Workspace freezes after Browser Tab is used

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

The Cursor IDE functions stop working - menus don’t open, chat options don’t work, chat buttons don’t work. Most of the UI freezes. Then I close the window and in status bar it says that it is taking a bit longer and it remains like that for at least several minutes, then I kill the process forcefully. Sometimes it says: Discarding backups is taking a bit longer… in a centered UI window.

Also the “Select element” option in the Browser tab was not working at all - it becomes blue but the div-s on the page are not marked in blue rectangles.

I have another workspace opened on my other monitor and it works just fine while the problematic workspace with the Browser tab is half-frozen.

What I think the issue is

Browser tab backup/crash report. Or the select element feature in Browser Tab.

Steps to Reproduce

When I use the new Browser Tab feature (with built-in Chrome or with external - /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable).

When I use the Chrome option (instead of Browser Tab) - no issues, works fine.

My Hacky Solution

  1. I kill all Cursor processes.
  2. I start Cursor and immediately close (X) the problematic workspace.
  3. From the unaffected workspace I open new window and open my folder.
  4. I save the new workspace with a different name than the problematic one, because otherwise for some reason Cursor applies all my old settings and opened tabs (including the opened Browser tab) to the new workspace from the old one magically, just because I saved it with the same name (overriden the .workspace file).

Side issue

Make the info about opened tabs, MCP-s on/off, opened and named terminals, extensions etc. in JSON and stored in the .workspace file for easy config and copy-paste to another machine. This guy is right - Trying to change Cursor settings without clicking? Sync them? Read them? Good luck! | Scientific Witchery

Resolving that (making it in JSON) would have helped me recover the problematic workspace by deleting the opened Browser Tab from the JSON (the tab is opened on each new startup of this workspace)

Expected Behavior

Not half-frozen UI and able to close (X) the window of the workspace.

Operating System

Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.0.50
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: a788ca5efbb89cf7c24e873ea3623b2e47b42490
Date: 2025-11-02T23:59:00.227Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.12.48+deb13-amd64

(AppImage)

Additional Information

Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 13
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.6
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.8.2
Kernel Version: 6.12.48+deb13-amd64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: X11
Processors: 8 × Intel® Core™ i7-7820HQ CPU @ 2.90GHz
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (31,1 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: Intel® HD Graphics 630
Graphics Processor 2: llvmpipe
Manufacturer: LENOVO
Product Name: 20HH0018MD
System Version: ThinkPad P51

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

1 Like
2

hi @jivko-chobanov and thank you for the detailed bug report.

To help us diagnose and reproduce the Browser Tab freezing issue, could you answer a few questions?

  • Does the freeze happen immediately when you open the Browser Tab, or after some interaction with it?
  • How many tabs and terminals do you usually have open in the problematic workspace?
  • Are there specific web pages or content loaded in the Browser Tab when the freeze occurs?
  • Have you tried disabling (other) extensions to see if the problem persists?
  • Do you see any errors or warnings in Cursor IDE logs when the freeze happens?
  • Does the issue occur only in this workspace or in others too?
  • What version of Chrome do you use with the external Browser Tab vs the internal?
  • Have you tried running Cursor with a fresh workspace/project and using Browser Tab there?
3

To answer your questions I did:

  1. Open new window.
  2. Open single .txt file.
  3. In Chat - turn on browser with Browser Tab. The browser tab opened. And it froze, because when I click the “Help” menu - it opens, but the options in the menu are not clickable. Actually, the top 3 options above and on top of the Broser Tab address bar are clickable, but the ones below are not (but I see them all). Same with the other menus.

When I switch to the tab with the .txt file - all menus work.

I was able to close the window normally.

I did 1.-3. again, opened a page in localhost and used the Select Element tool, but it did not work - no blue rectangles. The window closed normally.

I tried with folder - same. (but that was folder with pictures, not my project folder)

But when I open the Browser Tab in my workspace (without entering URL, just blank) and even though I closed the Browser Tab - I cannot close the window with the workspace.

Before killing the Cursor process - I closed the Browser Tab and now my workspace is saved :slight_smile: , because when I reopen it it is closing just fine.

Now in the workspace I opened blank Browser Tab and forgot to close it before hitting Close window, so the Browser Tab is now stuck in this workspace - meaning that after force closing Cursor and reopening the workspace - it is there and without clicking Close Window (X) - the chat panel is stuck on “Loading Chat”, the Help menu opens, the items are colored on hover but on click - do not open, no matter which tab is opened. When I click other tab (file) - the UI of the tabs looks fine - but the tab content is blank. The Terminal works. The Output pane in its menu I can only see Hooks, Main, Remote Tunel Service, Tasks, Terminal, Window.

I tried Open Folder with my project folder and I opened Browser Tab and on closing the window the problem occurred again. On reopening - the folder opened in a new window but without Browser tab and I was able to close it.

I tried Open Folder with my project folder and I disabled all my extensions, opened Browser Tab and again couldn’t normally close the window.

Sometimes on closing Cursor gives me a message “Discarding backups is taking a bit longer…” and after I close the message window, another one appears:

“”"
Closing the window is taking a bit longer…

The following operations are still running:

  • Saving UI state
  • Cleaning up browser automation

“”"

and that one has a button that allows me to close the window without killing the process manually.

4

the problem happens both with the internal and the external versions of Chrome. It happens without any page load (init blank page in Browser Tab).

5

issue persists on version:

Version: 2.0.52
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 2125c48207a2a9aa55bce3d0af552912c84175d0
Date: 2025-11-03T17:32:51.928Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.12.48+deb13-amd64

6

I believe I’m hitting the same issue. Cursor can’t quit (or auto-update), stuck on “Discarding backups is taking a bit longer…”. I ultimately have to force-quit Cursor.

This happens when there’s a browser window open. It wasn’t open to any page. After killing some processes, the dialog box changes with this message:

Closing the window is taking a bit longer...

The following operations are still running:
- Saving UI state
- Cleaning up browser automation

I’m able to quit the app from that dialog, but when I reopen the app the same thing happens again (I think because of the browser tab).

It looks like if it ever flashes the “browser” editor view, it can no longer quit.
Cursor version:
Version: 2.0.48 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 61bd004ca01ebc275047da743a5db0b6650d1090

7

I’m happy to say and grateful to the Cursor team - that all the mentioned issues, except one were resolved after update to:

Version: 2.0.54
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 7a31bffd467aa2d9adfda69076eb924e9062cb20
Date: 2025-11-03T22:40:44.657Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.12.48+deb13-amd64

I can now use the Browser Tab and its Select element tool.

The remaining issue

The Help and other menus don’t work in the zones of them that are placed over the visible Browser Tab’s tab content (webpage) - they should be ABOVE it, but are halfway below it.