How do I enable a Google Workspace account to load an unpacked extension from C:?

[Peter Isakson]

One of my managed accounts does allow this - the Manage Extensions page shows buttons Load Unpacked, Pack Extension and Update; these work getting the manifest, background and content files from a local directory, and my extension works. It also works when I use an unmanaged @gmail.com account.

When I add a profile to Chrome using another managed account those buttons do NOT appear. I am a super-admin of the workspace but I can't find any setting that seems to control the ability to load an extension and from where (I don't need to use what seems to be avery complex process to get the extension approved for the store, even though it is Private).

What might be different for these accounts that can't load unpacked? I have used Gemini to do AI searches on the problem but it seems to return solutions based on obsolete versions of the admin console.

Thanks!

[Patrick Kettner]

Hi Peter

This is gated by DeveloperToolsAvailability and ExtensionDeveloperModeSettings. When I hit problems like this, I look for a delta between the two profiles. On the broken profile, open chrome://policy, and then compare DeveloperToolsAvailability, ExtensionDeveloperModeSettings, ExtensionInstallBlocklist, and ExtensionSettings against the working profile.

patrick

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Chromium Extensions" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to chromium-extens...@chromium.org.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/chromium-extensions/f3a0e68d-441c-4eb6-8e44-23d0fc4a761dn%40chromium.org.

[Peter Isakson]

Patrick, Thanks! It turns out I did not realize the developer mode button was different across profiles, so once that hit me it was solved.

That said, I have not yet figured out how to deploy it so I can use the Workspace Admin console to push the extension to specific accounts, and not have to use the C drive and then leave developer mode on for these users. AI answers are contradictory, and despite this being a private extension for use only in our Workspace it seems like Google requires a review process.