Once upon a time all my Google Chrome extensions were gone! I found many solutions out there, and finally found one that did it for me, but I’m sharing everything I found at the time in this article.
Jump to each solution:
- Restart the browser
- Check potentially corrupted extensions
- Verify Google Chrome sync » worked for 1 visitor (Jul 2021)
- Reinstall extensions
Disable ‘Enable Enhanced Bookmarks’» worked for me, now obsolete (2016)- Enable ‘Extensions Toolbar Menu’
- Repair extensions » worked for 2 visitors (Nov 2016)
- Sign in from Settings » worked for 1 visitor (Sep 2017)
Restart the browser
The first thing I tried was restarting the browser normally. It didn’t work.
Then I searched around the web and found some solutions. The Google Product Forums didn’t present any viable one. There was also a post on Reddit about this, but it lead me nowhere.
Check potentially corrupted extensions
I used to have Disqus installed on this website, so here is a solution that worked out for others:
In case it helps anyone, I finally noticed that a couple of my extensions were marked as “potentially corrupted” and I had a clickable option to “repair” them. Doing so got all of them to show back up in the chrome menu. I had to click on the vertical 3 dots -> More Tools -> Extensions. It was then just a matter of scrolling through my list of extensions and repairing all the corrupted ones. Hope that helps someone.
— Matthew Greenwood, Nov 2016
If this doesn’t apply, read on…
Verify Google Chrome sync
At some point, some “darrel” at Yahoo! Answers suggested the following:
I tried this but I couldn’t see any yellow box. And by checking Chrome Sync, there wasn’t anything noticeably wrong… apart from only showing three extensions (there should be more).
Reinstall extensions?
Going to the Chrome Store to reinstall all the extensions seemed to be another option… but then I found I couldn’t do this as well.
By trying to install one of the extensions, I got the following error:
“An error has occurred. This item is already being downloaded and added into Chrome”
So before I present the solution that worked for me, let me resume a bit the situation:
- This only happened to one of my Chrome profiles.
- ALL my extensions were gone in chrome://extensions.
- Both Chrome Sync and the Chrome Store error seemed to indicate that [some?] extensions were installed, but for some reason the browser wasn’t showing and/or activating them.
- I also tried restarting my Chrome user session (in chrome://settings), but it didn’t work.
Enhanced Bookmarks (deprecated)
The solution that worked for me back in 2016, disabling Enable Enhanced Bookmarks, is no longer possible, since that item is no longer a flag in Version 53.0.2785.143 m (and later) of Google Chrome.
A alternative that might work nowadays is to disable Enable Material Design extensions, also in /flags. So try the same procedure with this one, and feel free to share whether it did the trick.
Back in 2016, modifying a now-deprecated flag item did work, thanks to user bones1618 in this SuperUser.com post:
If by any chance you’re a SuperUser.com user and this fixed the problem for you, please give them some kudos!
First, open chrome://flags:
Then, find (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) Enable Enhanced Bookmarks. Set that to Disabled.
A “Save” notification will appear in the bottom of the page (“Your changes will take effect the next time you relaunch Google Chrome”).
Just click Relaunch Now and your extensions should be back.
Extensions Toolbar Menu
As Diego shared in the comments below, this latest solution is to access chrome://flags and search for “Extensions Toolbar Menu”:
Enable it, and hopefully it should work.
Repair extensions
According to Matthew (comment here), if your extensions are marked as potentially corrupted, you should see an option to repair them.
Doing that should do the trick:
- Click Chrome’s vertical ellipsis “⋮” » More Tools » Extensions
- Scroll through your extensions and repair all that apply
Sign in from Settings
Following Boris’ recommendation in the comments, try signing in from Settings.
So here’s hoping any of these help you, and please feel free to share your experience in the comments.
Thanks for this post, my extensions are back!
Hi Melissa, glad it helped!
Sadly it seems Enable Enhanced Bookmarks is no longer a flag in Version 53.0.2785.143 m. Wonder what the problem is.
Yes, they seem to have removed it (https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/537cav/any_way_to_revert_back_to_grey_bookmark_folders/). Hopefully this problem won’t happen again… or have your extensions disappeared also with the latest Chrome version?
Yes they have, and nothing I’ve done has managed to retrieve them or even allow reinstalling them. Sadly, had to abort to firefox.
ever figure out a solution for this or just jump ship? how’s firefox nowadays?
I wrote a really long comment but obviously Disqus crashed like the garbage it is. In short, I never found a solution. Firefox is mostly annoying because of little things (had a long list of in depth examples) but also has some occasional nice things (more examples). I tried to embrace it, after all Firefox has most of the extensions, and is more privacy oriented, but frankly it still pisses me off and I’d go back to Chrome in a heartbeat. If you ever figure it out, let me know PLEASE!
man, i remember the good old days when firefox was amazing and chrome was in its infancy. such a fall from grace. as it is, i started my computer today and all my extensions are mysteriously back. good luck to you.
Clicking on “Sign in” from settings works in the latest Chrome version, after logging in.
That’s worked for me! TY!
I also just had all of my chrome extensions disappear and Enable Enhanced Bookmarks is not in the list of flags.
What do I do? Anyone?
Sorry friend, wish I had better news. I ended up getting a new laptop and that was the only way I have managed to have extensions again. good luck find something mate
Hi there, did you try Matthew’s solution above? If it doesn’t work, another thing you can try is to sign out of your Chrome account (first section at chrome://settings), and sign back in. Restart Chrome in the process.
Alternatively, and this one’s a long shot, I’ve also noticed a couple of new flags in chrome://flags, named “Extensions on chrome:// URLs” and “Enable Material Design extensions”. Maybe enabling/disabling, and then restarting Chrome will do the trick?
In case it helps anyone, I finally noticed that a couple of my extensions were marked as “potentially corrupted” and I had a clickable option to “repair” them. Doing so got all of them to show back up in the chrome menu. I had to click on the vertical 3 dots -> More Tools -> Extensions. It was then just a matter of scrolling through my list of extensions and repairing all the corrupted ones. Hope that helps someone.
Thanks a lot for sharing, Matthew! Hope it does help out someone out there.
Thank you very much Matthew. It worked.
same problem… all extesions gone.. no Enable Enhanced Bookmarks on flags..
In chrome://flags/, search for “Extensions Toolbar Menu” and enable it. That will fix it.
Many thanks, Diego! Article updated :-)
The sync method worked. Many Thanks!
Happy to help!