## TL;DR

Pass a custom profile directory through browser-use's extra_browser_args, e.g. --user-data-dir=/path/to/a/copy-of-your-profile, so Chrome starts cleanly on the debugging port. browser-use was working fine driving my local Chrome until last week.

## Steps

1. browser-use was working fine driving my local Chrome until last week. Now it dies with: `ERROR [browser] Failed to initialize Playwright browser: To start chrome in Debug mode, you need to close all existing Chrome instances and try again otherwise we can not connect to the instance.` plus `connect ECONNREFUSED the loopback address:9222`. Closing Chrome didnt help. Chromium works, but my Chrome profile with saved logins doesnt. The error message is a red herring.

2. Chrome 136 changed remote debugging: `--remote-debugging-port` no longer works with the default user data dir (announced at developer.chrome.com/blog/remote-debugging-port). Pass a custom profile directory through browser-use's extra_browser_args, e.g. `--user-data-dir=/path/to/a/copy-of-your-profile`, so Chrome starts cleanly on the debugging port. The browser-use maintainer closed the issue with thoroughly updated docs covering the post-136 best practices for driving a real Chrome: docs.browser-use.com/customize/real-browser. Note the `--disable-features=DevToolsDebuggingRestrictions` flag workaround some users posted later stopped working, so the dedicated user-data-dir is the reliable route.

## When to use

You are seeing this: Now it dies with: ERROR [browser] Failed to initialize Playwright browser: To start chrome in Debug mode, you need to close all existing Chrome instances and try again otherwise we can not connect to the instance. plus connect ECONNREFUSED the loopback... Use this skill when you run into "Chrome 136: browser-use fails to initialize Playwright browser with connect ECONNREFUSED on local Chrome".

## When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

## Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

## Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

## Edge cases

- Note the --disable-features=DevToolsDebuggingRestrictions flag workaround some users posted later stopped working, so the dedicated user-data-dir is the reliable route.