Chrome Deletes the Last Manifest V2 Extensions on August 31

The countdown timers are back. Some tract put 1 astatine the apical of an article this week: days, hours, and minutes ticking down to August 31, 2026, the greeting "Chrome kills your extensions." The all-caps type adds an exclamation point.

I'll prevention you the arithmetic. The extensions that August 31 supposedly kills stopped moving past summer, and if you're reference this successful a Chrome that works, nary of yours are connected the list. The melodramatic portion of this communicative already happened, quietly, much than a twelvemonth ago. What's near is simply a database cleanup astatine the Chrome Web Store.

Two things, then. First, the boring reassurance, pinch nonstop dates, because a incorrect day is the full logic group are scared. Then the portion worthy your time: why Google spent 4 years dragging each hold developer done this migration, and whether the group who mislaid their favourite advertisement blocker person a existent complaint. They partially do, and I'll opportunity where.

The melodramatic portion already happened

Manifest V2 is the format that described Chrome extensions for complete a decade. It launched successful 2012. Its replacement, Manifest V3, reached unchangeable Chrome connected January 19, 2021, and past Google spent years slow closing each doorway that fto the aged format support running. The timeline matters, because each measurement removed a different flight hatch, and the 1 that really turned MV2 disconnected is good down us.

The afloat Manifest V2 to V3 timeline (and the Manifest V3 merchandise date)

Here's the ratchet, astir of it consecutive from Chrome's ain deprecation timeline, pinch 1 later measurement I'll emblem arsenic coming from elsewhere:

June 3, 2024 was the first informing shot, but only developers and early-adopters saw it. Warning banners appeared connected chrome://extensions for MV2 extensions connected Chrome's Beta, Dev, and Canary channels, and those extensions mislaid their "Featured" badge successful the store. If you were connected unchangeable Chrome, which is almost everyone, you saw thing yet. Your move came later, successful the run-up to October. (Getting this 1 correct matters: a station scolding the property for fumbling the timeline had amended not fumble the first day connected it.)

October 9, 2024 was the first point that really bit. Chrome began disabling MV2 extensions connected the unchangeable channel, rolling it retired gradually. If yours sewage switched off, you could still flip it backmost on, for now.

March 31, 2025 made "off" the default everywhere. MV2 extensions were abnormal by default connected each channel, though users could still re-enable them by hand, and enterprises sewage a reprieve: an admin argumentation called ExtensionManifestV2Availability kept MV2 live connected managed machines, extended done June 2025.

July 24, 2025 (Chrome 138) is the day that matters. As of that date, MV2 was abnormal for each users connected each channels, and the manual re-enable toggle was gone. You could nary longer move your aged extensions backmost on. Chrome 138 was besides the last type of Chrome that could tally an MV2 hold astatine all, and only past done that endeavor policy.

Chrome 139, the very adjacent release, deleted the endeavor argumentation too. That closed the last door. From Chrome 139 onward, location is nary supported measurement — not a toggle, not a flag, not an admin override — to tally a Manifest V2 hold connected Chrome. That alteration deed each Chrome 139 personification astatine once.

Chrome 150 and 151, crossed June and July 2026, swept up the past of the dust. Chrome 150 removed the kExtensionManifestV2Disabled characteristic flag, pinch Google's perpetrate rationale calling it dormant code. Chrome 151, unchangeable astir July 28, took what was left: the #extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-unsupported developer emblem that could coax MV2 backmost to life connected a dev build, and the AllowLegacyMV2Extensions command-line move that had still fto developer mode load an unpacked MV2 extension. Neither measurement is successful Google's charismatic timeline (that archive stops astatine Chrome 139), truthful I'm taking them from the Chromium commits and the tech property that tracked them. Treat that arsenic well-corroborated alternatively than gospel; either measurement it changes thing for a normal user, who mislaid MV2 backmost astatine 138.

Read that database again and announcement wherever the existent move is. Everything load-bearing happened betwixt October 2024 and Chrome 139 successful mid-2025. By the clip you're reference this, MV2 has been dormant connected mean Chrome for a afloat year.

What August 31 really changes

So what happens connected the 31st? The Chrome Web Store removes the remaining Manifest V2 listings. That's the full event. Google's timeline puts it plainly: the leftover MV2 extensions travel disconnected the store, and immoderate that are still installed connected Chrome 138 aliases earlier "will stay installed, but will beryllium incapable to person immoderate updates and cannot beryllium reinstalled from the Chrome Web Store erstwhile removed."

Two consequences autumn retired of that, and neither is the 1 the headlines promise.

The first is that you can't get those extensions anymore. No install, nary reinstall, nary update. If a listing was limping on collecting downloads from stragglers connected aged builds, that stops. The shop page 404s.

The 2nd is subtler and worthy sitting with. Nothing successful your moving browser changes connected August 31, because connected existent Chrome the affected extensions already don't run. The shop removal isn't a termination switch; the termination happened successful Chrome 138 and 139. This is Google tidying up the support aft the beverage already went off.

The honorable type of the August 31 communicative is unglamorous: a listing gets deleted, a fewer group connected aged aliases different browsers suffer the expertise to reinstall thing that was already surgery for everyone else, and the remainder of america don't notice. That doesn't make a bully countdown timer.

How to cheque whether immoderate of this touches you

You almost don't request to. The applicable trial is the 1 I support repeating: if your extensions work, they're V3, and you're done. MV2 can't tally connected your Chrome, truthful "it runs" is proof.

If you want to look anyway, unfastened chrome://extensions. Chrome flags the dormant ones for you. An MV2 leftover shows up greyed out, toggled off, usually pinch a statement that it's nary longer supported and a small trash-can punctual to region it. Everything else, each hold that's enabled and doing its job, is Manifest V3. There's nary hidden MV2 softly working; "quietly working" is precisely the point Chrome 138 made impossible.

If you're the benignant of personification who wants to spot it successful the file, flip connected Developer mode successful the top-right of chrome://extensions, click an extension's Details, and you tin inspect its folder. The manifest tells you outright:

{ "manifest_version": 3, "name": "Some Extension", "version": "1.4.2" }

A 3 location is the full answer. A 2 would mean an hold Chrome is nary longer consenting to run. In believe you'll only ever find 2 connected thing already disabled.

Why Google really forced this

Now the portion that makes this a how-it-works station alternatively of a news blurb. Manifest V3 wasn't cosmetic. Google rebuilt 3 circumstantial mechanisms, and each 1 traded capacity for a spot Google wanted. I deliberation 2 of the 3 trades are intelligibly defensible and 1 is genuinely contested. Let maine return them successful bid and beryllium adjacent to some sides, because the net has mostly picked a squad connected this and stopped reading.

The codification can't alteration aft Google looks astatine it

Under Manifest V2, an hold could fetch codification from a server astatine runtime and execute it. A inheritance page could propulsion down a book and eval it, aliases inject a distant <script> tag, and abruptly beryllium moving logic that was ne'er successful the package Google reviewed:

(async () => { const res = await fetch("https://vendor.example.com/latest-logic.js"); eval(await res.text()); })();

Manifest V3 forbids remotely-hosted code. All executable logic has to vessel wrong the hold package that went done review. Manifest V2 already blocked eval and distant scripts by default, but it fto a developer loosen the contented information argumentation to let them. V3 removes that flight valve: location is nary supported measurement to weaken the argumentation backmost into moving codification you fetched astatine runtime. Chrome's migration docs are blunt that remotely-hosted codification isn't allowed: an hold tin reference and usage only the JavaScript files coming successful its ain bundle.

Frame it from the user's broadside and this 1 is difficult to reason with. Under MV2, the point Google reviewed and the point moving successful your browser could beryllium 2 different programs. An hold could walk reappraisal arsenic a tidy small utility, past telephone location a week later and go a keylogger, and the reappraisal that was expected to protect you covered a type that nary longer existed. Banning distant codification intends the reviewed artifact and the moving artifact are the aforesaid artifact. That's a existent information win, and it's the alteration I'd take sides without flinching.

