How to disable Google Chrome extension autoupdate

Asked 26/12, 2014 at 13:10 Answered 26/5, 2021 at 5:26

Solved google-chrome google-chrome-extension

How do I disable Google Chrome extension autoupdate?

Inter answered 26/12, 2014 at 13:10 Comment(0)

Solutions I've found for this:

1. Disabling a concrete extension update

That's what I wanted!

You can do this by editing the extension's manifest.json file:

On Windows: C:\Users\<USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\<EXTENSION-ID>\<VERSION>\manifest.json (find out the extension's ID by enabling Developer Mode in the extension settings page)
On MacOS: Open /Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/EXTENSION-ID/VERSION/manifest.json in a text editor.
On Ubuntu for Chromium: ${HOME}/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences

In this file, set the "update_url" property to something invalid like "https://localhost" for example. For the given url, it makes auto-updating that extension as simply impossible.

Source: https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/chrome/l3zOZeO-5-M/Y7VaR0KCWNIJ

2. Disabling all Google Chrome extension updates

For any OS: Just type chrome://plugins/ at address bar and turn Google Update plugin off. Source: How to disable Google Chrome auto update?
For Windows OS: Set Registry values:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update]
"AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes"=dword:00000000
"UpdateDefault"=dword:00000000

Source: Making Google Chrome leave itself alone

Inter answered 26/12, 2014 at 13:19 Comment(11)

I don't see any "update_url" property in this file. – Phlogopite 17/2, 2015 at 17:30

2.1 seems not present at chromium btw – Hexamethylenetetramine 10/5, 2015 at 17:56

for Chrome the file is .config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences – Hexamethylenetetramine 10/5, 2015 at 18:32

to disable all at once, with chromium stopped I did this:

sed -r 's@(.*update_url.*)(clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx)(.*)@\1127.0.0.1\3@' ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences| grep update_url

(the missing -i sed option is intentional so you can backup everything and check it all before applying). – Hexamethylenetetramine 10/5, 2015 at 18:35

On MacOS 10.12.1 and Chrome 54.0.2840.98 I found the Preferences file at: HD/Users/$Username/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences – Boulware 4/12, 2016 at 2:35

each time I changed Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences it would be restore back again very soon, it seems edit that file directly does not work. – Chrysoberyl 9/5, 2017 at 14:46

"2.1" - I don't see an update plugin (only had 4 plugin entries) but it is definitely doing updates. Perhaps this was only introduced after chrome v48? – Colis 28/10, 2017 at 9:51

Not sure if anyone else noticed... but your solution 2 is no more: “This site can’t be reached. The web page at chrome://plugins/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.” Google (and now Mozilla too) are evidently on war against the user. The only remaining logical response is not using extensions and not using Chrome and Firefox until someone invents the web browser again. (One that doesn’t intentionally make users vulnerable to harm and exploits.) – Bellyband 5/2, 2019 at 21:2

Of all the available solutions, this is the only one that works even today! – Corina 24/5, 2019 at 9:15

you can't change manifest.json directly, cause it has digest file: manifest.fingerprint, instead of change manifest.json file, you can redirect clients2.google.com traffic to another non-exists proxy server using SwitchyOmega extentions – Impression 19/5, 2023 at 2:29

@Impression How do you generate a new manifest.fingerprint file? – Neurotomy 9/6 at 18:44

If the chrome extension is on Github (which many if not most of them are), you can simply:

(1.) clone the Github repo,

(2.) reset the head to the version that you want, and

(3.) enable Developer Mode at chrome://extensions/

(4.) select the "Load unpacked" option from chrome://extensions/, and then select the folder enclosing the source code for the extension.

I recently used this technique to downgrade my version of Reddit Link Opener, which no longer supports users who have opted out of using that site's redesign. This worked for me on MacOS, but should work on all platforms.

If the extension is loaded as an unpacked extension (in the manner described above), it will NOT auto-update to a newer version.

Mortgagor answered 28/5, 2018 at 16:10 Comment(1)

Didn't work for me with the forked The Great Suspender (that's on GitHub) - chrome still auto-updated it for me. – Carcinogen 17/2, 2021 at 15:30

Disabling update for a specific extension:

This can be achieved with the system policies, (more details here)

For Linux :

Get the installed extensions list (IDs), this can be found with ls -l ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions or chrome://extensions
Create the necessary directory if not present mkdir -p /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed (with root)
Create the needed file policies file touch /etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/google-chrome.json
Edit that file with the code bellow
open the page chrome://policy/ and reload the policies

{
  "ExtensionSettings": {
    "ghijklmnopabcdefghijklmnopabcdef": {
      "update_url": "https://127.0.0.1/update_url",
      "override_update_url": true
    },
    "YOUR-EXTENSION-ID-LIKE-THE-PREVIOUS-EXAMPLE": {
      "update_url": "https://127.0.0.1/update_url",
      "override_update_url": true
    }
  }
}

Note: this can not be applied widely to all extensions in a single rule and also for each newly installed extension the file need to be updated

Gallows answered 26/5, 2021 at 5:26 Comment(1)

For Windows and macOS users, see support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/187202 for policy path and further instructions. – Engrossing 21/9, 2022 at 7:33

Hi all those solitions for me have one disadvantage is that all extensions have no updates, I needed to stop only for one extension in this case and wanted al the other to keep making updates.

I think I found the solutuion for windows

Go to C:\Users\YOUR_NAME_HERE\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\YOUR_FOLDER APP HERE\

In that folder app click in properties and select read only an aplly that to all subfolders and files... for now for me solved the problem !!!

