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I have seen other answers here, such as this.

But nowadays, you cannot simply drag an extension to the browser and expect it to work. Google does not allow you to activate it, showing a message "not downloaded from chrome store"

Now, I really don't want to publish anything. It's a personal extension for me and friends! How can I workaround this limitation?

Community
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Daniel Möller
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  • You could have them run the source code using "load unpacked extension" in developer mode. Though it seems like running the browser is in developer mode is not recommended. Is it possible to load an extension this way and then disable developer mode? – Serguei Fedorov Jul 07 '15 at 23:33
  • Chrome insists telling you are in developer mode everytime you restart it. – Daniel Möller Jul 07 '15 at 23:52

2 Answers2

7

You could publish to testers.

I know you said you didn't want to publish anything but it only shows up to google accounts you have listed at testers.

Error-404-UserNotFound
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  • Would I be able to distribute the `crx` file doing that? Would the `crx` file be enabled to drop into Chrome? – Daniel Möller Jul 08 '15 at 02:16
  • No someone signed into an account you mark as a tester would be able to download it from the chrome web store. To a tester it would work like any other extension, but to a non tester they wouldn't know it exists. – Error-404-UserNotFound Jul 08 '15 at 14:02
2

You really only have two options:

  1. Distribute the crx and have them run in developer mode.
  2. List the extension on the Chrome store.

It sounds like #1 is a problem for you (as it is for most). If you go with option #2, you can list the extension privately, so it isn't listed in the Chrome store.

For context, Google is not doing this to hold people back. Most of the browsers have tightened up these methods to prevent abuse. From Google's perspective, they cannnot differentiate between your friendly use case, and a hacker using an extension to place malware. If it's published through the store, they can scan for malware.

Brian
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