Google has removed uBlock Origin and all MV2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store

Google has completed its multi-year transition to Manifest V3, finally clearing all extensions on the old engine from the Chrome Web Store — including the legendary uBlock Origin ad blocker. Installed copies will continue to work without updates, but you will no longer be able to reinstall them through the official store.

On August 31, Google did what it had been warning about for three years: it erased all remaining extensions from the Chrome Web Store catalog on the outdated Manifest V2 architecture, reports xrust. The list of victims is impressive, but the main loss is obvious: uBlock Origin, one of the most powerful and respected ad blockers in the history of browsers, has disappeared from the store.

The wording in the notification to developers was short and clerically merciless: no violations were identified, the reason for deletion was “outdated Manifest V2.” That is, the extension was not banned for anything — its right to be in the store simply ceased to exist.

How extensions survived to such an end

The story stretches back to 2019, when Google announced the transition to Manifest V3 — a new architecture for browser add-ons with reduced access rights to network traffic. Blocker developers immediately sounded the alarm: it was the wide access to intercepting requests that allowed old extensions to filter ads so effectively.

Then events developed progressively. The publication of new MV2 extensions in the catalog was banned several years ago. Then, with the release of Chrome 138, the engine was disabled by default for all users — although at first it was still possible to manually turn it back on in the settings. For corporate users, there was a temporary exception through the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy, but it also expires with the update to Chrome 139.

August 31 became a point of no return: extensions were not just disabled — they were physically removed from the store index. If you already have an older version on your computer that was installed before the release of Chrome 138, it will continue to work, but will remain frozen forever: without security updates and without the chance to reinstall it after resetting the system or buying a new device.

The author of uBlock Origin, a developer with the nickname gorhill, has long come to terms with the situation and openly advised dissatisfied users to switch to Firefox — where Mozilla has defiantly retained support for Manifest V2 and has no plans to abandon it. He himself continues to publish uBlock Origin builds for Chromium browsers on GitHub, but they can now only be installed manually, in developer mode — that is, with dances with a tambourine that are inaccessible to the average user.

How to close the hole after deleting

A full replacement with the same filtering capabilities has not yet appeared on Manifest V3 — the limitations of the architecture itself do not allow this. But there are working options.

The same uBlock Origin has a lightweight version — uBlock Origin Lite, originally designed according to the rules of MV3. It filters noticeably more modestly due to the stripped-down API, but copes with basic advertising and banners. AdGuard followed a similar path: back in September 2024, its main extension in Chrome moved to MV3, and most users received this update automatically and simply did not notice. Problems arose only for those who manually installed the “AdGuard Ad Blocker MV2” listing separately — these people will have to manually install the current version on top.

Brave distinguished itself separately. The browser team decided not to rely on the will of Google and hosted four popular MV2 extensions on its backend — uBlock Origin, AdGuard, uMatrix and NoScript — so that users could enable them directly, bypassing the official Chrome store. A beautiful gesture of independence, although with a clear expiration date: sooner or later, support for MV2 will have to be phased out at the level of the Chromium engine itself.

Microsoft, meanwhile, has confirmed that Edge will follow Chrome and will also say goodbye to Manifest V2 before the end of the year — so it’s too early for owners of this browser to relax.

Why this is more than a technical detail

Google's official position sounds convincing: the new architecture gives extensions less leverage over the browser, which means less room for surveillance, data theft and malicious code. The argument is not unfounded: access that was previously used by ad blockers could theoretically be given to a malicious extension.

But there is a second side to the story, which the company does not say out loud: it was Manifest V2’s broad rights that made ad blockers so effective against Google’s business itself, the world’s largest ad seller. Coincidence or not, there is only one beneficiary of security reform.

A parallel arises with the history of Flash Player: then the industry also talked about security and progress, but in fact it tailored the market to the interests of specific players, simultaneously getting rid of inconvenient technology that was difficult to control centrally. Extensions on MV2 in this sense are the same inconvenient partisans in the ecosystem, which Google now has complete control over: from the code to the very fact of the program’s presence on the user’s device.

For RuNet, the plot is especially sensitive: aggressive advertising, pop-unders and intrusive banners on pirated and streaming sites are a common part of digital life, and blockers here are not only used by geeks. The sudden loss of a familiar tool without a direct replacement of the same level is a noticeable blow to the everyday comfort of millions of users of Chrome and Chromium browsers, including many domestic builds.

What to do right now: if the old uBlock Origin is still standing, do not touch it, and especially do not reinstall the system without a backup copy of the browser profile. If you don’t have the extension yet, install uBlock Origin Lite or AdGuard, or take a closer look at Firefox, which remains the last major browser that has not succumbed to the general line of Manifest V3.

Sources:
developer.chrome.com
adguard.com
ghacks.net

Xrust Google removed uBlock Origin and all MV2 extensions from Chrome Web Store