Google claims that uBlock Origin is no longer available for Chrome: but that is not true
When you visit the uBlock Origin page on the Chrome Web Store in Google Chrome, you see a notification near the top that states that the extension is no longer available.
Google writes: "This extension is no longer available because it doesn't follow best practices for Chrome extensions."
The "add to Chrome" button is not displayed anymore for that extension. If it is installed, Google displays a "remove" button instead.
The message is displayed regardless of Chrome edition. In Chrome Canary, you may also notice that Google is removing uBlock Origin and other extensions automatically on start of the browser.
This is part of Google's plan to remove extensions that do not use the new extensions manifest willingly or unwillingly.
The only options that Chrome displays are to remove the extension, as it gets disabled only by Google, or to open the extensions manager in Chrome.
Google Chrome may list affected extensions under these extensions may soon no longer be supported or the recent "This extension was turned off because it's no longer supported" listing.
Tip: Google has added options to Chrome to extend support for a year. You can check out our guide on how to enable these, but note that this is only a temporary option.
uBlock Origin still available in other browsers
When you visit the uBlock Origin store page in another browser, you will notice that the extension is still available. If you use Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, or Opera, you will get the option to install it in that browser.
Google is preventing this in Chrome, likely by checking for the user agent of the browser. It does to to prevent he installation of the extension, and any other that is using the classic extension manifest, in Chrome.
Closing Words
If you are a Chrome user, you have several options to deal with this. You can enable the policy to extend support for uBlock Origin and other classic extensions until mid-2025.
Another option is to switch the browser. You could switch to a Chromium-based browser, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, or Edge. You may need to enable the policy for these browsers as well. Only a few Chromium-based browsers will continue to support some or all classic extensions after 2025.
There is also Firefox. The open source browser does not depend on Google or Chromium. Mozilla confirmed that Firefox will support classic and new extensions going forward. Also, Raymond Hill, the developer of uBlock Origin, says that the extension works best in Firefox.
I use. Several ad blockers at the same time just in case one does not stop the ads showing up.
Hopefulky these Sf blockers can continue to block ads
Is humanity still this stupid? Why don’t you just use Firefox?
Because I don’t want to use an insecure browser run by a tiny company with no manpower. Anyone even semi-serious about his security uses Chrome, Edge, Safari or Brave.
Is that you, Google!?
Google literally just filmed themselves taking a sh*t on a platter on a stage… walking to the dinner table, setting it down as they take a seat, and eating it slowly with pristine etiquette after straightening their bow tie. Google Chrome just became the poison pill of web browsers; Planned obsolescence. Sh*t, cum, and stupid sculpted into a statue of anti-consumer communism gone wrong.
Standard MV2 deprecation boilerplate.
Google lies. Google Search Results are manipulated by Google and thus not trustworthy. This is news?
How on earth can you conclude this article with “Raymond Hill, the developer of uBlock Origin, says that the extension works best in Firefox” when he has recently gone on record saying that he will no longer support Firefox due to their review process?
@Potent Pie
I would assume that he would mean that he would reconsider pushing updates through the mozilla repository if even that. From what I recall that issue was somewhat resolved but beyond that it does not change the fact that on a technical level it was always a better experience on firefox or firefox based browsers. The are absolutely no limitations that I am aware of if the developer of uBlock Origin (Raymond Hill) continued to only push update through a git/github.
uBlockLite it”s useless when uBO exists.
This article neglects to mention that there’s a light version of ublock that works perfectly well that you just can install instead
No, it doesn’t.
The Lite version can’t do much of what the full version can.
Google claims uBlock Origin “doesn’t follow best practices,” a euphemism for “we want to track your every move.”
Just terrible draconian bullpoop, probably the most important security extension ever is now being slaughtered by Google, because it’s “too good” for them, the browser “must” be rape compatible at least with C AI and other snooping agents, inch by inch people are right now loosing there last piece of security and privacy, next up will be Central bank digital currency aka cbdc money to create a digital prison none can escape, bad social score? no travel or gas for your car! your cbdc money will be restricted buying only food and paying bills, that’s where we are heading…
uBlock Origin is much more important than all the silly browser updates, and when there is no browser around supporting older manifest v2 it’s time to stop updating the browsing so one can continue using uBlock Origin.
Until then I am going to continue use Brave and also Firefox as they still support uBlock Origin.
At which point an alternative will pop up or you will be able to use a fork of firefox that will in no doubt continue to support manifest v2. A browser like that already exist and its called Pale Moon. Like it or not for whatever the reason at least they are attempting to do what few other browsers are currently doing and seem to work hard at that.
What we are forgetting is that Manifest v3 in of itself isn’t all bad but google specifically applied silly limitations to what can be done therefore it is garbage or made worse.
There are far too many people on this planet that would argue against such limitations and will fight anything that opposes their rights to a free and clean internet. It has always been that way, whether it was a cloak and dagger operation or one that was out in the open.
What I do thoroughly encourage is for people to study programming languages and make a difference so that we may be better armed to make a difference.
