been closed (and there is only one profile), there would actually still be feature parity between Android and other systems.

cc @mkarolin original author of the On exit feature.

[Grismar]

This appears to still be an issue. (Brave v1.49.132, on Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise)

I use 2 profiles on a single computer. When I close all Brave windows that are signed in to one of the profiles, the Browsing Data is not cleared.

Only when I close all Brave windows, including those that are signed in to the other profile, does Browsing Data get cleared. This is both risky and counter-intuitive.

Note that profiles have different settings for clearing Browsing Data.

My specific use case: I have one profile that I use professionally, and another that I use privately. When I'm on a company computer, I like to be able to sign in to my private profile, but when I close all windows signed in to it, I want my browser data to be cleared immediately, so that nobody (including admins with remote desktop access, or users with administrative access to the machine) can access my private data after I've closed all browser windows.

Conversely, on my home computer I have my business profile configured to clear automatically, as I share the computer with others and don't always lock my desktop when I walk away from it. So, I need the business profile to clear browsing data as soon as I close all windows signed in to it, to protect my privacy and that of my contacts.