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This repository has been archived by the owner on Dec 11, 2019. It is now read-only.
Brian Clifton edited this page Aug 12, 2016 · 31 revisions

We have a development timeline if you'd like to see what features are planned and which are coming soon

If you have questions about the features Brave offers, check out the FAQ

For other specific issues, see the navigation bar over here =========>>

I'm having a problem loading a website

If you're experiencing an error, let's try a few troubleshooting steps:

Try going into Shields Down mode

  1. Click the Brave logo in the top right to bring up the Site Shield Settings modal
  2. Toggle the site from Up to Down
  3. The page should reload itself (if it doesn't, refresh the page manually)

If this works and you don't want to leave shields off, consider turning them back on and then disabling features one at a time. For example, fingerprint protection is a great feature, but it can cause problems with some websites.

Check the development console

You can bring up the developer console to see if the page you're running has any JavaScript errors which are causing the page to fail.

  • On Windows, you can bring this up with F12
  • On macOS, you can bring the tools up with Command+Option+I

If you're using a dev channel build, you can open a console that will show application output (errors initializing electron, etc). This can be brought up with Shift+F8.

Let us know about it

There are always bugs creeping out there and we'll do our best job to address them 😃

  • Use the issues tab here in GitHub to see if there's already an issue reported for the site you're having problems with. Since there are a lot of issues, you might find it handy to filter based on the webcompat tag.

  • If there is already an open issue in GitHub:

    • Sometimes folks will describe a work-around. This might help you get back up and running!
    • use the new Add your reaction feature to give it a +1 or leave a comment letting us know. This helps us not only know about the issue, but how the problem impacts you.
    • consider sharing specific details- does the problem happen all the time? Are there any errors in the browser's developer console? Do you have a screenshot that might be helpful?
  • If there is NOT an open issue in GitHub:

    • Let's create an issue 😃 Having an issue helps us become aware of the incompatibility so that we can start to look at understanding and fixing the issue.
    • When you create an issue, let's make sure we capture the following info
      • Version of Brave you're using (can be found in hamburger menu: Help > About Brave
      • Which OS you're using and which version (pro? 64 bit? for Linux, which window manager?)
      • Screenshots can be helpful
  • If you'd rather contact us directly, you always have that option too

    • Use the built in Help menu (Help > Report an Issue) to describe your issue to us
    • Similar to reporting an issue, please try to include as many details as possible about your situation

Contributing

We've got a great community and encourage everybody to help 😄

Help triage issues

  • One of the easiest ways to help is to look through our issues tab
  • Does the issue still happen? Sometimes we fix the problem and don't always close the issue
  • Are there clear steps to reproduce the issue? If not, let's find and document some
  • Is the issue a duplicate? If so, share the issue that is being duplicated in the conversation

Updating documentation

Documentation is extremely important. There are lots of areas we can improve:

  • Having more clear instructions in our README.md
  • Updating the wiki pages here with helpful info

Work on the code

  • The repo's README.md has basic instructions on getting your development environment setup
  • Windows users will want to read the Visual Studio configuration page for specific details needed to get up and running
  • Once you're up and running, find an issue to fix.
  • Submit a PR (pull request)
    • The pull request template has some good guidelines:
      • Ensure there's an issue to track the issue that you're providing a fix for
      • Use auto-closing keywords like "Fixes #1234" in your commit/PR
      • Run a rebase to squash your commits and get rid of merge commits
    • Tests are encouraged, especially if the code being changed already has tests
    • Ask for feedback in your PR
  • Review existing PRs
    • If you don't have time to implement a feature by yourself, consider reviewing existing pull requests
    • Does the code work for you? It may have only been tested on another platform