[SOLVED] Mint and browsers constantly crashing / freezing

[Gsparky2004]

This is probably not normal, but I both had a problem with Mint, and then figured out the solution. I figured I'd post it here in case others have a similar issue.
I've been using Mint now for several years (6 - 7-ish). When I do an upgrade to the newest version, I delete the OS, but keep all of the "home" files intact. That appears to have created a slowly-growing problem. With the latest release, all of my browsers crashed constantly. After perusing a few Google pages, I figured that the profiles for each browser had old settings / code that the new releases did not like. I decided just to delete the profiles in all of them (Chrome, Firefox, Brave), and start from scratch (with only my bookmarks being backed up and imported once the profile was deleted). The same thing went with "Lucky Backup". I deleted all of its profiles and started those over, as well.
That's fixed the problem. I've now done everything I can to get any of the browsers to crash, either completely or just have a tab / webpage crash. They work fine. Mint has now been running crash-free for several days.
So, if you're having constant browser issues and the profile is old(er), consider exporting your bookmarks and password file (Google that!), deleting the profile, and starting with a fresh one.

[spamegg]

When I do an upgrade to the newest version, I delete the OS, but keep all of the "home" files intact.

Yep this is an issue, I wish people would stop doing this...

[Gsparky2004]

I wish people would stop doing this...

I've now made a list of files to remove from my home folder. It consists of the following:

• .cache

• .config

• .dbus

• .linuxmint

• .local

• .themes

• .thumb

• .thumbnails

If you have any others that you recommend, please let me know!

[mikeflan]

I've now made a list of files to remove from my home folder.

I'm thinking it might be better to make a list of directories and files to copy over to the new install.

[xujiayu]

Sharing my experience. I had the problem with Chrome crashing, not Linux Mint.

I had Linux Mint 21 and one day my Chrome kept freezing whenever I started the browser (I had to wait for more than a minute). I think the day before, I did an update, and as usual I never keep track what particular updates were.

So I cleared the browser history, the bookmarks, and all the open tabs. Nothing worked. And lastly I cleared all the Chrome profiles (I had 3 profiles) and one profile had multiple Gmail accounts added. Basically I separated my profile as "personal", "work 1", "work 2" profiles. And this works!

Everything is great now. I guess I did install Chrome update and the latest updates were somehow not backward compatible.