Google recently released Chrome 138, and with it, killed uBlock Origin and other Manifest V2-based extensions (Microsoft is doing the same in Edge). Now, all MV2 extensions are permanently turned off with no apparent option to enable them again (as before). The good news is that you can still use uBlock Origin and other MV2 extensions with a few small tweaks in the browser.
If you have uBlock Origin installed in Chrome, proceed with the guide. If the extension is not installed, get it from the Chrome Web Store as described in this guide (Method 1). After that, do the following:
- Open Google Chrome and go to chrome://flags.
- Find the "Temporarily unexpire M137 flags" flag and set it to Enabled. Once Chrome 139 is out, use the "Temporarily unexpired M138 flags" flag.
- Restart the browser.
- Go back to the chrome://flags page and disable the following flags:
Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Warning Stage
Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Disabled Stage
Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Unsupported Stage - Enable "Allow legacy extension manifest versions." Tip: Type "MV2" into the page"s search box to find the necessary extensions faster. Here is how your flags should be set:
- Restart the browser.
Now, all your Manifest V2 extensions, including uBlock Origin, will be back to life. It is also worth noting that after changing the flags above, you will be able to load uBlock Origin using Developer Mode. However, with Chrome 140, Google will remove the flags, and the only way to restore Manifest V2-based extensions will be to modify your Chrome shortcut.
While users can still make uBlock Origin work, it will eventually stop working altogether, and no method will be able to mend it. Therefore, users will have to either switch to Manifest V3-based blockers, such as uBlock Lite, or move to browsers that still support Manifest V2. Firefox, Opera, and Brave, for example, do not plan to ditch those extensions just yet.
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