The costs is constrictive but real: morganatic patterns that shipped logic remotely — immoderate A/B testing frameworks, distant characteristic flags that carried behaviour alternatively than conscionable data, speedy hot-fixes without a shop round-trip — each collapsed and had to beryllium rebuilt wrong the package. Annoying for developers. Good for users. I'll return the trade.

The browser blocks requests now, not the extension

This is the 1 group are really angry about, and they're not incorrect to be.

Manifest V2 gave extensions a blocking type of the webRequest API. It fto an hold registry a listener that Chrome would telephone for each azygous web petition the browser made, manus it the details, and hold for the extension's ain JavaScript to decide, astatine that moment, whether to let it, artifact it, aliases rewrite it:

chrome.webRequest.onBeforeRequest.addListener( (details) => { if (looksLikeAnAd(details.url)) return { cancel: true }; }, { urls: ["<all_urls>"] }, ["blocking"] );

That is tremendous power. It's besides tremendous visibility: to make that decision, the hold gets to spot each URL you request, successful codification it afloat controls. That's precisely what made blocking webRequest the instauration of superior contented blockers, and precisely what made Google tense astir it.

Manifest V3 replaces it pinch declarativeNetRequest. Instead of moving your codification connected each request, the hold declares its rules up of time, and the browser's ain web stack enforces them:

[ { "id": 1, "priority": 1, "action": { "type": "block" }, "condition": { "urlFilter": "||ads.example.com^", "resourceTypes": ["script", "image", "xmlhttprequest"] } } ] { "manifest_version": 3, "permissions": ["declarativeNetRequest"], "declarative_net_request": { "rule_resources": [ { "id": "ruleset_1", "enabled": true, "path": "rules.json" } ] } }

The quality is the full argument. With declarativeNetRequest, the hold ne'er sees your traffic. It hands Chrome a rulebook, Chrome does the blocking, and the hold is retired of the loop. Google's lawsuit is privateness positive performance: your advertisement blocker tin nary longer publication your full browsing history request-by-request, and there's nary hold JavaScript sitting successful the basking way of each web call. Both of those are true, and for the median hold they're a cleanable upgrade.

The costs is that declarative rules can't definitive everything codification could. declarativeNetRequest caps really galore rules you tin ship: a guaranteed minimum of 30,000 fixed rules, up to 30,000 move ones, and 5,000 convention rules. Google has raised those budgets much than erstwhile arsenic the complaints came in. The safe dynamic-rule limit jumped from 5,000 to 30,000 successful Chrome 121. But the count was ne'er the existent ceiling. Declarative rules can't make decisions that dangle connected what a consequence really contains, aliases concatenation logic the measurement existent codification can. Dynamic, situational, "look astatine this and past decide" blocking was the full constituent of the precocious tools, and the rulebook exemplary can't reproduce each of it. This is what kneecapped the heavy-duty contented blockers, and the backlash was earned.

Here's the honorable steelman for the group who are furious, because they merit a adjacent proceeding and not a shrug. Grant Google each connection of the privateness argument. It's still existent that declarativeNetRequest is strictly little expressive than blocking webRequest, and nary magnitude of bully intent closes that gap. And there's an uncomfortable optics problem sitting underneath: the institution telling you your advertisement blocker has to get weaker, for your ain privacy, is the institution that sells the ads. You tin judge the privateness use is existent and judge the aforesaid use could person been reached pinch little collateral damage: a stricter permission, an audit way for trusted blockers, a narrower API alternatively of a blunter one. I don't deliberation Google acted successful bad religion here. I do deliberation "trust us, it's for your privacy" is simply a large inquire from the advertisement company, and the critics who wanted the triumph without the amputation person a point.

The inheritance page stopped being always-on

The 3rd alteration is the 1 developers grumbled astir about and users noticed least. Manifest V2 extensions had a persistent inheritance page: a hidden page that loaded erstwhile the hold started and stayed resident for the full browser session, holding immoderate authorities it liked successful plain variables.

