How to troubleshoot Google Chrome Sync issues? - google-chrome

I am using custom sync options to synchronize only some of the artifacts from a Google chrome installation - just Bookmarks, Extensions and Open Tabs. All three are working on well on my two windows computers - but on the Linux machine, I am not getting the extensions. I have tried wiping the Linux Chrome data (by removing ~/.config/google-chrome/ and re-configuring it, the the problem remains the same.
I am wondering if there are any logs that the chrome browser produces that can give me a hint on what the problem might be.
Thanks a lot

Looks like this is not a bug but a "feature", different support of extension per OS, but seems there might be hope this is fixed in future releases see:
Chrome Web Store to get multi-platform app support for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and Chrome OS
Other Deployment Options

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Uninstalls from ChromeOS increased in my extension. Have ChromeOS any browser API difference from other OS?

I have the extension New Tab Studio https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-tab-studio-countdown/epngggilgnflanfabeldfpbgponcgpgl
Several days ago uninstalls from ChromeOS became so big (other OS - as usual).
I wanna try to install ChromeOS on VirtualBox and test my extension, but it's not a very easy task, maybe it's easier to buy Chromebook.
But first of all,
Can my extension has specific bug only for ChromeOS?
Also, I have anonymous messages from google forms, that app crashes (on the background button click), but I cannot reproduce any bugs on Mac OS or Windows.
I reproduced it on Linux (i think that the cores of ChromeOS browser and Linux are the same)
So, the case was that I had the image with path /all.jpeg, but was requesting /All.jpeg. MacOS and Windows was fine with this typo, they even show me the image.
But Linux (and I guess ChromeOS) crashed the extension. And the crash was observed only in the extension installed from Chrome Web Store (my local production build just didn't show the image, but worked fine)

Emulate an older version of chrome within the dev tools

I need to emulate an older version of chrome. I want to avoid the solution where I have to uninstall the current version and install the desired one each time I need to test my app. I came across this article but it doesn't quite answer my question. Thank you!
It's not possible to emulate older versions of Chrome from within DevTools, as is possible in IE. It's not very reliable to emulate them anyway. I've used IE 8 emulator in the past, and on occasion it has provided different results from the version I installed on an XP VM.
In theory, it should be possible to install multiple Chrome instances side-by-side because the installation directory is OS user based. However, I don't think the installations are fully isolated from one another. At least in Windows, the application would likely write to the same registry keys. In OSX, you might be alright, provided you modify the user directory path.
An alternative solution would be trying the portable versions of Chrome that appear over the Internet, usually illegally. Everything is self contained in a directory, but it will likely perform differently from normal installations. Check out PortableApps.
I think the best solution would be to set up some VMs for the different environments and browsers you want to test with. You can manually set up these, using VirtualBox or similar. Many hosted providers will allow you to spin up fresh VMs with automated tasks to install applications and services. You have to pay for these though.
If you just need to check what server returns for old browsers (not full emulation), you can set User-Agent in Network Conditions (for now, chrome 67).
Just for completeness, here is a link (September 2021) that provides historical snapshots of the 'chromium' browser, sorted per operating system and per 'position'. I needed this when I had to test on an 8-year old version of Chrome(~ium)
https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chromium-browser-snapshots/index.html
The URL looks legit (googleapis.com) to me, but please check for yourself before downloading. At your own risk.
Updated on 21/03/2019
I have found the following link which contains links to previous Google Chrome Versions (32bit, 64bit and Linux).
https://www.slimjet.com/chrome/google-chrome-old-version.php
Old post
Just found out that different versions of Google Chrome can be installed.
You will have to uninstall your existing version.
Download the package from here - https://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel
Follow the instructions and install.
Hope this helps someone. The downside is you have to uninstall your current version.
Cheers!
Today you can run Windows Sandbox to avoid installing malicious programs. (Windows Professional or Enterprise Edition is required).
more info:
Windows Sandbox Doc
While I don't have a way to emulate a different version, I did find a way to have a current and an old version installed at the same time. For the 'current' version I installed Chrome Beta. Then I set the regular version of Chrome to the older version I needed.
Google's docs didn't put all the information in one place, so here are the steps for a normal Chrome user in Windows 10:
Download the Google Update policy template (alternatively Chrome Enterprise also contains the files you'll need) and unzip it.
Copy the .admx and .adml files into %systemroot%/PolicyDefinitions (.admx files go there and .adml in the language subfolder (en-US) as found in the zip you downloaded)
Open Group Policy editor and the required settings now exist
In Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->Google->Google Update->Applications->Google Chrome,
set Rollback to target version to enabled
set the Target version prefix override to enabled and your desired version
(e.g. 86. for version 86)
Finally open Chrome, go to Settings->About and let it check for updates. Chrome will automatically download the target version and prompt you to restart.
Do note that this deletes local user profiles and recreates them from remote including redownloading browser extensions, so use with caution. Remember to go back to the normal version of Chrome by unsetting the Group Policy settings and letting Chrome update itself when you're done.

Making chrome extensions on chromium vs. chrome

Pretty simple question-- is it possible to create google chrome extensions via Chromium, and have that same extension be used with people running Chrome on different OS's?
I'm developing on Ubuntu.
Yes, it's perfectly possible; however, Chromium included in Ubuntu will probably seriously lag behind main Chrome versions.
You won't benefit from new APIs available to Chrome users, as well as be unable to test the extension for the majority of users.
Your best bet is, indeed, to install Chrome from Google's repositories.

Inconsistent Extension Behavior on Google Chrome Installs

I have observed inconsistent behavior using the Web Developer extension (Chris Pederick) in Google Chrome on these different machines:
My PC running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
A VirturalBox Virtual Machine (VM) running Ubuntu 12 on my PC
A VM running a updated, fresh install of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit on my PC
I have the same version of Google Chrome and Web Developer installed on all these machines. However, for some reason, Web Developer does not work as expected on my PC. It works perfectly on the Ubuntu VM and the Windows VM.
On my PC, about 95% of the time the Custom Tools functions (Validate CSS, Validate HTML, etc.) in Web Developer do nothing when clicked (they should open new tabs to the W3C validators).
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Google Chrome on my PC several times. I have even manually gone through the file system and registry to completely remove all traces of Google Chrome before reinstalling. Nothing I've attempted so far has corrected this problem.
Of course, due to Google's 'field trials', all these machines have slightly different variations (as reported by chrome://version), but I would doubt that is the source of the problem.
Any ideas or suggestions?
OK, here's a possible clue...
It has baffled me why this problem NEVER occurs in my virtual machine (VM); only on the host. Same version of OS, Chrome, and Web Developer installed on both. May have discovered why.
My standard settings for VMs is to use only one CPU. As a test, I changed the VM to use two CPUs. BOOM! I can reproduce the problem on my VM. Change back to one CPU - can not reproduce the problem.
Does this suggest a problem with threading in Chrome?

Platform compatibility of Chrome Stand Alone Apps

I'm doing some reading on Google Chrome stand-alone applications and I see they are distributed like Chrome Extensions, and by all means, they seem work just like Chrome Extensions, so I assume they will run on the major platforms that run Chrome, like Linux, Mac and Win. But, I don't see any official word on the supported platforms, is there such a reference point?
Chrome packaged apps are available in ChromeOS, Linux, Mac and Windows. You are right, there is no explicit information about it in our online documentation, but that's unintentional.
In fact, you can already run Chrome packaged apps in all platforms mentioned above. The way they are launched - through the Chrome New Tab - is going to change and will behave more like native apps. The current launching method is for developer preview only.