Browser extension just spins after unlocking

I’m using Brave browser with the Bitwarden extension. Over the past week. when I unlock the vault, the progress circle just spins and nothing happens. I have to close that window and re-open the extension for the vault to appear.

I have tried removing the extension completely and reinstalling it but behaves the same way. Can this be fixed?

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Sorry @64bit I posted something a few minutes ago to try to help, but they keep deleting my posts. I think you’re on your own. :frowning_face:

EDIT: Thanks for the correction @Nail1684

@64bit In addition to @dwbit : the corresponding thread on the forum here would be: Chrome extension takes forever to load UI after authenticating and is extremely slow and unresponsive

The current problem is different than what is described in that referenced thread. This current issue is that upon unlocking, sometimes, the UI will just spin indefinitely, or can be immediately interrupted by re-clicking on the extension icon. Then the UI works as normal and is not slow.

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I’m having the same problem with Chrome (132.0.6834.160) and Bitwarden extension 2025.1.3, which I was really hoping would fix the problem, but it hasn’t.

@ChrisM Welcome to the forum!

I agree that the behavior that you and @64bit have described in this thread is different from the general performance degradation described in GitHub Issue #12286 and the corresponding community forum thread.

Basically, there is nothing wrong with the overall performance of the extension, it is just that when unlocking, the extension UI initially hangs, displaying only a spinning circle:

This “spinning circle” state persists indefinitely if no action is taken, but can be fixed at will by simply closing the browser extension window and then re-opening it (or by popping out the extension window). When the extension window is re-opened (or popped out), then the UI for the unlocked vault is immediately displayed, with no lingering performance degradation.

I am currently observing this in extension version 2025.1.3, in Chrome 132.0.6834.160, but I don’t recall exactly when this started.

Interestingly, the behavior seems to be reproducible in the browser extension pop-up, but if the browser extension window is popped out before unlocking, then the spinning circle problem does not occur.

I will also add that, for me, at least, the problem is intermittent, but occurs much more often than not – maybe 9 out of 10 times. Also, I’m pretty sure it was introduced in 2025.1.2. It’s only occurred for me in the last couple weeks.

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I’ve been seeing this in the past few days with extension version 2025.1.3 and Brave version 1.75.175 (Chromium 133.0.6943.54). It started probably 3-4 days ago, if I’m not mistaken, which corresponds with the release date of this browser version (though not sure it’s that version specifically that’s the issue as I may have skipped one or two updates before then).

But this is slightly different than what @grb describes, in that closing and re-opening the browser extension window doesn’t get rid of the spinning circle, nor does popping the extension into a new window. The only thing that consistently seems to fix it is logging out of the extension and logging back in.

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I have seen all the scenarios described in this thread. This issue is definitely intermittent and with different symptoms. If Bitwarden doesn’t get a hold of this issue, I’m afraid they may lose a lot of customers. People are already wound up from the UI update. They also should send more emails with what is going on instead of expecting people to read the forums.

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FWIW, I am running the same version of Brave/chromium and am not seeing this behaviour. Not debating that others are, to be clear. Just that it may be intermittent.

There is an issue tracking this in github now: Upon starting chrome the Vault tab keeps spinning forever. · Issue #13355 · bitwarden/clients · GitHub

And I’m still not seeing it at all on any of my computers (Linux Mint and Windows 11) in any Chromium based browser (Vivaldi, Edge, and Chrome) on 2024.11.2. But it happens universally for me any time I install the latest extension version, and stops when I revert to the older version.