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Does anybody know how to re-enable your own extensions after they were disabled by the Chrome v35 update?
(Mostly greasemonkey scripts in my case, thus simple .js files previously drag-n-dropped in to the extension windows. )

When I started up Chrome today I got the warning that some non-ChromeWebStore extensions were disabled.

More info was giving on this link:

Extensions disabled by Chrome

You're seeing this notification because one or more of your Chrome extensions has been turned off to make Chrome safer. The extensions didn't come from the Chrome Web Store or were installed without your permission.

For your protection, you can only use Chrome extensions that you get from the Chrome Web Store.

To see a list of your extensions:

  1. Click the Chrome menu Chrome menu on the browser toolbar.
  2. Select Tools.
  3. Select Extensions.

Extensions that have been disabled are grayed out and you won't be able to re-enable them.

I was hoping I could still enable them by activating developer mode for my extensions but still no luck.. Any tips anyone?

P.s. this is not a duplicate from Activating a Chrome extension that is not from the Chrome Web Store as this is related to the chrome v35 update

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AardVark71
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    Short story: you can't since google wants users to use their web store, so they can track them, they can show 9999999 ads, etc... It's about making money, not user experience. Imho. it's better to forget that browser for eternity. – inf3rno Jun 20 '15 at 20:47
  • It's unfortunate because I use to turn to Google to avoid these issues. To Chrome's defense, even Firefox is deploying a similar constriction now - I suppose one could argue the gained "safety" aspect of this rule enforcement. – S1r-Lanzelot Aug 04 '17 at 13:40
  • @inf3rno that's beyond impractical... do you also abandon your citizenship if your country published a minor law you disagree with? – Alexander K. Jan 12 '21 at 17:55
  • @AlexanderK. It is a very bad analogy and one can use a different browser, e.g. Firefox instead. Maybe it is possible with Ungoogled Chromium too, I haven't checked. – inf3rno Jan 12 '21 at 20:35
  • @inf3rno in that case, you should have offered alternatives instead of jumping on conspiracy bandwagon about "evil" Google – Alexander K. Jan 13 '21 at 00:01
  • @AlexanderK.Sure, google is all of goodness. :D – inf3rno Jan 13 '21 at 00:21

7 Answers7

53

You can't re-enable them. You need to workaround this issue using any of these alternatives (I will list them for grade of difficulty):

Install other Chromium-like browser

Since Chromium is opensource, there are several forks of the project. I'm not sure if Chromium has the restriction in place but other project may not.

Moving from Windows/OSX altogether

This restriction is put in place for Windows and OSX due security concerns of the entire OS. Linux builds are not affected. You could give any Linux distribution a try.

Braiam
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    I am a little perplexed, 4 machines running 35.0.1916.153 m (standard non-Dev/Canary) and 2 of the machines do not disable the extensions with developer mode enabled, added by dragging the crx file (& not unpacking first), but the other 2 continue to disable them on re-launch. I have even tried the master_preferences and again only of the two computers does it disable on re-launch. – codemonkee Jun 15 '14 at 19:07
  • @Spero.ShiroPetto give it time... it will reach you, maybe in 36.0. – Braiam Jun 15 '14 at 19:22
  • @Braiam: +1 good answer, you should add the option of using [Tampermonkey extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgffkkebhmkfjojejmpbldmpobfkfo?hl=en) to manage all userscripts. – Amro Jun 16 '14 at 18:59
  • @Amro my answer is oriented to real extensions (those that comes in the .crx way) – Braiam Jun 16 '14 at 21:45
  • Note that to use the Developer mode installation with current CRX files, you have to delete _metadata (and potentially other folders/files starting with underscores) from the extracted folder – Aurimas Oct 16 '14 at 18:44
  • Just an FYI for those coming in from google that as of today, developer channel chrome will no longer accept a non-store CRX. You *must* unpack it with 7-zip or similar then re-pack it and load it as a loose extension. – Arthur Kay May 15 '15 at 02:30
  • @ArthurKay "Download the crx file and **unpack the extension** using your favorite decompresser." such thing was already included in the post? – Braiam May 15 '15 at 02:31
  • Right, I'm saying that the method of using dev or canary is no longer valid. ED, source: https://blog.chromium.org/2015/05/continuing-to-protect-chrome-users-from.html – Arthur Kay May 15 '15 at 02:48
  • @ArthurKay exactly how is not valid? You can still unpack the extension and use it in Canary/Dev, are you not? – Braiam May 15 '15 at 02:51
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    Right, I'm referring to the section *below* that saying Canary and Dev are not prevented from installing non-store extensions is no longer valid. Google juuuust took that away. – Arthur Kay May 15 '15 at 02:54
  • The "Developer Mode Route" no longer works in Chrome Stable 55 (at least for the one extension I am using). Does it work in Canary or other builds? – Michael Liquori Jan 23 '17 at 16:22
  • @mliqu according to [this](https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/faq#faq-dev-01), it should be there. – Braiam Jan 23 '17 at 17:13
40

There are really only a couple of options open to you as the ability to run the extensions has been programatically disabled with no plans to re-enable it (or at least none made public)

You can try installing from the canary channel or the developer channel releases which may allow you to still run these extensions as mentioned in Google Chrome help forum:

What if I want to run non-web store extensions?

