Where does google chrome store unpacked extensions? - google-chrome

I just lost all my changes to my google chrome plugin. However, the plugin is still running within the browser.
Where does Google Chrome store its cached copy of unpacked extensions?

I was able to find luck in:
Non-windows 7:
C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\<profile>\Extensions
-or-
Windows 7:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\<profile>\Extensions
EDIT: You can go to "chrome://version/" (like a url) and it shows your "Profile Path". There you can find an "Extensions" folder which is the one you're looking for.

Turns out that unpacked extensions are left in their original locations. Only packed extension get extracted to the places Alex.Piechowski mentioned.

On Linux (OpenSuse 12.3), I managed to find all my installed extensions here:
~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/
It's important to first take note of the extension ID in case u wish to just copy a particular extension. For this, open chrome://extensions/ in your browser, copy the id of the extension of interest, and find it's directory under the extensions directory given above.
Being able to locally save copies of extensions like this has helped me to continue using (and even modifying / hacking) on extension that were eventually removed from the Chrome Store by either their owners or Google.

So I was debugging an extension I am building on Mac OS X and couldn't find the SQLite database in any of the standard locations. It doesn't store the DB in the path where the extension files live.
Here's where I found my database when running an unpacked extension:
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/databases/http_foobar.com_0/XX
-Eric

User profiles are stored in User Data Directory and it vary depending on the operating system.
The easiest way is to navigate to chrome://version and look for the Profile Path field.
Example (Windows):
[Profile Path] C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
[User Data Dir] C:\Users\Alice\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
Then Extensions are located under Extensions/ folder.

In windows:
Path: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Profile 1\Extensions
(Here, you will not able to see extensions by name but it will be by extensions by Id. Extension Id you can get it from chrome→extension→Developer modes)
Or
Path: C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions
Or
Download Extension Source Locator. Give your username. It will list out all the extension with path details.

Related

Which file under Chrome's Extension directory gives details about the name and version of the Extension

I had gone through the below post on StackOverflow and I know where the chrome extensions are saved in the directory path, in MAC
Where to find extensions installed folder for Google Chrome on Mac?
But my question was, the directory path usually ends into the directory (which has several files and subdirectories)
Which file under this gives me the actual name of the Extension and its version?
For example say jifpbeccnghkjeaalbbjmodiffmgedin is the extension id folder under /Users/$USER/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/. Which exact file should I look inside here to know the name and version of the extension ?
I need this to write a script , so please don't give GUI based solution. I need it on CLI
You are looking for manifest.json in that file you will find all information about chrome extension
/Users/$USER/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/hash_of_your_selected_extenstion/manifest.json

Where does chrome store unpacked extensions local storage files

I'm developing an extension for Chrome which uses the local storage API. I would like to manually modify some of the data that has been stored by my extension in order to do some testing. I've determined that my installed (packaged) extensions use sqlite 3 files located here:
C:\Users\golear\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Local Storage
but I can't find similar files for my unpacked extension. I've used the extension key to search my entire drive as I see that the packaged app use their keys in the names of their local storage sqlite files. I did find 3 folder names using my extension's key but none of them appear to have the file I am looking for.
For Mac, it's in Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Local Extension Settings/<extension id>. I'm guessing it should be in similar folder for Windows.
This is also a good extension for viewing what you're looking for: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/storage-area-explorer/ocfjjjjhkpapocigimmppepjgfdecjkb

How to locate Google Chrome extension dir

Hi i'm installing extensions by programmatically by a little c# program.
I just did see the software doesn't work on my friend.
i did see his chrome directory is not at %appdata% folder its at program files?
so how to find the real latest version of chrome directory for install plugins?
Google says
Windows:
chrome_root\Application\chrome_version\Extensions\
Example: c:\Users\Me\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\6.0.422.0\Extensions\
but how to find the chrome_root?
Visit chrome://version.
Look at Profile Path.
Extensions can be found in the Extensions subdirectory of the path you found at the previous step.
You can also load the extension using the --load-extension flag:
chrome.exe --load-extension=path/to/extension
The recommended mechanism for installing extensions programmatically is external extensions. It has the advantage of not depending on Chrome paths that might change, instead you can use a stable registry key or JSON file.