We are fortunate to have many talented people just like Raymond Hill that caries out their work quietly for greater good. The best thing people can do right now is advocate for a better internet experience and to move away from products/companies that aim to restrict you from those freedoms. Be it Google, Mozilla, Microsoft etc.
We have the power to make these changes but we must stand united.
Right now the solution is to drop chrome and force change. My preference is to move away from any chromium based browser but you do what you feel is best for you and your own interests.
Nobody uses chrome anymore anyways so this info is irrelevant.
You live in a bubble as 68% of people use Google Chrome as of today.
No worries. DNS level blocking is good enough for me.
Your headlines get quite long. Is that ideal?
“Google falsely claims uBlock Origin no longer available for Chrome”
For example:
https://i.imgur.com/SCUlrmR.jpeg
(Using Sage-Like add-on in Firefox sidebar that , grrrr, resricts width without userChrome.css hacks).
A critical aspect of the headline is chopped off.
Oh well. Just a little feedback. No malice intended.
Google’s crackdown on classic extensions takes another victim: uBlock Origin. Chrome users are forced to switch browsers or enable temporary support, highlighting the growing limitations of the world’s most popular browser.
“Oops, looks like my headlines got a case of ‘the long and winding road’. Thanks for pointing it out! Will try to be more concise in the future. ”
Here are some additional points to consider:
Search Engines: While shorter headlines are generally better for user experience, headlines with some relevant keywords can still be beneficial for search engine optimization (SEO).
Clarity & Intrigue: The most important thing is for the headline to be clear and pique the reader’s interest. I’ll try to find a balance between the two.
Thanks for using Sage-Like! While width restrictions can be frustrating, userChrome.css hacks are a great way to customize your experience.
“Thanks for using Sage-Like!”
You’re the developer?
What version of Firefox are you using?
I’m also using Sage-Like, and for quite some time now, I’ve noticed that the browser’s sidebar isn’t as restrictive as it used to be. And without any userChrome.css hacks.
https://imgur.com/a/IkV4oFA
That’s why I uninstalled chrome. Brave is much better.
yup. moved to Firefox. peace how Google Chrome….. garbage browser
Brave is better, because it has built-in content blocker and you can add custom filters. If uBlock Origin developer stops working on it, Firefox will have nothing, but Brave, even Vivaldi will be fine.
“Brave is better”
No it’s not. Go doing propaganda to your cryptominer elsewhere.
That’s google nefarious tactics at work
Google has been removing users extensions from chrome without their permission for many years.
“Google claims that uBlock Origin is no longer available for Chrome: but that is not true”
Why is it “not true”? The extension is really not offered anymore.
You cant say “Ublock is still available for chrome” in the title and then say “Solution: get a new browser”.
@Nonya
Yes they can. And it is the solution. There are exactly 0 reasons to stay with Chrome. All websites work the same on Firefox, etc.
Chrome is not claiming it is not available because it is not available in the store or was removed from the store, it is claiming it is not supported by Chrome, or it is being ‘hidden’ (not available) in Chrome’s following Chrome’s best practices aka manifestv3.
If you add the manifestv3 policy to chrome, does it work? Because Brave has it by default, Brave will use MV2 until it gets removed completely from source code. So maybe that’s why. In the end, it is uBlock’s fault to not replace uBlock’s MV2 with uBlock’s MV3 just like Adguard, ABP, Tampermonkey and others did, so this shouldn’t even be a thing, and it is only gorhill being stubborn about it, like not including custom adblock rules to uBlock Lite because “it should stay as lite as possible”
The good thing for Brave users is that Brave is capable of most of what uBlock does, and they are releasing cool features for it. A Brave employee (wats0n) in reddit mentioned today that Adblocker will reach uBo parity in 2025. With latest updates supporting Procedural Filtering, they are relatively close to achieving the most essential parity.
Of course, uBo parity with uBo lists doesn’t mean people can’t find workarounds to the incompatible rules. For example, some of the filters that don’t work it is because of regex and how rust language doesn’t support the lookaround features, of course, uBlock has added regex everywhere, like in the domain which Brave doesn’t currently support.
I would think the most important rules not being supported are $popup and $to, others are a plus but are not that essential or will not be as visible as a missing $popup rule.
Better adblocking for Brave means also better adblocking on Android, which doesn’t have extension support. But to be honest, I would even argue that in most occasions you don’t even need needs extension support, because Brave supports scriptlet injection like uBlock and It’s not hard to use userscripts or port userscripts to native JS if necessary.
Sponsorblock userscript works as a Scriptlet, the Return of the dislike YT button userscript also works, the only thing that doesn’t work is creating the ratio bar, and in that case people need to change the small JS code for insertAdjacentHTML() because trusted-types that are not mandatory in YT, and that means just making it load the trustedtypes policy will work fine, there is also the h264 userscript so you can lock YT to certain resolution and coded if your GPU doesn’t support AV1 or whatever. I also found the one that can remove the ‘Continue Watching’ AFK popup. In this case, anyone can use something like youtube.com##+js(brave-disable-pageview-api) which is already included in Brave resources but I stopped using it because it seems to affect the way Windows will detect the site and will not let it go off if it is like in the background as it should, it will just make the screen to stay on all the time while Youtube is videos are playing.