Advanced users can continue to use our Dev & Canary channels to run any extension. Please note that these channels are updated very regularly, and may contain features and bug fixes that are actively being developed.

Alternatively, I have heard that quite a few people install Tampermonkey which then allows the running of user scripts.

Might be worth a look.

Sathyajith Bhat
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Fazer87
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    Thanks. Tampermonkey was indeed the way to go for my use-case (manually added userscripts). I couldn't just re-enable it with tampermonkey though. I really had to find the .js file in %localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions and copy-paste the contents – AardVark71 Jun 11 '14 at 12:00
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    I got TamperMonkey to work with my script by going to TamperMonkey Settings, and clicking the "New Script" tab (leftmost tab), and pasting the text of the script into the editor there. When I clicked the save button, my extension started working again. Thanks for the help! – dacoinminster Jun 11 '14 at 23:15
  • Am I the only one who was able to get userscripts to work by packing them into crx files and dragging them into the Extensions page. – Shazvi Jun 12 '14 at 09:44
  • My extensions were in a "Profile 1" folder, not a "Default" folder. `%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\Extensions` – Matthias Jun 13 '14 at 17:48
  • @Cybertox I got that to work briefly but periodically when I restart Chrome (usually on reboot) Chrome disables the crx extension again, forcing me to repeat the process. – stevemidgley Sep 29 '14 at 03:04
  • Alternatively you can also work with Ninjakit extension from the chrome webstore(https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ninjakit/gpbepnljaakggeobkclonlkhbdgccfek?hl=en) a similar extension like Tampermonkey.. – Lucky Oct 11 '14 at 09:20
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    Just FYI, Google just pulled this functionality from Canary and Dev, you have to use the method in the below answer, or load as a script through tampermonkey / similar. Source: https://blog.chromium.org/2015/05/continuing-to-protect-chrome-users-from.html – Arthur Kay May 15 '15 at 02:52
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There's another option (at least on Mac) -- there's Google's own Chrome Apps & Extensions Developer Tool (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-apps-extensions-de/ohmmkhmmmpcnpikjeljgnaoabkaalbgc/details) which allows you to re-enable any extension installed.

Stan-O
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  1. Go to chrome://extensions/,
  2. Enable Developer Mode (top right)
  3. Click Load unpacked
  4. Select the directory containing the extension

Doesn’t work?

  1. Install Chrome Apps & Extensions Developer Tool
  2. Click Launch app from the store page
  3. Click Load unpacked...
  4. Select the directory containing the extension
Jano
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Both Chrome and Edge like to disable non-store extensions. On Windows, adding the extension IDs to the following registry keys has so far always reactivated them.

(Chrome switched from HKLM-SOFTWARE-Policies-Google-Chrome-ExtensionInstallWhitelist to HKLM-SOFTWARE-Policies-Google-Chrome-ExtensionInstallAllowlist, I have simply add both variants just in case).

I have 2 extensions that need activation, so I run a REG like this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallWhitelist]
"1"="myextension1id"
"2"="myextension2id"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallAllowlist]
"1"="myextension1id"
"2"="myextension2id"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallWhitelist]
"1"="myextension1id"
"2"="myextension2id"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ExtensionInstallAllowlist]
"1"="myextension1id"
"2"="myextension2id"
AlanBStard
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I used the procedure exactly as described here in a Google forum. permalink

https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chrome/9NlMAr6uEVc/ambkrcKpi1cJ

It basically involves moving, whitelisting the extension ID into the Group Policy Editor.

John McDermott
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    Doesn't work. After restarting chrome extensions are again disabled (Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit). Apparently this workaround doesn't stick for Windows Home editions. – DavidPostill Sep 11 '14 at 17:06
  • This worked perfectly for me (Windows Vista 32bit). – Casper Feb 13 '15 at 15:37
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    The whitelist procedure [ExtensionInstallWhitelist](https://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#ExtensionInstallWhitelist) works fine on computers participating in an AD domain. You do not have to actually set an administrative template policy, using the registry is okay. But it does not work on non-domain computers (this would include Home versions), I figure Chrome is ignoring policy for nonAD computers (sadly). – William Feb 02 '16 at 14:12
  • Unfortunately this is not made to work on Mac – Kubuntuer82 Mar 28 '21 at 09:27
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  1. Add the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag when you start chrome (create shortcut, edit target, append the flag).
  2. Navigate to chrome://extensions/ in the browser.
  3. Drag 'n drop the .crx to the browser, installing the extension.

You'll need to do it every time you launch the browser.

Jens Erat
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JornC
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    The --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag makes no difference on Chrome 36.0. The non-store extension I installed is still disabled. – EM0 Aug 22 '14 at 22:55