Description
Brave crashes intermittently several times a day on macOS 26.5 Tahoe when
opening new windows, split view, or performing window operations.
The crash is not captured by brave://crashes — macOS force-kills the process
before the crash reporter runs.
Confirmed same crash occurs in Google Chrome on the same system, suggesting
a Chromium + macOS 26.5 ViewBridge compatibility issue.
Related Chrome thread: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/427944199
Steps to reproduce
- Run Brave on macOS 26.5 Tahoe (Apple M3)
- Open a new window (Cmd+N) or drag a tab to create a new window
- Browser crashes intermittently — no consistent trigger
Actual result
Browser crashes. Console log shows:
(QuartzCore) [com.apple.coreanimation:API] cannot add handler to 4 from 1 - dropping
(QuartzCore) [com.apple.coreanimation:API] cannot add handler to 3 from 1 - dropping
(ViewBridge) [com.apple.ViewBridge:animation] FAULT: NSVB_AnimationFencingSupport unable to create fence for
Brave v1.90.128 (Chromium 148.0.7778.217)
macOS 26.5 (Build 25F71), Apple M3
Expected result
Browser remains stable when opening new windows or performing window operations.
Reproduces how often
Easily reproduced
Brave version (brave://version info)
| Brave |
1.90.128 Chromium: 148.0.7778.217 (Official Build) (arm64) |
| Revision |
1ea3e8c0ac05e722c8228c2be84962b19f7be368 |
| OS |
macOS Version 26.5 (Build 25F71) |
| JavaScript |
V8 14.8.178.28 |
| User agent |
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/148.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 |
| Command Line |
/Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave Browser --disable-domain-reliability --enable-dom-distiller --enable-distillability-service --origin-trial-public-key=bYUKPJoPnCxeNvu72j4EmPuK7tr1PAC7SHh8ld9Mw3E=,fMS4mpO6buLQ/QMd+zJmxzty/VQ6B1EUZqoCU04zoRU= --lso-url=https://no-thanks.invalid --variations-server-url=https://variations.brave.com/seed --variations-insecure-server-url=https://variations.brave.com/seed --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end --component-updater=url-source=https://go-updater.brave.com/extensions |
| Executable Path |
/Applications/Brave Browser.app/Contents/MacOS/Brave Browser |
| Profile Path |
/Users/john/Library/Application Support/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 1 |
| Linker |
lld |
| Variations source |
variations server |
| Command-line variations |
eyJkaXNhYmxlLWZlYXR1cmVzIjoiQUlQcm9tcHRBUElcdTAwM0NCdWlsdElu... |
| Active variations |
main@0d2272038f213c941c1ffcbc7cbc9a75b194f5ddAIChatCodeExecutionTool_Release:EnabledAdblockOnlyModeStudy:EnabledAllowCertainClientHintsStudy:EnabledBTMGoogleAuthWorkaround:EnabledBraveAIChatConversationAPIV2Study:EnabledBraveAdblockMobileNotificationsListDefault:EnabledBraveAdsNewTabPageAdsStudy:EnabledBraveAggressiveModeRetirementExperiment:DisabledBraveAutoTranslateStudy:AutoTranslateDisabledBraveCleanupSessionCookiesOnSessionRestore:DisabledBraveCopyCleanLinkFromJsStudy:DefaultBraveDebounceStudy:EnabledBraveFeedUpdateStudy:EnabledBraveForgetFirstPartyStorage:EnabledBraveGoogleSignInPermissionStudy:EnabledBraveHorizontalTabsUpdateEnabledStudy:EnabledBraveNTPBrandedWallpaperStudy:EnabledBraveNewTabPageRefreshStudy:EnabledBraveP3AConstellationEnabled:EnabledBraveP3AJSONOtherDeprecation:EnabledBraveP3ANebulaRelease:EnabledBraveP3ATypicalJSONDeprecationEnabled:EnabledBraveRewardsAllowSelfCustodyProvidersStudy:EnabledBraveRewardsNewRewardsUIStudy:EnabledBraveRewardsWebUiPanelStudy:EnabledBraveScreenFingerprintingBlockerStudy:EnabledBraveShowAIChatInputOnNewTabPageStudy:DefaultBraveWalletAnkrBalancesEnabled:DefaultBraveWebViewRoundedCornersStudy:EnabledBraveWebcompatExceptionsServiceReleaseStudy:EnabledBuiltInAIAPIsDisabledStudy:DisabledClampPlatformVersionClientHint:DisabledCrossPlatformVPNStudy:EnabledDefaultBraveOmniboxMoreHistoryStudy:EnabledDisableReduceLanguage:EnabledEphemeralStorageStudy:EnabledExtensionsManifestV2StudyRelease:EnabledForceContextMenuOnShiftRightClickStudy:DefaultHistoryEmbeddingsParamsStudy:DefaultInProcessBraveAdsServiceStudy:EnabledMacCoreLocationBackendStudy:EnabledPartitionVisitedLinkDatabaseWithSelfLinks_Release:EnabledPartitionedCookies:EnabledSeedFileTrial:SeedFiles_V10Speedreader TTS:EnabledUndecryptablePasswords:EnabledUserActivityStudy:TriggersWhatsNewStudy:EnabledZCashStudy_EnabledWithShieldingOnNewVersions:EnabledWithShielding |
Channel information
Reproducibility
Miscellaneous information
Crash also reproducible in Google Chrome (same error log), confirming this is
a Chromium + macOS 26.5 ViewBridge compatibility issue, not Brave-specific.
Related Chrome community thread: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/427944199
Crash is NOT captured by brave://crashes — macOS force-kills the process
before internal crash reporter runs.
Console log captured via:
log stream --predicate 'process == "Brave Browser"' --level error
Key errors before crash:
(QuartzCore) cannot add handler to 4 from 1 - dropping
(QuartzCore) cannot add handler to 3 from 1 - dropping
(ViewBridge) FAULT: NSVB_AnimationFencingSupport unable to create fence for
GPU info (brave://gpu):
- Skia Backend: GraphiteDawnMetal
- GL_RENDERER: ANGLE (Apple, ANGLE Metal Renderer: Apple M3, Version 26.5)
- GPU process crash count: 0
Workarounds attempted:
- Reinstall browser: no effect
- Reduce motion (macOS Accessibility): no effect
- Hardware acceleration disabled: crashes stop but video quality degrades
Description
Brave crashes intermittently several times a day on macOS 26.5 Tahoe when
opening new windows, split view, or performing window operations.
The crash is not captured by brave://crashes — macOS force-kills the process
before the crash reporter runs.
Confirmed same crash occurs in Google Chrome on the same system, suggesting
a Chromium + macOS 26.5 ViewBridge compatibility issue.
Related Chrome thread: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/427944199
Steps to reproduce
Actual result
Browser crashes. Console log shows:
(QuartzCore) [com.apple.coreanimation:API] cannot add handler to 4 from 1 - dropping
(QuartzCore) [com.apple.coreanimation:API] cannot add handler to 3 from 1 - dropping
(ViewBridge) [com.apple.ViewBridge:animation] FAULT: NSVB_AnimationFencingSupport unable to create fence for
Brave v1.90.128 (Chromium 148.0.7778.217)
macOS 26.5 (Build 25F71), Apple M3
Expected result
Browser remains stable when opening new windows or performing window operations.
Reproduces how often
Easily reproduced
Brave version (brave://version info)
Channel information
Reproducibility
Miscellaneous information
Crash also reproducible in Google Chrome (same error log), confirming this is
a Chromium + macOS 26.5 ViewBridge compatibility issue, not Brave-specific.
Related Chrome community thread: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/427944199
Crash is NOT captured by brave://crashes — macOS force-kills the process
before internal crash reporter runs.
Console log captured via:
log stream --predicate 'process == "Brave Browser"' --level error
Key errors before crash:
(QuartzCore) cannot add handler to 4 from 1 - dropping
(QuartzCore) cannot add handler to 3 from 1 - dropping
(ViewBridge) FAULT: NSVB_AnimationFencingSupport unable to create fence for
GPU info (brave://gpu):
Workarounds attempted: