{"id":145904,"date":"2025-05-14T03:22:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T07:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/?p=145904"},"modified":"2025-05-14T06:54:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T10:54:19","slug":"browser-purple-links-are-gone-how-to-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/browser-purple-links-are-gone-how-to-fix\/","title":{"rendered":"Browser Purple Links Are Gone! How To Fix"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"daves-3624646059\" class=\"daves-single-post-before-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Background<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>After a recent update to my <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/brave-browser-review-first-impressions\/\">Brave browser<\/a>, I noticed that visited links no longer appear visited (i.e., the link is not displayed in a different color, commonly referred to as \u201cpurple links\u201d). I opened Chrome and it was present there, too. This makes sense since both Brave and Chrome are based on the Chromium web browser.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>This has something to do with a recent \u201cfix\u201d to the Chromium software that prevents potential bad actors from tracking an internet user\u2019s browsing history using the \u201cpurple links\u201d selector. Before the \u201cfix\u201d, malicious websites could use this selector to check styles and determine if a user had clicked on certain links, effectively leaking private browsing history.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">But I Like The Purple Links!<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>\u201cPurple links\u201d have been around for decades. I like the \u201cpurple links\u201d indicating which sites I visited. Below are sample bookmark files displaying the missing visited links in both <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/brave-browser-review-first-impressions\/\">Brave<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/?s=chrome\">Chrome<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"396\" class=\"wp-image-145906\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links-640x396.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links-640x396.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links-350x216.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links-150x93.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links-768x475.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links-1320x816.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Missing_Purple_Links.jpg 1420w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"504\" class=\"wp-image-145907\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links-640x504.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links-640x504.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links-350x275.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links-150x118.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links-768x604.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Missing_Purple_Links.jpg 1014w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>As you can see, after the fix, neither browser displays the visited links in a different color.<\/p><div id=\"daves-1879557423\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>I want the visited \u201cpurple links\u201d back!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How To Restore Purple Links<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Brave<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>To restore the \u201cpurple links\u201d in Brave:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>brave:\/\/flags<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In the URL field, open the Brave Experiments area.<\/p><div id=\"daves-2567671398\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-2 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Now, enter \u201c<strong>visited link<\/strong>\u201d in the search field.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Find the \u201c<strong>Partition the\u00a0Visited Link\u00a0Database, including &#8216;self-links&#8217;<\/strong>\u201d setting and change it to \u201c<strong>Disabled<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Now, click the <strong>Relaunch<\/strong> button.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" class=\"wp-image-145908\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-640x425.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-640x425.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-350x232.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-1320x876.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links.jpg 1520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Chrome<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>To restore the \u201cpurple links\u201d in Chrome:<\/p><div id=\"daves-3338476365\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-3 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><strong>chrome:\/\/flags<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In the URL field, open the Chrome Experiments area.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Now, enter \u201c<strong>visited link<\/strong>\u201d in the search field.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Find the \u201c<strong>Partition the\u00a0Visited Link\u00a0Database, including &#8216;self-links&#8217;<\/strong>\u201d setting and change it to \u201c<strong>Disabled<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p><div id=\"daves-3545103734\" class=\"daves-single-post-in-content-4 daves-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-bottom: 25px;\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"2700504761\" \ndata-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Now, click the <strong>Relaunch<\/strong> button.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"437\" class=\"wp-image-145909\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-640x437.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-640x437.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-350x239.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-150x102.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-768x524.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links-1320x901.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Setting_Flag_Purple_Links.jpg 1337w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Purple Links Are Back!<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>After changing the <strong>flag<\/strong> in Brave and\/or Chrome, the \u201cpurple links\u201d are back the way they have been for decades. In the following screen images, you can see that the visited links are now displayed in a different color from the non-visited links.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"394\" class=\"wp-image-145910\" title=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links-640x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links-640x394.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links-350x215.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links-150x92.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links-768x473.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links-1320x812.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Brave_Restored_Purple_Links.jpg 1420w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"419\" class=\"wp-image-145911\" src=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links-640x419.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links-640x419.jpg 640w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links-350x229.jpg 350w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links-150x98.jpg 150w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chrome_Restored_Purple_Links.jpg 1266w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\r\n<div id=\"daves-1600290880\" class=\"daves-after-content daves-entity-placement\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-7205184075006101\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-7205184075006101\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"3225321574\" \ndata-ad-format=\"autorelaxed\" data-full-width-responsive=\"false\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background After a recent update to my Brave browser, I noticed that visited links no longer appear visited (i.e., the link is not displayed in a different color, commonly referred to as \u201cpurple links\u201d). I opened Chrome and it was present there, too. This makes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4183,"featured_media":145917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[264,17],"tags":[14301],"class_list":["post-145904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-browser","category-how","tag-purple-links"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davescomputertips.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}