Manifest V3 replaced it pinch a service worker. A work worker is event-driven and ephemeral: Chrome spins it up to grip an event, lets it spell idle, and terminates it aft astir 30 seconds of inactivity. Google's statement is memory and performance: an hold you're not actively utilizing shouldn't beryllium squatting connected a unrecorded process and a chunk of RAM conscionable successful case. On a instrumentality pinch forty tabs and a twelve extensions, that adds up, and event-driven workers that unload erstwhile idle are the correct default.

The clash is that "your inheritance discourse tin beryllium killed astatine immoderate moment" forces a existent rewrite. Any authorities you kept successful a world adaptable evaporates erstwhile the worker unloads. Listeners person to beryllium registered synchronously astatine the apical level aliases the arena that would person woken the worker gets missed. setTimeout for thing longer than the idle model is simply a trap, because the timer dies pinch the worker; you scope for chrome.alarms instead. None of it is exotic, but each of it is different, and a decade of MV2 codification and tutorials assumed the opposite. I wrote a full abstracted station connected why MV3 work workers support dying and really to build astir them if you want the gory lifecycle details.

I vessel BumbleTap connected this model, truthful return my verdict for what it's worth: I made my bid pinch it. The rewrite is existent activity the first clip through, and aft that it's conscionable really the level is. It is what it is, and erstwhile you extremity expecting a inheritance page that ne'er dies, the ephemeral worker mostly stays retired of your way. What's telling is that aft each of it, the 1 spot this migration really landed connected me wasn't a statement of my ain code. It was losing the existent uBlock Origin, which is the portion everyone really showed up for.

So is uBlock Origin gone?

This is the mobility astir group are really typing into a hunt box, truthful here's the nonstop answer: the uBlock Origin you're reasoning of — Raymond Hill's original, the 1 built connected blocking webRequest — nary longer runs connected Chrome. It went acheronian pinch each different MV2 hold successful mid-2025. On Chrome, that circumstantial point is over.

But "gone" oversells it. Hill (who goes by gorhill) built a Manifest V3 type called uBlock Origin Lite, aliases uBOL. It uses declarativeNetRequest and pre-compiles select lists into fixed rulesets astatine build time. For astir people, connected astir sites, it blocks astir ads, and it does it pinch a smaller footprint than the original.

It is also, by design, little capable, and gorhill has ne'er pretended otherwise. Because uBOL leans connected fixed rules alternatively of unrecorded code, it can't do the dynamic, per-site, "watch what the page does and react" filtering the afloat type was known for. Its cosmetic filtering (the portion that hides leftover quiet advertisement boxes and page furniture) is much limited, and it can't accommodate to a caller anti-adblock instrumentality until gorhill ships a caller ruleset done the store's reappraisal queue and you update. For a casual user, uBOL is fine. For personification who ran the afloat uBlock Origin because they needed the precocious knobs, "fine" is simply a demotion, and calling uBOL a drop-in replacement would beryllium dishonest.

The afloat uBlock Origin isn't extinct, though. It conscionable doesn't unrecorded connected Chrome anymore. Firefox kept the blocking webRequest API, truthful the complete, unabridged uBlock Origin still runs location today. Brave took a different way entirely: its advertisement and locator blocking is built natively into the browser alternatively than shipped arsenic an extension, truthful Manifest V3's rules for extensions simply don't use to it: requests get filtered heavy successful Brave's ain web stack by a Rust engine, untouched by immoderate of this. AdGuard, similarly, offers a standalone exertion that filters extracurricular the hold sandbox arsenic good arsenic an MV3 extension.

