Fix Chrome error download was not a CRX

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 7, 2012
Updated • Feb 28, 2013
Google Chrome, Google Chrome extensions
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79

When I tried to install a Google Chrome extension in the latest dev version of the web browser I was notified that an error had occured. The message below that stated that the download was not a CRX. Reloading did not fix the issue, neither did a restart of the browser, and next thing I tried was to install another extension from the official web store to see if it did install in Chrome. I did receive the same error message which puzzled me. Somehow Chrome was not download an extension file, which do have the crx file extension, but something else.

I fired up Chrome Canary, another version of Chrome that I use rarely to see if I was able to install extension in the browser. Turned out, I received the same error messages when trying to install extensions in the browser too.

download was not a crx

The download directory was listing the crx file downloads, but attempts to install the extensions in Chrome revealed that they appeared to be corrupt. For one, they had a slightly different file size which is obviously a bad sign if it is the same file download.

I tried a lot of things afterwards, clearing the cache, trying to find the download url of the crx file manually and all of that stuff. Last thing I tried, and that is one of the things that still puzzles me, is to sign in to a Google account. Guess what, after signing in the installation went through without issues.

I tried it again in the second version of Chrome that I was not signed in and it failed again. Signing out in the other browser and signing in again on the other hand let me download and install the extension just fine a second time.

I then signed in on the second Chrome browser and here too, the installation went through without issues. I can't say what is causing this but if you run into the error, I suggest you check if you are signed in and if you are not, sign in to see if it fixes the issue on your end.

Update: As some users have pointed out, going into Incognito Mode with Ctrl-Shift-N, loading the page of the extension in that mode and clicking on install then should also fix the issue.

Update 2: Note that signing out and signing in again may also work in case you are already signed in to your Google account. As some users have pointed out, there may be other solutions like deleting a user account or moving the download directory from a network share to a local folder.

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Comments

  1. Keith said on October 25, 2013 at 8:10 pm
    Reply

    I’ve had this problem, but none of the above fixes worked. It would download the file but error when installing, saying that it is not a CRX file. I am on a networked thinclient, so saving locally was not an option.

    I solved it for this specific behavior. After the CRX finishes downloading, I opened the download location and dragged the CRX file into the extensions tab. Chrome was able to make sense of that and install it properly. Its worked for ABP, IE Tab, and Tampermonkey, among others.

  2. mememem said on March 8, 2013 at 4:04 pm
    Reply

    NOTHING HAS WORKED!!

  3. Carrie said on February 13, 2013 at 4:40 am
    Reply

    Thank you.
    You did help me solve the problem. :)

  4. Beibei said on February 13, 2013 at 1:30 am
    Reply

    Lovely! It works! Thank you so much <3

  5. Dave said on February 12, 2013 at 8:55 pm
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    maybe google needs to work out the bugs before rolling out apps – Im a user not a tech geek – dont wanna waist my time on programs that do not work and even try to search the web for complicated solutions – Ill just use a browser that works.

  6. Anonymous said on February 12, 2013 at 6:12 pm
    Reply

    Thanks, It works!

  7. Anna said on February 9, 2013 at 5:31 pm
    Reply

    I am already signed in with Google and it is still coming up with this message.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on February 9, 2013 at 5:39 pm
      Reply

      Then try signing out and in again.

  8. Cheyenne5030 said on February 9, 2013 at 3:18 pm
    Reply

    Great!! Thanks!

  9. JJJ said on February 9, 2013 at 2:36 pm
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    Thanks for the tip (from S.Korea~)
    I was already logged in when ‘download was not a crx’ appeared. So I logged out and re-login, and it worked. (^^)

  10. Almohan said on February 9, 2013 at 11:35 am
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    Many thanks from France, Martin: the Incognito thing worked fine.

  11. Anonymous said on February 7, 2013 at 6:58 pm
    Reply

    Thanks !! Works perfect. Issues solved :-)

  12. Tomx said on February 7, 2013 at 4:57 pm
    Reply

    Thank you, I tryied with Ctrl+Shift+N and it worked. Nice work

  13. Jack said on February 7, 2013 at 11:03 am
    Reply

    Thanks man! I think that maybe its error is specially made by google. but still you made very elegant solution.

  14. Anonymous said on February 7, 2013 at 1:16 am
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    Did not work! :( Used the control-shift-N recommendation and I get the same error!!! Why doesn’t Chrome and the other browsers just provide a simple sort function as part of the browser. ITS NOT THAT HARD!!! ARGGG!!!

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on February 7, 2013 at 9:50 am
      Reply

      Did you try logging in?

  15. Anonymous said on February 6, 2013 at 4:55 am
    Reply

    thank you.. it works.. XD

  16. Anonymous said on February 4, 2013 at 9:56 pm
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    Genious. Simple yet effective

  17. Debbie said on February 3, 2013 at 2:20 pm
    Reply

    I got the same error. I found that you Sign In to Google Chrome it will work. Easy fix!

    1. Anonymous said on February 3, 2013 at 4:07 pm
      Reply

      Crazy but it works THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. Emiliano said on February 2, 2013 at 7:17 pm
    Reply

    Ok, thank you very much
    Emiliano Rome Italy

  19. Anonymous said on February 2, 2013 at 6:48 pm
    Reply

    Thanks! It worked for me!

  20. kenshi said on February 2, 2013 at 5:23 pm
    Reply

    merci martin :)

  21. FlOr said on February 2, 2013 at 2:32 am
    Reply

    OMG!! i love you! thanks!! you did my day!

  22. Dvil said on January 31, 2013 at 9:39 pm
    Reply

    Спасибо Чувак!(thanks)!!

  23. Anonymous said on January 31, 2013 at 2:34 pm
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    Thanks a lot, it work just fine after i logged in.

  24. F. Felix said on January 30, 2013 at 3:45 pm
    Reply

    Very good, the fast way is using (( Incognito Mode with Ctrl-Shift-N ))
    Thanks o/

  25. kikka said on January 30, 2013 at 3:28 pm
    Reply

    Ctrl-Shift-N worked perfectly fine for me! thank you!

  26. Dimitra said on January 30, 2013 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    It worked fine with Ctrl-Shift-N

    Thanks

  27. James said on January 29, 2013 at 3:35 pm
    Reply

    Had this problem, though this fix didn’t help me. Though I had the same problem it was being caused by having my Chrome download folder set to a roaming (network) profile. Once I changed the location for Chrome to download to a local folder on my PC I was able to install extensions again. Just adding this in case anyone finds themselves in a similar situation.

  28. Anonymous said on January 29, 2013 at 2:22 pm
    Reply

    thanks you so much :)

  29. roql said on January 28, 2013 at 5:08 am
    Reply

    wow, thank you so much!!

  30. pauri said on January 26, 2013 at 8:50 pm
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    thanks so much, through logging out and in it finally worked for me!

  31. HAzzaaa said on January 26, 2013 at 2:27 am
    Reply

    Thanks man

  32. erwin ツ said on January 25, 2013 at 4:54 pm
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    logout then login works for me!! lol

  33. Josie said on January 25, 2013 at 12:26 pm
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    Thank you a million times over! I had given up!

  34. Anonymous said on January 25, 2013 at 6:58 am
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    I really don’t understand this, but the exact opposite is what worked for me. The whole time I was trying to install something I was logged into a Google account and it wouldn’t work, but as soon as I logged out of the account and tried again it worked just fine. Just proves how backwards my life is lol

  35. MikeyRod said on January 25, 2013 at 6:20 am
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    F**king sh*t…You da man, thanks for the tip!

  36. Tomas said on January 25, 2013 at 5:27 am
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    Thanks! I was trying to install a plugin and got the same error. Worked by logging in to my GMail.

  37. jill said on January 25, 2013 at 1:54 am
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    How weird is it that signing into Gmail actually works? Love it. Thanx!

  38. Park from sK said on January 24, 2013 at 12:00 pm
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    Thx soooooo much!!!! it worked!!!

  39. kim said on January 23, 2013 at 10:39 pm
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    thanks soooo much. it works =) =)

  40. Mike said on January 22, 2013 at 7:35 pm
    Reply

    Thank you for the tip !

  41. Anon said on January 22, 2013 at 7:13 am
    Reply

    Thanks a bunch! The incognito thing actually worked… and in like seconds too!

  42. Ronan said on January 21, 2013 at 9:55 pm
    Reply

    Thanks man, really needed this!

  43. Karan said on January 21, 2013 at 3:14 pm
    Reply

    Hey, the ctrl+shift+N worked for me.

