Locally installed extension disables itself? - google-chrome

I'm testing an extension for Chrome and it's unpacked to a local directory. I installed it with the "load unpacked extension" button in settings. For some reason, after an unspecified amount of time, it just disables itself. I can go back into settings and re-enable it, but it does this all the time.
I'm using Ubuntu if it matters.

Chrome extension can call chrome.management.setEnabled(chrome.i18n.getMessage("##extension_id"), false); to disable it self, so if you want to stop this behavior, you could take a look at the extension code and comment out this block of code.

Related

External chrome extension can not enable

I install chrome extension using registry key in window and its working good when I start chrome it automatically install that extension. And that it is disable by default but problem is that when I try to enable it from chrome://extensions its not working the box is checked but it couldn't enable like it not show the icon in omni bar.
At the bottom of enable button this is written Not From Chrome Store.
I try to install this extension by drop and drag system it install successfully and enable by default but if I disable it and try to enable it does not work.
What is the problem ?
It seems the problem is in the installation. There are possible reasons this is happening as listed in
common mistakes when installing with the registry:
-Not specifying the same id/version as the one listed in the Chrome Web Store
-Key created in the wrong location in the registry
-Registry entry points to the wrong path to the .crx file in the Chrome Web Store
-Permissions problems on a network share

Chrome extension warning, tutorial for unpacked extension on windows

There's this extension popup warning "Disable developer mode extensions" which shows up on every browser start, even on the dev-channel.
This is annoying beyond belief, but what is even worse, is that there is no clear step by step tutorial on how to allow the automatic execution of an unpacked extension via policies, which they say is the only way to remove the popup.
So, is it even possible to remove the popup for unpacked extensions which resides in a directory on the windows desktop?
How do I go about configuring the computer in such a way that the browser won't bug me on every new browser launch?
There is no intention to pack this extension until it has been fully developed and debugged.
You can't do it without building your own Chrome or hacking the chrome.dll
Here is one example, don't know if it works anymore.

Chrome extension is not installed again through registry if it was deleted

I have extension in chrome store.
At first I added programmatically chrome extension through registry.
Next I removed by hands this extension in Chrome. And added programmatically folder in registry again. But it didn't install in browser.
Also when I removed extension, the folder with extension_id in registry didn't remove, so it even didn't change when I install it again...
How can I solve it? (without solution through chrome store "Add plugin")
This is intentional. If the user decides to delete an automatically installed extension, it is blacklisted on that profile and will not be installed automatically again. There's nothing you can (automatically) do.
From the docs:
What if the user uninstalls the extension?
If the user uninstalls the extension through the UI, it will no longer be installed or updated on each startup. In other words, the external extension is blacklisted.
A user, however, can clear the blacklist by going to the Web Store and installing from there:
How do I get off the blacklist?
If the user uninstalls your extension, you should respect that decision. However, if you (the developer) accidentally uninstalled your extension through the UI, you can remove the blacklist tag by installing the extension normally through the UI, and then uninstalling it.

Apps, Extensions and scripts cannot be added from this website

I'm trying to add the Rapid Interface Builder extension to chrome using the rib.crx file I downloaded from https://01.org/rapid-interface-builder/downloads/2012/rib-preview-1-chrome-extension
Unfortunately, every time I open the crx file with chrome I get the following error:
Apps, Extensions and scripts cannot be added from this website.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Instead of opening the file, you have to: extract it (crx are zip files), then visit chrome://extensions, enable developer mode, and load unpacked extension.
The reason for this is: lots of people try to abuse chrome apps/extensions to install nasty applications to your browser. So Chrome tries to make it impossible to automatically side-load these apps without you making sure that is really what you want to do.
So.. typical caveats of installing software apply when using this approach.
You can now also just drag-and-drop the .crx file onto the chrome://extensions page and it will install, too.
Edit 2019-01-10: Make sure to enable Developer mode for extensions. If this was not enabled, refresh the chrome://extensions page after enabling it.
Edit 2018-08-24: This works on Windows, too.
Edit:
This doesn't work on Windows. Verified on OSX and ChromeOS. From what I've read, this will work on Linux, too.~
(I initially experienced the same problem you described.*)
This solution worked for me in Windows 10 (build th1511) x64:
Open Chrome as you normally would.
Go to the "Extensions" page (chrome://extensions; or click Menu button at top right corner → From 'More tools' drop down menu select 'Extensions').
Drag and drop the .crx file onto the extensions page in Chrome -onto the list of extensions.
You should see a dialog stating "Drop here to install". This must be present. (If you do NOT see this, reposition your mouse - it may be too far to the side of the page.)
It should load successfully and you should see the extension in the list immediately afterward.
*I received the same error you described when attempting to load the .crx file (packed extension) by right-clicking/double-clicking it and selecting "Open With" "Chrome", and by dragging/dropping the file onto a regular webpage in Chrome.
In the Extensions page, just enable Developer mode. From there you can drag and drop any .crx file there and installation prompt will follow suit.
Open Chrome with this parameter --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install, then go to extensions and enable Developer mode. Now you can install .crx files without any problem.
go on extension, and your first step is on developer mode, 2 step update extensions, and last drop IDM extension file on google chrome.

Re-enabling extension installs

I found the new change that you can't install Chrome extensions/userscripts without saving them and dragging them into Chrome quite annoying. As such I have set forth to revert this to the old way it was.
I read the documentation here: http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#ExtensionInstallSources that says to add a registry key and so I have done, as shown below. However when attempting to install an extension I still get an error that they can only be installed from the Chrome webstore. Did I add the registry entries wrong or something?
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\ExtensionInstallSources]
"1"="http://*"
"2"="https://*"
This answer is obsolete as of Chrome 36
Instead of editing the registry, you can also make Chrome to behave in the old way via the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag.
Under Windows, create a shortcut to your Chrome executable. Then edit the shortcut, and append --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install to "Target". See the screenshot below:
Some observations:
I've added the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag after chrome.exe.
After starting Chrome, I visited a website that links to a .crx file that is not hosted in the Chrome web store.
Because of the flag, Chrome 20 doesn't show the "Extensions, apps, and user scripts can only be added from the Chrome Web Store" message any more. Instead (see bottom), Chrome asks me whether it's OK to install the extension - exactely as before.
This command line switch also works for Chromium/Chrome, under Linux and OSX.
If you ever find yourself in the situation where the --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install flag doesn't work (e.g. future version?) or you don't want to use it, then there is an alternative method.
You can install extensions with a plain vanilla install of Chrome by dragging .CRX extension files onto the Extensions panel in Settings.