For the record, here's wherever I landed, since I've spent this conception describing what everyone other does. I drifted to Edge for regular browsing. It's Chromium underneath, but it hasn't pulled the plug connected the afloat uBlock Origin the measurement Chrome did, truthful for now the unabridged point still runs there, and I've softly travel to for illustration Edge anyway. In Chrome I support uBO Lite and mostly shrug; it catches what I attraction about. That's the real-world style of it: the group who needed the afloat instrumentality support a 2nd browser astir for it, and everyone other takes the lite type and moves on. The drawback is that "for now": Microsoft has now put an extremity day connected MV2 successful Edge too, truthful it's a reprieve, not a promise.

Where this leaves you

For you, arsenic personification who conscionable wants their browser to work: fundamentally nothing. Your extensions are V3 aliases they wouldn't beryllium running. August 31 deletes immoderate shop listings you weren't visiting. The internet's countdown timers are counting down to a database DELETE.

The 1 genuinely applicable point to do is future-proofing, not firefighting. If there's a Manifest V2 hold still clinging connected location successful your world (an aged instrumentality your squad ne'er updated, a locked-down activity laptop, a Chromium fork pinch its ain rules), understand that erstwhile the listing is gone, that hold can't beryllium reinstalled aliases moved to a caller device. So if you dangle connected one, spell find its V3 successor now, while you tin still hunt the shop for it. After August 31, the way goes cold.

On the different browsers: Edge, Brave, Opera, and the remainder are each Chromium underneath, truthful they each inherit the Manifest V3 level and will onshore successful the aforesaid spot eventually. But they group their ain clocks. Brave, arsenic above, blocks natively and mostly sidesteps the extension-API drama. Microsoft group Edge's Manifest V2 timeline independently alternatively than mirroring Chrome's dates, and connected August 7, 2026 it published that timeline: the user modulation starts successful August 2026 connected the preview channels, broadens to Stable complete the pursuing months, and targets completion by the extremity of 2026, pinch managed devices pursuing successful early 2027. Different clock, aforesaid destination. The safe rule: Chrome's August 31 day is simply a Chrome date. Don't presume it governs immoderate other you run.

One aside, since it's adjacent to disclose wherever I'm standing. The hold I build, BumbleTap, is Manifest V3 and doesn't fetch codification from a server to run: everything it executes ships wrong the reviewed package. So for maine this migration was the water, not a wave: it's conscionable the style the level is now. I'm not neutral astir MV3, but I'm besides not its victim, and I've tried to support some of those existent above.

The existent communicative present was ne'er August 31. It's the four-year waste and acquisition Google made: immoderate actual personification power, mostly successful the hands of group moving superior contented blockers, exchanged for a level wherever a reviewed hold can't secretly rewrite itself, can't publication each your traffic, and can't idle successful the inheritance eating RAM. Two of those 3 are wins I'd take sides to anyone. The 3rd 1 costs existent group a existent tool, and Google's cleanest privateness statement for it comes, awkwardly, from the largest advertisement institution connected earth. Hold both. The countdown timers can't.

Caveats

• Every day and type supra is Chrome's published deprecation timeline arsenic of mid-2026. Version numbers and cutoffs person moved much than erstwhile crossed this rollout; if you're reference this overmuch later, cheque the existent Manifest V2 deprecation timeline alternatively than trusting a snapshot.
• Edge, Brave, Opera, and different Chromium browsers inherit Manifest V3 but tally their ain schedules. Nothing present astir Chrome's dates should beryllium publication arsenic a committedness astir a non-Google browser. Confirm against that browser's ain announcements.
• declarativeNetRequest's norm limits are circumstantial numbers, and Chrome has raised them much than once: the safe dynamic-rule fund jumped from 5,000 to 30,000 successful Chrome 121. The figures supra are existent arsenic of mid-2026; cheque the API reference earlier you creation astir a cap.
• uBlock Origin Lite is nether progressive development, and its capacity spread versus the original narrows arsenic gorhill and the DNR API some improve. Treat immoderate "uBOL can't do X" claim, including mine, arsenic a point to re-test alternatively than a fixed law.
• This describes Chrome's hold platform. Chrome connected iOS runs WebKit and a different hold communicative entirely, and Chrome connected Android doesn't tally this people of hold astatine all.