Ionic serve on OSX puts Chrome in a corrupt state

Recently, my tuple (OSX / Ionic / Chrome) went haywire.

I ionic serve --lab --browser 'google chrome' like I’ve done hundreds of times without problem, and this is what I get
49

Tried clearing caches, restart everything, reinstall Chrome, you name it.

It seems to me (but I’can’t be positive about it) that the problem appeared when I started playing with the storage, where I put middle-sized data (~2Mb)

Any help veeeeeery much appreciated !

Why do you need to pass the --browser flag?

Did Chrome auto-update on you?

Also which CLI are you using?

Why do you need to pass the --browser flag?

My default browser is Safari, but I like Chrome’s dev tools better

Did Chrome auto-update on you?

I don’t think so. I uninstalled Chrome as thoroughly as I could (How do I uninstall Google Chrome *completely* from my Mac? - Super User) and reinstalled, so I wouldn’t think auto-update is the culprit.

which CLI are you using?

~: cli info

cli packages: (/Users/.../.nvm/versions/node/v8.11.1/lib/node_modules)

    @ionic/cli-utils  : 1.19.2
    ionic (Ionic CLI) : 3.20.0

global packages:

    cordova (Cordova CLI) : 8.0.0 

local packages:

    @ionic/app-scripts : 3.1.9
    Cordova Platforms  : android 7.0.0
    Ionic Framework    : ionic-angular 3.9.2

System:

    Android SDK Tools : 26.0.1
    Node              : v8.11.1
    npm               : 5.8.0 
    OS                : macOS High Sierra
    Xcode             : Xcode 9.4.1 Build version 9F2000 

Environment Variables:

    ANDROID_HOME : /Users/.../Documents/Android/android-sdk-macosx

Misc:

    backend : pro

Wondering if a font got corrupted and that is why nothing is shown?

Have you tried spinning up a whole new ionic app and seeing what happens?

Have you tried letting it launch in Safari, then opening Chrome to the localhost url?

Wondering if a font got corrupted and that is why nothing is shown?

Don’t know… and don’t know how to know :frowning:

Have you tried spinning up a whole new ionic app and seeing what happens?

Yes, same thing with different apps, including new ones

Have you tried letting it launch in Safari, then opening Chrome to the localhost url?

No, and this is where it gets weird (to me at least). I did as you suggested and it cured my system ! Not only did it display the right stuff, but since then I can ionic serve --lab --browser 'google chrome' again and it works !!!
Did anyone say ‘Gremlins’ ???

I hope my system is cured and if it is : a big THANKS CHRIS !