uBlock Origin with Google Chrome "unsupported"

TidBITS Talk
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Some of you may have noticed Google finalized their removal of Manifest V2-based extension support in Google Chrome, which causes extensions to stop working that have not been updated to Manifest V3. However, there is a way to extend “support” of these extensions until sometime next summer.

One of the most discussed losses is uBlock Origin by Raymond Hill, which gets “disabled” by Chome (and Edge). uBO’s installer was disabled on the Chrome store. Conveniently, this V2 purge aligns with Google’s mission to purge ad-blockers and the like… because advertising is one of their main revenue streams.

The steps below will focus on uBO but this should apply to other V2 extensions. If you were already using uBO you can re-enable it with a few steps. I would also strongly suggest turning on “Developer mode” at the top, right corner of Extensions. This enables more details and tools, such as the Update button which I have used to force-updates to uBO for the past year.

Please Note: I have not tried and cannot vouch for the 2nd part where they talk about installing uBO if you did not already have it.

I do not know if Chrome will continue to permit manual uBO updates from the Extensions window.

For historical context, here is a post from Oct. 2024 when V2 disabling was getting started.

2 Likes
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I’ve prepared for the uBlockalypse by buying the AdGuard app. It was a bit tricky to get working (it conflicts with Little Snitch) but it’s ready to go if we lose UBO altogether. It does work with Safari, so for the first time I have decent ad blocking there and have deleted AdBlock Plus, Wipr, Ka-Block! and 1 Blocker. Nice to be able to remove selected elements again, like banners that take up too much space on my 13" screen.

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Did you not try just using the little snitch blocklists to see if that worked sufficiently well?

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LS and all blocklists enabled - nowhere near good enough!