Bottom toolbar/address bar crashes on Android v1.73.89

[igorskyflyer]

Description

In the previous version I changed a setting in the brave://flags page called Bottom toolbar in attempt to have a bottom toolbar/address bar, of course. That setting enabled a menu entry in the Settings that allows the user to set the toolbar position, see the screenshots below.

At the time, the toolbar was still at the top, even when set to Bottom. Unfortunately, I did not revert the given setting and the browser worked fine but after updating to the latest version, Brave now actually has a bottom toolbar but it also crashes indefinitely. How can I reset the flags without losing all my browsing data?

I have tried launching many activities, all of them crash except WebDev but nothing can be done from there. I've tried using a Search widget to trick Brave into launching a predefined URL (brave://flags) no luck, still crashes immediately.

Steps to reproduce

1. Be on a previous version on Brave (v1.71.123) on Android
2. Open brave://flags
3. Set Bottom Toolbar to enabled (1)
4. Restart
5. Open the app's Settings
6. Click on Address bar
7. Set to Bottom (2)
8. Install the latest version (v1.73.89)

Relevant screenshots

Figure 1. Brave's flags page

Figure 2. Address bar position

Actual result

The browser crashes indefinitely.

Expected result

No crashes should occur.

Reproduces how often

Easily reproduced

Brave version

v1.73.89

Device

• Brand/model: Samsung A55
• Android version: 14

Channel information

• release (stable)
• beta
• nightly

Reproducibility

• with Brave Shields disabled
• with Brave Rewards disabled
• in the latest version of Chrome

Miscellaneous information

No response

[SlowNicoFish]

This needs to be integrated better. It's the only big thing that brave is missing in my opinion

[igorskyflyer]

This needs to be integrated better. It's the only big thing that brave is missing in my opinion

Indeed, if it wasn't for this lock-out that happened to me I would still be tinkering how to make the toolbar appear at the bottom, all browsers have it, even Chrome.

[igorskyflyer]

Pinpointed the actual issue, caused by the Ad-block engine actually. The bug was introduced in the v1.73.xxx version.