uBlock Origin is forever disabled in Chrome. Why it happened and what to use instead
uBlock Origin, one of the most popular ad-blocking extensions for Google Chrome, the most widely used browser by far, has stopped working. While for some users this may have come out of the blue, for those in the loop, the end of uBlock Origin in Chrome was a long time coming.
Why did uBlock Origin stop working?
Let’s take a step or two back to explain what’s going on. The unavailability of uBlock Origin is a direct result of Chrome ending support for extensions based on Manifest V2. Manifest V2 is a developer platform on which many extensions were built. In its place, Chrome has introduced a new platform for building extensions called Manifest V3 that comes with limitations that directly affect ad blockers.
And while some of those limitations can be worked around (though not without significant effort — we’re speaking from experience), the end result still comes with trade-offs that, while subtle to most users, would be noticeable to expert users compared to what was possible under Manifest V2.
The transition to Manifest V3 was a gradual process initiated by Chrome a few years ago, but it sped up significantly over the past year. Last year, Manifest V2 extensions were disabled in the pre-stable versions of Chrome such as Dev, Canary, and Beta. And now, the phase-out has reached the stable version of Chrome, the one regular users rely on.
Until recently, it was still possible to keep uBlock Origin working in some cases. For example, enterprises using the ExtensionManifestV2Availability policy were granted an additional year, until June 2025, to continue running Manifest V2 extensions within their organization. Browsers with this policy enabled are not affected by the deprecation rollout for now.
Meanwhile, regular users have been coming up with various crutches, like the one discussed in this Reddit thread, in an effort to keep uBlock Origin alive in Chrome. But ultimately, everyone is fighting a losing battle. Even the clever temporary solutions will stop working soon as Google continues to lock down support for Manifest V2 across the board.
Is uBlock Lite a good replacement?
uBlock Origin developer Raymond Hill didn’t just leave users out in the cold. Ahead of the transition to Manifest V3, he released a new extension called uBlock Origin Lite (uBOL) — a pared-down version of the original uBlock Origin, built to comply with the new extension rules in Chrome. But calling it a replacement might be a stretch. According to Hill himself, uBO Lite is “too different from uBO to be an automatic replacement”, and he makes it clear that it “may or may not fulfill your expectations” depending on what you’re looking for in a content blocker. In other words, for more casual users, uBOL might turn out just good enough. It still should block most ads and trackers, and if you weren’t using many custom filters or tweaks, you might not feel much of a difference. But power users or anyone relying on advanced filtering or cosmetic filtering rules that are responsible for adjusting the layout of the page after unwanted elements are hidden will likely notice the downgrade.
If you want to keep using this version of the extension, you’ll need to manually install uBOL from the Chrome Web Store. It won’t automatically replace uBlock Origin, and that was intentional design.
Other MV3 compliant ad-blocking extensions
There are quite a few extensions besides uBOL that can serve as an MV3-compatible ad blocker for Chrome. These include AdGuard, AdBlock Plus, and AdBlock, among others. At AdGuard, we caught wind of the change early and became the first ad blocker to release a Manifest V3-compatible version of our extension back in September 2024.
While building an extension compatible with Manifest V3, we worked hard to preserve as much functionality as possible. Still, some compromises were inevitable to stay compliant with the new rules. That said, regular users likely won’t notice any difference in functionality, while power users may experience limitations, depending on their specific use cases. We continue to maintain and update both our MV2 and MV3 versions of the AdGuard extension, keeping them as in sync as the platforms allow. You can read more about the challenges we faced during this transition on our blog.
Using an ad-blocking app: the bulletproof way
Switching to an ad-blocking app instead of a browser extension is the best way to avoid problems caused by the Manifest V3 extension phase-out. Apps like AdGuard for Windows or macOS work at the system level, so they block ads and trackers across all browsers and even other apps. Because they don’t rely on browser policies, you won’t have to worry about ads coming back just because Chrome or another browser made changes.
If you want a more reliable and consistent ad-blocking experience without constantly chasing browser updates, using an app is definitely the way to go.
Other options: switch to a different browser
Chrome is disabling all Manifest V2-based extensions, not just uBlock Origin. However, some Chromium-based browsers, built on the same engine as Chrome, are taking a different approach, at least for now.
Opera, for example, announced in 2024 that it would continue supporting MV2 extensions independently of what other browsers decide to do. This means extensions like uBlock Origin may continue working on Opera after they're disabled in Chrome.
Brave, in a July 11, 2025 update, clarified that it will continue to support only four specific Manifest V2 extensions: uBlock Origin, AdGuard, uMatrix, and NoScript. These extensions are hosted on Brave’s own backend and are not tied to the Chrome Web Store. Users can install them manually through a dedicated internal page at brave://settings/extensions/v2.
Browsers not based on Chromium, such as Firefox, also continue to support MV2 extensions. Hill admitted that, in fact, uBlock Origin works best in Firefox.
That said, the continued support for MV2-based extensions in Chromium browsers is likely only temporary and could change quickly. We also get that switching to a different browser just because an extension stopped working might be too big a step for many.
Ultimately, the choice is yours, but switching to an app-based blocker might be the most straightforward and lasting solution.