Regards xichas

Miran answered 22/2, 2016 at 0:23 Comment(2)

Good option, but instead I have denied permission to Create and Delete files and folders there. – Oakman 7/4, 2016 at 13:35

I tried this method and and the (eg google cast) extension still deleted itself. – Colis 28/10, 2017 at 9:54

Just (re)install the extension via Load unpacked.

Let's suppose "Roboform Password Manager" extension version 8.6.5.5 dropped some important functionality, so you want to keep version 8.6.2.2 installed.

Go to chrome://extensions/
Enable Developer mode
Get the required version of the plugin:
- If Chrome still got the version you need:
  - Utilize Pack extension button on the plugin details page.
  - Just copy the extension folder, e.g. C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions\pnlccmojcmeohlpggmfnbbiapkmbliob. The extension id is visible in the url bar, on the plugin details page, e.g. chrome://extensions/?id=pnlccmojcmeohlpggmfnbbiapkmbliob.
- If the version you need was overwritten already:
  - Get appropriate ".crx" from some extensions archive
  - Look for ".crx" in "C:\Program Files\..." (applications/installers sometimes bundle original ".crx" versions, unaffected by any updates)
Unzip (e.g. with 7-zip) your ".crx" (or paste the extension folder contents) to a non-temporary folder - you would have to keep those files in place until you uninstall the extension.
Click Load unpacked, select that folder.

If you just drag&drop the ".crx" file, Chrome extension details would show Source=Chrome Web Store, and it would get updated as soon as you click Update extensions now. But for an unpacked extension, you get a special "Unpacked extension" overlay icon, Source=Unpacked extension and it won't get updated.

Just tested on Chrome 79.0.3945.88 (64-bit), Windows.

Now, Chrome shows "Disable developer mode extensions" popup on each startup. Personally, I just manually dismiss them each time. I do not re-start Chrome too often.

Lin answered 1/1, 2020 at 21:8 Comment(5)

It didn't work for me, they still auto-update. Tested in Chromium 71.0.3578.98, Ubuntu – Jerad 26/8, 2020 at 20:0

@AlejandroGarcia, sorry for the delay. Still works for me in Chrome 89.0.4389.90 though. Was there a "unpacked extension" overlay icon shown in your case, at least? – Lin 17/4, 2021 at 15:12

yes, and after it updated, that icon disappeared – Jerad 19/4, 2021 at 15:15

@AlejandroGarcia, is there a chance that you just left the "Developer Mode" at some point? The answers 1 and 2 seem to confirm that unpacked extension should not get auto-updated, normally (only reloaded from the same local folder). They also note the "pinned extension id" case (but if you're using that, you should probably know its effects better than me). Sorry, I'm not sure about further details. – Lin 20/4, 2021 at 20:55

Weird.. I did it again and now they don't update anymore, guess your answeer still works! – Jerad 20/6, 2021 at 20:14

After updating Google Chrome to v60, no solution found on the Internet has helped me

So i just blocked IP addresses, used for updating, by doing following steps:

Opened Chrome with blank browser tab
Waited, until extension autoupdate begins, by looking on to network tab in Resource Monitor
Wrote out all the IP addresses with high download rate. My IP address list was:

    64.233.161.94
    64.233.161.102
    64.233.163.95
    74.125.238.132
    108.177.14.138
    173.194.73.132
    173.194.222.102
    216.58.209.110
    216.58.209.97
    173.194.222.99
    173.194.32.227
    173.194.113.172
    173.194.32.224
    195.216.237.77
    74.125.232.170
    143.215.130.61
    74.125.238.147
    173.194.122.137
    173.194.44.66
    173.194.44.67
    173.194.44.95
    173.194.122.136
    74.125.232.183
    74.125.232.171

Created outbound rule for chrome.exe in Windows Firewall and added listed IP addresses to blocklist

After I enabled this rule, chrome was unable to update my extensions.

Ier answered 12/12, 2017 at 17:42 Comment(0)

this is a complementary answer to the accepted one https://mcmap.net/q/336367/-how-to-disable-google-chrome-extension-autoupdate , allowing disable all at once on chromium

this is also only for linux (may be run on windows thru cygwin tho, not tested..)

this script will

backup the prefs file,
modify it,
if didnt succeed will output "FAILED"
show the differences using meld if installed

#!/bin/bash

set -ue

strPref="$HOME/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences"
cat "$strPref" |egrep "\"update_url[^,]*," -o |sort -u
read -p "existing unique urls above..." -n 1

strBkp="${strPref}.`date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S"`.bkp"
if cp -v "$strPref" "$strBkp";then
  strUpdUrl="clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx" #change this if needed  #TODO should match any URL...
  sed -i -r "s@(update_url\":\"https{,1}://)(${strUpdUrl})@\1127.0.0.1@g" "$strPref"
  if grep "$strUpdUrl" "$strPref";then echo FAILED >&2;exit 1;fi

  cmdDiff=colordiff
  if which meld;then cmdDiff=meld;fi
  #$cmdDiff <(cat "$strPref" |egrep "\"update_url[^,]*," -o) <(cat "$strBkp" |egrep "\"update_url[^,]*," -o)
  $cmdDiff <(cat "$strPref" |sed -r 's@","@",\n"@g') <(cat "$strBkp" |sed -r 's@","@",\n"@g')
fi

tested on chromium: Version 63.0.3239.84 (Official Build) Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit)

obs.: that script also works for google-chrome, just change the preferences file path

Hexamethylenetetramine answered 5/7, 2018 at 19:0 Comment(1)

I found this vey useful for Chromium as well – Impersonate 3/4, 2021 at 20:53

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1. Disabling a concrete extension update

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