Apps, Extensions and scripts cannot be added from this website
Solution 1
Instead of opening the file, you have to: extract it (crx are zip files), then visit chrome://extensions
, enable developer mode, and load unpacked extension
.
The reason for this is: lots of people try to abuse chrome apps/extensions to install nasty applications to your browser. So Chrome tries to make it impossible to automatically side-load these apps without you making sure that is really what you want to do.
So.. typical caveats of installing software apply when using this approach.
Solution 2
You can now also just drag-and-drop the .crx file onto the chrome://extensions page and it will install, too.
Edit 2019-01-10: Make sure to enable Developer mode for extensions. If this was not enabled, refresh the chrome://extensions page after enabling it.
Edit 2018-08-24: This works on Windows, too.
Edit:
This doesn't work on Windows. Verified on OSX and ChromeOS. From what I've read, this will work on Linux, too.~
Solution 3
(I initially experienced the same problem you described.*) This solution worked for me in Windows 10 (build th1511) x64:
- Open Chrome as you normally would.
- Go to the "Extensions" page (chrome://extensions; or click Menu button at top right corner → From 'More tools' drop down menu select 'Extensions').
- Drag and drop the .crx file onto the extensions page in Chrome -onto the list of extensions. You should see a dialog stating "Drop here to install". This must be present. (If you do NOT see this, reposition your mouse - it may be too far to the side of the page.)
It should load successfully and you should see the extension in the list immediately afterward.
*I received the same error you described when attempting to load the .crx file (packed extension) by right-clicking/double-clicking it and selecting "Open With" "Chrome", and by dragging/dropping the file onto a regular webpage in Chrome.
Solution 4
In the Extensions page, just enable Developer mode. From there you can drag and drop any .crx file there and installation prompt will follow suit.
Solution 5
Open Chrome with this parameter --enable-easy-off-store-extension-install, then go to extensions and enable Developer mode. Now you can install .crx
files without any problem.
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Barry Michael Doyle
Lead React Engineer at Universal Healthcare
Updated on December 14, 2020Comments
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Barry Michael Doyle over 3 years
I'm trying to add the Rapid Interface Builder extension to chrome using the
rib.crx
file I downloaded from https://01.org/rapid-interface-builder/downloads/2012/rib-preview-1-chrome-extensionUnfortunately, every time I open the
crx
file with chrome I get the following error:Apps, Extensions and scripts cannot be added from this website.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
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Keyslinger about 6 yearsLooks like some good answers are given for crx files, anybody know how address this issue with userscripts (e.g. example.userscript.js)?
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Barry Michael Doyle about 10 yearsI'm unable to extract the file - it's not an option, I'm able to compress it. I'm using Windows 8 if that helps with answering.
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Rob W about 10 yearsThe "Load unpacked extension" option is not a great solution for Windows any more, because of a nagging popup, see crbug.com/337734.
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Barry Michael Doyle about 10 yearsI got it. Had to open it with WinRar to extract it. I also had to edit the manifest.json file to include ""manifest_version": 2," in it's contents.
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Xan over 8 yearsHave you tried it with .crx files not packed by your Chrome install?
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ToddR over 8 years@Xan yes, I packed in on OSX stable (44.0.2403.157) and then dragged and dropped onto ChromeOS stable (44.0.2403.155). However, I get the disabled warning on Windows stable (44.0.2403.157 m). I'll edit my answer to reflect that this works on everything except Windows (pretty certain it'll work on Linux).
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AnorZaken almost 7 yearsThe above answer is rather old. Just tested it on windows and it works now.
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Brett Zamir almost 7 yearsYeah, dropping on Chrome or even in the extensions page wasn't enough--as suggested in the answer, it needed to be in the area showing "drop here to install"
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Junaid Atari almost 6 yearsWorks great. Thanks!
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Frederick Squid over 5 yearson macOS this didn't work when I renamed it to *.zip and tried extracting with Finder but it did work on the command line with
unzip Extension.crx -d Extension
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Dan Stevens over 5 yearsIt doesn't work for me. I still get the following error when I drop-and-drop the .crx file:
Apps, Extensions and scripts cannot be added from this website.
. The only way I could get it to install was to unpack the .crx file first. -
ToddR over 5 years@DanStevens sounds like a problem on your end. Just tested on OS X and Windows 10 with Chrome 71.0.3578.98. You have to have Developer mode on and be in the Extensions page. I'll edit my answer to include the Developer mode requirement.
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Dave Rager about 5 yearsI found that after enabling Developer mode, I had to refresh the extensions page before it would accept the extension. If I just enabled Developer mode and not refresh I would still get the error.
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Zeeshan Ahmad Khalil almost 5 yearsin my case it is downloading
.js
file instead of.crx
file? what should i do? -
gannex almost 2 yearswow I was trying everything! just had to refresh lol