Chrome extension getting disabled randomly by itself

Help
1

Hello developers,
I am running an unattended process scheduled from orchestrator. The chrome browser extension for UiPath is getting disabled randomly anytime. It may run for hours and suddenly get disable hence bot will start throwing exception. On the other hand it may run for several minutes only and suddenly gets disabled.
My version of chrome is 79.
chrome extension version is 9.0.6821.

Please support folks. Urgently seeking help.

2

Hi
Did we try with other browsers like IE as that dies need even extension and is more reliable as well

Cheers @S_Srobot

3

The project is already developed and in prod, any other way out to handle this?

4

I’ve also very recently had this problem. Similar to @S_Srobot said the process has been deployed processing on Chrome only, though it doesn’t make sense to migrate to IE at this stage.

I’ve only encountered the UiPath extension disabling itself once, but it happened during the night schedule where I wasn’t at hand to immediately resolve.

This definitely needs to be looked into from UiPath side, rather than Chrome.

2 Likes
5

Hello,
I too got the same error and this is very annoying. Something definitely is wrong there.
Thanks for the feedback.

6

Hello Team,
I am facing same issue.please guide what needs to be done

7

The issue is annoying. Everytime i need to enable the extension. Something is definitely wrong here and this is quite annoying

8

I’m running into this same issue. Anybody find a fix? I’m really starting to think UiPath might not be reliable enough at this time for my company to use in Production.

9

I’m also facing this issue, from time to time the chrome extension gets disabled for no reason

10

Here also the same problem. Extension gets disabled randomly without the reason. My guess is that kill application could have some sort of impact on the Chrome settings but not sure.

11

Hey folks.
I have the same problem. Project was running fine for several weeks then suddenly started to collapse.
What I suspect that Kill Process for chrome kills not only the browser but the linked sub-processes as well and one of them is the UiPath extension. Something somewhere might go wrong, and after the killing, the extensions needs to be enabled again manually (not always, but again sometimes). If you dont to this, even a following kill could go on error.
Definitely needs fixing from UiPath side.

1 Like
12

Hi!
We are investigating de same problem.
In out case, we create a virtual machine with UiPath extension in Chrome and in Edge only to track the changes. We don’t execute any process in that machine and the extension still get desactivated randomly.
Our IT team thinks is a automated updates from browsers. Is there any that is investigating in this way?
Thank you in advance.

14

One possible solution, if the machine has access to internet, is to install the Chrome extension with policy.
Starting with Studio 20.10, it should be automatically installed through policy if the conditions are met: internet access, admin rights, an enterprise licence of Studio.
For older versions of Studio or a community licence, the SetupExtensions tool can be used: About the SetupExtensions Tool

As for the cause of this issue, this needs careful investigation. Chrome can be launched with the command line flags --enable-logging --v=1 and it will collect logs in a file %LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\chrome_debug.log
More info here: Chrome Browser debug logs - Chrome Enterprise and Education Help
These command line flags can be passed in a workflow if Chrome is started with the Open Application or the Start Process activity.
It could be useful if the issue reproduces quickly. If it’s overnight then the logs could get very large.

Logs might reveal why the Chrome choses to disable the extention.

1 Like
18

we are also facing the same issue . UiPath chrome extension getting disabled itself intermittently.
Has anyone got any resolution to this problem other than turning it on manually or use IE instead of chrome.

19

Same issue on production machine prior to going live with first processes am speaking to support but first thing is to reinstall Chrome and then see if it still happens. I think this is an intermittant issue so will be hard to reproduce(?).

Found this online about chrome extentions being disabled

Extensions disabled by Chrome - Chrome Web Store Help.

The solution here appears to be to have the extension uploaded to the google web store (this UiPath extension isn’t in there) by UiPath (?)

### Use disabled extensions

If you need to use a disabled extension, you can contact the extension’s developer and ask them to upload their extension to the Chrome Web Store. This will allow you, and other people who use Chrome, to install that extension from the Chrome Web Store, or if you already have it installed, to manually re-enable it from your list of extensions.

21

The UiPath Chrome extension is present in the Chrome Web Store. In fact, there are several Chrome extension versions, bundled with different Studio versions.

The installation directly from the Chrome Web Store is not presented in the online doc because the extension should be installed either from Studio, or with the Studio Installer UiPathStudio.msi, or with SetupExtensions.exe, to ensure a correct installation of all the components.

Possible causes for disabled extension:

  • The extension may become disabled if Studio is upgraded with UiPathStudio.msi while Chrome is running.

    This will also upgrade the Chrome extension, but if Chrome is running then the user will have to manually re-enable the extension.

    The solution is to simply close Chrome when upgrading Studio.

  • Extensions may be removed when they are installed via Group Policies and new Group Policies are enforced, that block certain extensions or override the entries added by UiPathStudio.msi in the initial installation.

    To re-enable the UiPath extension, the Chrome Extension ID should be added to the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy. More details for the installation from Group Policy are available here and here.

For reference, here is a summary of the installation methods available for Chrome extension:

1. Per-user enabled manually

  • Command: /chrome
  • Used for UiPathStudio.msi without Admin rights
  • Outcome: Requires the user to manually enable the extension in the browser

2. Per-machine enabled manually

  • Command: /chromeglobal
  • Pre-requisites: Admin rights
  • Outcome: Requires the user to manually enable the extension in the browser

3. Group Policy Online

  • Command: /chromepolicyglobal
  • Pre-requisites: Admin rights, Internet access (to the Web Store URLs)
  • Outcome: Extension automatically enabled in the browser, All permissions granted

4. Group Policy Offline

  • Command: /chrome-policy-offline
  • Pre-requisites: Admin rights, Machine joined to Active Directory
  • Outcome: Extension automatically enabled in the browser, All permissions granted

So, the first 2 installation methods require the extension to be enabled manually in the browser, after installation.

The benefit of the installation using Group Policy is that the extension is automatically enabled in the browser. The extension cannot be disabled when installed using this method, so it should solve these types of issues.

22

Thanks very much for the info. We are going to sort out the group policy.