How to install a Chrome extension programmatically?

I've written an extension for Google Chrome that will be released with the next version of our product. I want to understand what properties, paths for extraction, registry entries, etc. should I provide the installer of my product so that the end user doesn't have to install the extension on their own manually, and the installer does the complete job of installing the extension, and also notifies the user that the extension has been installed. As of now, the code that I have written is placed in a folder, and I use the "Load Unpackaged Extension" to load the extension. What should I do to achieve the aforementioned task?
Google's current policy on installing extensions via the registry (for Windows machines) is this:
Only extensions from the Google Extension Gallery (or Chrome Web Store - CWS) can be installed via the registry.
See this link - https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/external_extensions - for information on how this can be done. Keep in mind the following:
-This technique will still pop-up a msgbox to the user. its not completely silent.
-When using this technique, if the user subsequently removes the extension from her Chrome, the extension gets "blacklisted" on that chrome and will not re-auto-install until the user re-install it
manually. refer to Auto-installing a google chrome extension won't work ! for details.
Chrome has a couple ways of installing extensions programmatically:
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/pre-installed-extensions
Edit: yes, this policy has changed by now, as FuzzyAmi points out.
If you're using GNU/Linux, this is how you pre-install an extension from the chrome web store for all users:
/etc/chromium/policies/managed/yourextension_policy.json
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
{
"ExtensionInstallForcelist": [
"yourextensionuniqueidentifiersup;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx",
"yourextensionuniqueidentifiersup"
]
}
Reference
metamask-chrome - AUR

Add external extension by using registry

I use Windows 7(64bit) and repeat steps in Google Document.
This is what I added in register.
In HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Google\Chrome\Extensions\nbfjanngloflombfddlmkgnambnfhgjc
path="C:\Extension.crx"
version="2.1"
But extension isn't install.
Before testing .crx file distribution,
I installed and uninstalled this extension with unpacked files many times by UI(chrome://extensions) for development and tested setting policy by using register. (But I removed all of them now.)
Does it cause any problem?
But when I tested same thing in another clean PC(Windows XP 32bit) nothing is changed, too.
I already checked some common mistakes in Google Document several times, but I can't find any mistakes.
- Not specifying the same id/version as the one listed in the .crx
- Key created in the wrong location in the registry
- Registry entry points to the wrong path to the .crx file (or path specified but no filename)
- Permissions problems on a network share
Are there other common mistakes I should check to install external extension?
According to this page - https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/external_extensions -
it is no longer possible to use the registry method to install locally-hosted .crx files.
in fact, the only allowed extension are those from Google's Extension gallery.
See a quote below from Google's policy page:
An extension that's installed automatically is known as an external extension. Google Chrome supports two ways of installing external extensions:
-Using a preferences JSON file (Mac OS X and Linux only)
-Using the Windows registry (Windows only)
Both ways support installing an extension hosted at an update_URL. In the Windows registry, the update_URL must point to the Chrome Web Store where the extension is hosted.
The extension-ID cannot be chosen at random.
I've installed your .crx file in Chromium 18 (Linux), and Chrome 18 (Windows 7 in VirtualBox), and the correct extension-ID is: lhmigopickaaleaaelbppeabnbdgcdhe
The version number has to match. In the manifest.json file, in the extension, I see "version": "1.0". So, the version entry in the registry has to be 1.0.
I was not able to install the extension via the registry using the steps from the Documentation. I've found two right ways to install the extension through the registry. Create a .reg file, and paste the text below to install the extension:
set_page_color_chrome-extension.reg (based on this file, md5: 10a1b95c249a2481bc88d3d1aead0e33).
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Google\Chrome\Extensions\lhmigopickaaleaaelbppeabnbdgcdhe]
"version"="1.0"
"path"="C:\\set_page_color.crx"
Replace HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE with HKEY_CURRENT_USER if you're running in permission trouble, or if you want to install the extension only for the current user.