restoring extensions on Chrome re-install

[Jason Thrasher]

What's the proper way to restore Chrome apps when Chrome is
uninstalled and then reinstalled? Does the process differ for
purchased vs. free Chrome apps?

I tried backing up the (OSX) directory:
$HOME/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions
Then, re-creating it after installing the new version of chrome, but
this didn't work, as none of the extensions were made available. This
was my process:
0) Uninstall Chrome
1) move the Extensions directory somewhere safe
2) rm -Rf $HOME/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome
3) Re-install the version of Chrome I wanted to QA
4) move the Extensions directory back in place
5) verify that the previous extensions were available (they were not)

I had been doing development with the OSX "dev" version of Chrome, but
wanted to revert to the current production release to QA content as
most users would see it.

thanks,
Jason

[PhistucK]

Along with the "Extensions" folder, you also need to back up the "Preferences" file and copy the "extensions" section of it to the clean "Preferences" file. Note that if they changed something in the structure of this section, it may not always work.

☆PhistucK

[Arne Roomann-Kurrik]

If you don't need to preserve local data (just keep the apps you have installed), you can also opt into sync and choose to sync apps and extensions.

~Arne