If every time you close a Google Chrome incognito tab the app crashes, then here’s the solution
Incognito mode is used by millions of Chrome users around the world, either regularly to browse without giving too much data to the browser and the sites they visit, or occasionally to perform specific tasks, like accessing an email address from a borrowed smartphone. However, for the past few weeks Chrome’s incognito mode hasn’t been working very well.
The problem mainly occurs with Chrome for Android and consists of a strange app error whenever an incognito tab is closed after use: when closing the tab, in fact, the entire app crashes for no apparent reason. It’s a bug that seems to be widespread on several smartphone models, given the numerous reports from users. A bug, therefore, to be blamed on the app itself and not on the configuration of the device. Now, after about two months since this error first appeared, Google seems to have figured out where the problem was and fixed it. Chrome was basically doing something it had no reason to do.
Why Chrome crashes in incognito
The error message that appears as soon as you try to close an incognito tab in Google Chrome doesn’t offer much insight into the source of the problem: it simply says that the app isn’t responding and asks you whether to forcibly terminate it or wait. Waiting, however, doesn’t do any good.
Google has discovered that this strange behavior is due to the fact that, whenever you close an incognito tab, Chrome attempts to empty the browser’s history. The problem, however, is that during incognito browsing Chrome doesn’t record any history and therefore goes into error.
Google has fixed it: just update Chrome
Google took a long time to figure out the cause of Chrome’s incognito error, but a short time to find the solution: in the latest update of the Android app, which brings Chrome to version 85, the part of the code that created the error has been corrected.
All you have to do is update the app to the latest version to make the mysterious message disappear and to go back to using Chrome’s incognito mode without risking locking your smartphone.