  44. Anonymous said on January 19, 2013 at 10:12 pm
    Reply

    Valeu!!!

  45. jessica said on January 19, 2013 at 1:11 am
    Reply

    entrar em modo incógnito deu certo, obrigado!

  46. inyoung said on January 18, 2013 at 8:53 am
    Reply

    thanks a lot

  47. wendy said on January 18, 2013 at 4:11 am
    Reply

    thanks!!! fix my problem~~~ LOL

  48. Okayalrigth said on January 18, 2013 at 3:40 am
    Reply

    Thanks man i just log out log in and it work !!!!!!

  49. TimL said on January 18, 2013 at 2:47 am
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    Thanks man! I was already logged in so his fix didn’t work. I also didn’t want to delete my user from google chrome. Going on incognito, and then download the extension worked great!

  50. Sergio said on January 18, 2013 at 2:29 am
    Reply

    Gracias, me salvaste mi pellejo!

  51. RJfromMilan said on January 18, 2013 at 12:51 am
    Reply

    1. open new incognito window
    2. install Ad Block
    3. done.

  52. zp said on January 17, 2013 at 5:38 pm
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    omg! thanks so much, i was in a mess. you solved it out so easy.

  53. Daniel said on January 17, 2013 at 4:22 pm
    Reply

    Thank you! Worked perfectly.

  54. ed said on January 17, 2013 at 6:44 am
    Reply

    Thanks, it worked.

  55. Derrick said on January 16, 2013 at 11:41 pm
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    Nice one! That’ll be another thumbs up, logging in also worked for me.

  56. Daniel said on January 16, 2013 at 8:00 pm
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    thanks it worked for me

  57. Alex said on January 15, 2013 at 9:27 pm
    Reply

    thank you so so so much.

  58. Tom Estat said on January 15, 2013 at 11:07 am
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    Did really help me, thanks. But it incitates me to leave Chrome : if they want to know at any price which extensions you use, they start to become a really dangerous titan. We live with a sleeping giant monster among us, and he might wake up at anytime…

  59. Somebody said on January 15, 2013 at 1:46 am
    Reply

    Thanks,it worked :D

  60. Arben said on January 14, 2013 at 6:31 pm
    Reply

    Lol, signing in did the job for me as well, lmao. What a stupid error. Thanks

  61. cristie Mcpink said on January 14, 2013 at 8:45 am
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    omg thank you so much i was getting so angry worked thanks a million

  62. Jerry Garcia said on January 14, 2013 at 8:39 am
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    Didn’t help me. I was already signed in. What did let me download extensions was going to settings and under Users clicking on “Delete this user”. Then I could download extensions successfully.

  63. roger said on January 14, 2013 at 4:59 am
    Reply

    thanks.its working

  64. Lina said on January 13, 2013 at 5:59 pm
    Reply

    Thanks a lot! It has worked for me, too.

  65. damasta971 said on January 13, 2013 at 5:56 pm
    Reply

    Thanks ! it worked very well ! Thanks a lot !

  66. Mike said on January 13, 2013 at 8:43 am
    Reply

    Thanks!
    Signing in solved the problem.

  67. Paul B said on January 12, 2013 at 1:45 pm
    Reply

    Somehow I doubt that this is an error at all. “Creepy” Google wants to know exactly what you are doing. That’s why I no longer use Chrome as my #1 browser.

  68. Allen said on January 12, 2013 at 4:06 am
    Reply

    Thanks,it worked.

  69. dee said on January 6, 2013 at 10:52 pm
    Reply

    trick works..

  70. JP said on December 22, 2012 at 3:14 pm
    Reply

    Thank you, it worked for me!

  71. Practical Idealist said on December 17, 2012 at 3:25 pm
    Reply

    Thanks, this solved my problem.

    BTW, note that your G+ button is broken.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 17, 2012 at 3:38 pm
      Reply

      Hej, thanks for letting me know. I have added another plugin, hope it works better.

  72. Bram said on December 10, 2012 at 11:57 pm
    Reply

    Thanks a lot – logging in did it for me – queer it is!

    1. Frank said on December 11, 2012 at 7:12 pm
      Reply

      Maybe they (Google) want to know exactly WHO is installing extensions and themes !! Maybe to get numbers to justify they’re hiding profits in off-shore accounts :)

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