Numerous Chrome users complain about spontaneous browser crashes under Windows and Linux. Google delivers updates. A bug in Google’s Chrome browser apparently causes the program to crash more or less spontaneously under certain circumstances. This is based on reports from users on some social networks and the Chrome support forum. The current browser versions Chrome 90 under Windows 10 and Linux are therefore likely to be affected. There are no reports on MacOS at least so far.
The exact reasons for the crashes are not immediately apparent from the various forum posts. So the actual error is probably difficult to reproduce. On Reddit it says :
“It seemed like out of nowhere, Google Chrome stopped working about 15 minutes ago. My extensions crashed and all pages, including Chrome pages like Settings, cannot be loaded. The screen is completely blank and the Tab simply labelled ‘Untitled’, next to it is a frowning folder.”
In addition to the crashed extensions and untitled tabs whose website content does not load, it can also happen that the browser no longer starts correctly after a complete crash. For affected users, a Google product expert has published a workaround for the problem in the Chrome support forum, which shows that the error is related to the local folder for user data. This is ultimately confirmed by a community manager from Google.
Accordingly, Google has already published an update for the error. Affected users should start the browser, even if it does not display the pages correctly, then apparently wait a few minutes to install the update and finally restart the browser. Under Linux, affected users should delete a folder from a so-called Origin Trial and a local status file in the user folder and start the browser. That should fix the problem.