Why does upgrading Studio/Robot disable the Chrome extension?!

The install/enable process of the Chrome extension really needs to be improved. After upgrading our servers to the latest Robot version we have to log into every server as every user and manually enable Chrome.

The Chrome extension really needs to be improved so that install is simple, for all users automatically, and enabled automatically for all users.

The impact is enormous. We now have 82 separate user/server (Robot) combinations we have to log into to manually check (and possibly enable) the Chrome extension.

@postwick

Which version have you upgraded to? 21.4 or 21.10 Stable?
What is the exact upgrade scenario?

The only way to install a Chrome extension and enabled it automatically (no user confirmation needed) is via the Chrome policy.

The 21.10 MSI installs the Chrome extension via policy, at the machine level, by default. To be able to do that, the MSI requires admin rights elevation. If it does not receives them, it installss the extension per user, which requires manual enablement.

It was the upgrade of Studio/Assistant 20.10.2 that disabled the already-installed Chrome extension. Yes we did “run as administrator.”

Hello @postwick !

Thank you for reporting this issue, we’ll do our best to help you and improve the upgrade behavior.
Can you please give us the following details:

  1. What version of UiPath Studio did you have installed?
  2. To what version of UiPath Studio did you upgrade to?
  3. Do the Robot machines have internet access? More specifically, is this URL accessible https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?

The answer to the last question is important because this is what’s needed to install the extension by Group Policy.
The advantage of this installation method is that it doesn’t require you to manually enable the extension in the browser.
But this is only possible if the machine has access to the Chrome Web Store URL (https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx)
See more details here: Extension for Chrome (uipath.com)

19.10.1

20.10.2

I am not aware of any restriction that would prevent access, although I can’t test on prod servers. The extension installs properly and we can enable it and it works, but the problem I’m reporting is that the upgrade disables previously installed extensions.

Hello @postwick !

Thanks for the info, and I apologize for replying so late.

It seems you have run into a bug we had in UiPath Studio v19.10 - if you upgrade from this version and have Chrome running you must re-enable the UiPath extension.
This issue was fixed in newer UiPath versions.

Here are some workarounds however:

  1. Make sure that Edge/Chrome are closed when you are upgrading UiPath Studio.
    This will ensure that the extension upgrade process is always seamless.

  2. You can install the UiPath Extension for Chrome using Group Policy.
    This can be done from the command line like this:

.\UiPathStudio.msi ADDLOCAL=DesktopFeature,Studio,Robot,RegisterService,Packages,ChromeExtension CHROME_INSTALL_TYPE=STORE

By installing the extension using Group Policy you don’t need to manually enable it in the browser anymore.
This is the default installation mode for fresh Studio installs since v20.10.

We have similar issue. We have Citrix Users, so they get a Virtual Deskop and they log into it and that Desktop Image has UiPath Robot installed with Chrome Extension and while the Extension is installed, it is Disabled. How can we ensure that it is Enabled…? Is there a Command Line or is this a Group Policy issue…? Or is it something else…?

If the extension was installed by user, then it asks for manual enablement and there is no way of doing it automatically.

If you want the extension to be automatically enabled, you need to install it by group policy: