Chrome Web Store migration plan? #2977
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Has @gorhill or anyone else stated the exact plan for the current Chrome Web Store listing of uBlock Origin? Will it be updated to the Manifest V3-compliant Lite version, or will people have to install the Lite version on their own? |
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Replies: 7 comments 37 replies
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I haven't decided yet how this will work, and I don't know what is feasible. Forcing uBO Lite on people might not be the best move, as this would essentially obliterate all customization they might have made to uBO -- uBO Lite is too different from uBO to make a seamless transition. People can already move on their own to uBO Lite if they want, probably safest approach is to explicitly opt-in to uBO Lite, some might prefer to install a another MV3-based content blocker. |
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I guess, and point out to uBO Lite as an alternative. Not sure I would be able to replace uBO with uBO Lite, as this would cause the same extension published twice in the Chrome Web Store. For now it's still months in the future ("June 2024 + 1-X months"), there is still time to think about all this. |
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Maybe someone made converter |
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i think it would be a good idea to also suggest switching to firefox (though i doubt google would allow that, maybe it’s worth a shot?). many users seem to be very misinformed about the issue, saying that they’ll just switch to edge or another chromium fork not knowing that they’ll have the same problem. i think it’s important that users are made aware of what their options are, and that switching to firefox is the best solution. |
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uBO probably has >50 million users on chromium browsers. The main question should probably center around whether to give those users up or not. Not updating the extension for v3 means that most of those users will likely migrate to no blocker at all or shady ad blockers. Most will not move to uBO Lite. Updating the extension for v3 means those who use the enterprise policy won't be able to use the old version for another year. The number of users doing that will probably be irrelevant (in the thousands). Updating the extension in line with v3 (that is, replacing it with uBO Lite but keeping the uBO name) is probably the best solution from a standpoint of influence over ad-blocking in the chromium ecosystem. You could rename the current uBO Lite and make it an experimental or beta version. Adguard devs have shown that you can still do a lot of stuff with v3 that protects users. If the extension is not moved to v3, a warning should probably be pushed to all users quickly, possibly with the recommendation to back up the settings and import to Firefox, and with a link to the extension store, to direct those to uBO Lite who want to stay with chromium. |
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I agree, there's a lot of room here for bad guys to take advantage. It's like suddenly not renewing the domain name, and a malicious actor claims it to push fake versions of the software. |
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I am re-opening this because I still have final decisions to make. Here is the official Manifest V2 (MV2) deprecation timeline: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate/mv2-deprecation-timeline
This means that starting July 2024, uBO could be disabled/removed at any time. However, there is a way in Chromium-based browser to extend availability of MV2 to June 2025:
I did experiment with file: content: {
"ExtensionManifestV2Availability": 2
}For other OS, the way to set policies will be different. Result:
So if this is a valid way to extend uBO's life time in Chromium-based browsers, users will have to set this policy in their browser. Possible the community could come up with tools so that users with little to no technical knowledge can use these. More details on how to set that policy in all OSes: https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#ExtensionManifestV2Availability. Note that setting that policy raise a warnign in the browser:
There are still questions to be answered:
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Rather, the idea was that Brave and Vivaldi would restore the deleted Chromium code in their own backyard (With maintenance as Google will block simple undo in future releases) and perhaps launch their own stores or one of their own, for example, if Opera makes its own available, there will be no need to create it from scratch (like MS and Korean Wheal Browser by Naver did). |
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For Brave, that never happened. Rather Brave forcibly has pre-installed mv2 uBlock Origin which can be enabled through a hidden menu. |
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But must recover MV2 API code lines in 2026+ due lack in Rust implementation |
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For Chromium it is a
The permissions are important. Ensure that if the policy is a managed policy, chmod it so its only writeable by root or admin. |
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And for those of us who use Microsoft Intune: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-policies#extensionmanifestv2availability (Link also contains the registry location, if you're looking to enforce this on a home computer.) From a device configuration profile under the Settings Catalog, Microsoft Edge > Extensions > Control Manifest v2 extension availability. They have an option named "Manifest v2 is enabled for forced extensions only". A "forced extension" maps to "Control which extensions are installed silently": https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployedge/microsoft-edge-manage-extensions-policies#force-install-an-extension (Otherwise, you are probably better off selecting "Manifest v2 is enabled" if you block all extensions except for those that you silently install.) |
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Here is how to enable
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>ExtensionManifestV2Availability</key>
<integer>2</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
python3 ./mcxToProfile.py --plist com.google.Chrome.plist --identifier-from-profile com.google.Chrome.plist --identifier [UUIDv4]Replace the UUID with your own randomly generated UUID! And remember that UUID, you should always use the same UUID when creating the updated policy later.
For the obvious reason, I won't upload my already generated |
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It should be --indentifier-from-profile or --indentifier. You can't use both at the same time. And --indentifier-from-profile only works if you have an existing UUID that you're reusing. |
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You can also directly edit the plist instead of applying a profile:
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Thanks ! |
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At Brave we're planning to keep alive the option to keep allow users to install select MV2 extensions
@gorhill Would it be possible to keep updating the MV2 Chrome crx extension post transition. If not in the play store. via Github? |
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No such flag listed in |
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Yes because it's still in Nightly. |
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Extension package is still hosted at |
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Enough will be drag and drop with xml url in manfiest for compiled localy crx. |
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Update: we (Brave) have announced our plans, which includes explicit support for a few MV2 extensions (including uBO and AdGuard): https://brave.com/blog/brave-shields-manifest-v3/ |
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Simply writing the policy preference item to the plist of Chrome or Brave seems to work fine in MacOS: Chrome Chrome Beta Brave Brave Beta |
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For Vivaldi: run this vivaldi-stable --enable-features=ExtensionsManifestV2 for Linux works |
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Thanks to Chrome Web Store removing the featured badge from manifest v2 extensions, people are now being sent to the scammy "ublock" This may be solved by nominating uBlock Origin Lite for the featured label
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That's just the beginning. I don't understand why @gorhill is allowing this to happen to the product he put so much effort into. |
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I haven't decided yet how this will work, and I don't know what is feasible. Forcing uBO Lite on people might not be the best move, as this would essentially obliterate all customization they might have made to uBO -- uBO Lite is too different from uBO to make a seamless transition. People can already move on their own to uBO Lite if they want, probably safest approach is to explicitly opt-in to uBO Lite, some might prefer to install a another MV3-based content blocker.