So Brave adblocker can replace/add many extensions/features natively without any 3rd party nothing other than JS code, and without waiting for devs to do it.
The only advantage of Brave implementing some scriptlets in Brave’s resources file is to be available for iOS and Android, but hopefully they add custom scriptlets for mobile soon, so anyone can enjoy the endless power of injecting JS.
Since you are a Brave user, or at least you take the screenshots with it, does it even matter uBlock anymore? Besides the few incompatible rules I had to manually tweak and fix to block the same as uBlock, Brave is working great and will be more powerful next year, so there is almost no advantage to load a 3rd party extension or other extensions, maybe some more options and popups and easier ‘1 click solutions’ but functionality in some cases can be the same.
Someday I hope people understand that, that the only reason why uBlock MV3 is not good enough is because of Gorhill.
And that Gorhill decision means that it is time for Chromium users to switch to Brave, even if it lacks some customization and few features are still unpolished, but it is the only Adblocker that runs natively and on mobile that will make uBlock Origin irrelevant more and more on each update, especially if users take advantage of the scriptlets and getting functionality without having to run extensions which can slow down and will consume more resources.
There is Adguard and ABP, but Adguard can be buggy, ABP misses some extension, and both don’t allow loading your own scriptlets which is a big no no for anyone who understand that injecting JS is what makes endless possibilities.
So this is basically a ‘who cares’ if Chrome is starting to remove uBlock Origin? it still works in Brave, and Brave adblocker in June 2025 will be closer to support uBlock rules than any other native adblocker.
Of course, some people will shill for Firefox and say how uBO is available there, so Brave is not needed, but native adblocker can be so powerful. The best example I can give is how Brave is able to block network connections from extensions, which is something an extension can’t do for security reasons, where extensions are isolated from each other.
Of course to each its own, and if people want to keep using Chrome, like I see people doing all the time, oh well, but seems like 2025 will be the year of Brave, or I hope so, but some people might want “a pretty face” rather than the technical amazing stuff about a native adblocker as powerful as Brave.
As someone who uses Chromecast and some features only Chromium browsers have and APIs (like Document-PIP), I tried Firefox in the past and just couldn’t stick to it for long time, also I am against having to install 30 extensions to do what I can in Brave natively.
Let’s be honest you at least need Tampermonkey and uBlock Origin to achieve the same in Brave, and Tampermonkey is because uBlock Origin in some occasions fails to inject the scriptlets properly, so the only way to ensure they work properly 100% of the time is with Tampermonkey and this is not something Brave adblocker suffers, Brave adblocker is 100% effectiveness in their Scriptlet engine.
If people have vision, they would help Brave to grow, especially since it is the only big open source Chromium browser, and stop caring what Google really does with uBlock or not, because it is Google’s and Gorhill’s fault what is going on and people keep being stubborn caring too much about the imminent future.
uBlock Origin Lite is a version that works with Manifest v3 by the same author. It is called Lite, because it lacks a lot of the functionality of the Manifest v2 version.
When Firefox moved their extensions API from XUL to WebExtensions, many stopped development either because the funcionality was reduced/not possible or they did not have the time or wanted to migrate the extension.
.
This caused many users to move to a Chrome/Chromium based browser because the XUL extensions were the only reason to continue using Firefox.
Let’s see if this time Firefox does not screw up again the extensions and becomes even less relevant.
Regarding other Chromium based browsers, they can support Manifest v2 for a while, until the work required to keep the code safe and current is too much.
What is it with Brave fanboys and text walls?
Mass exodus to Brave browser coming soon then.
L Google
Google writes: “This extension is no longer available because it doesn’t follow best practices for Chrome extensions.”
…where “best practices” is defined as: “We demand to spy on your activity everywhere, all the time.”
Or we want to stop you blocking YouTube ads.
Chrome is no loger available for uBlock Origin because it doesn’t follow best practices for support extensions…
“Also, Raymond Hill, the developer of uBlock Origin, says that the extension works best in Firefox.”
Even if this was ever true, which I’m yet to see an actual proof of, I still get “Sponsored content” videos sneaking in in YT searches when using FF+UB, plus it gets recognized as adblocker and doesn’t allow playing the video unless switched off. With Brave’s own shield none of those things happen.
@8-bit Supremacy
“I still get “Sponsored content” videos sneaking in in YT searches when using FF+UB, plus it gets recognized as adblocker and doesn’t allow playing the video unless switched off. With Brave’s own shield none of those things happen.”
I have not seen this while using uBlock, however I have seen this while using Brave in default config, ironically.
What filters have you enabled/disabled? Have you tried using sponsorblock?
AdGuard browser extension forever, less broken sites, better browsing, low CPU/RAM usage.
Yeah, the criticism against ublock origin lite, is adguard has put in more features, and the excuses Gorhill has made are not backed up.
But adguard is bloated and heavy compared to ublock anything, and that is the reason ublock origin lite doesn’t have what adguard has.