Chrome is just... broken!

August 26, 2011 11:10 PM

I use Chrome as my primary browser, but it's been increasingly weird over the course of the past few months. The pop-up blocker is really terrible, missing tons of pop-ups that even IE has caught, Javascript stuff only works some of the time, etc. How can I fix this?

I haven't kept a particularly detailed log, so I can't give too many specific examples, unfortunately. One of the most damning problems, however, is that on Yahoo! Mail, (A) it never marks emails as read and (B) the site's navigation bar (Reply/Forward/etc.) disappears when I open an email. Thankfully hotkeys still work, but it's really annoying. And this only happens on my machine.

I've tried un/reinstalling Chrome, I've deleted the entire folder and reinstalled, and nothing has worked so far. Chrome Canary works just fine, and other accounts on my PC don't seem to have the same problem. Clearly this indicates this is a problem native to my account, but I've run many programs to find viruses/malware/etc. and none of them have fixed the problem. Ideas?

And please, no suggestions to switch to another browser, or comments about how terrible you think Yahoo! Mail is (or anything comparable). =)

posted by shabaabk to technology (10 answers total)

A couple things to look into:

Do things work in incognito mode?

In (for example) Yahoo Mail, does opening up the javascript console reveal any errors?
posted by long at 12:37 AM on August 27, 2011

Clear cache and cookies and all other browser data. Uninstall all Chrome extensions and plugins and add-ons. Uninstall Chrome. Reboot. Reinstall Chrome. Reinstall doodads. Try again.
posted by goblinbox at 2:22 AM on August 27, 2011

Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and back up your data then delete your profile and start fresh.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 3:34 AM on August 27, 2011

Have you cleared out your Chrome cache?

Have you tried using Yahoo with another browser?
posted by mkultra at 7:03 AM on August 27, 2011

I've had the same problems with the missing plug-ins and the like, and I'm on a Mac, so I thought it was an Apple issue. It's really frustrating!

One thing you can do that helps with the missing plug-ins is to disable Chrome's .pdf viewer.

And here is a suggested fix for the mail issue with Yahoo on Chrome, but I can't verify it as it's only been up for 3 days and I have a Mac and haven't tried it myself!
posted by misha at 9:40 AM on August 27, 2011

Could it be a malicious/ faulty extension? Have you tried disabling them?
posted by yerfatma at 9:57 AM on August 27, 2011

There are two ways to install Chrome: You can Google "install Chrome" or you can Google "Chrome msi" to get the package that system administrators use to install for all users on a given computer. You want the .msi file. Uninstall your current Chrome, download the .msi, and install that. The default installation file that you do not want is all inscrutably tied to your Google Account and all the ways that Google wants to exploit that, and it does mess up stuff, as in the Yahoo Mail problem you describe.
posted by FLAG (BASTARD WATER.) (Acorus Adulterinus.) at 6:54 PM on August 27, 2011

That's for Windows users. For Linux users, just install Chromium using whatever package manger your distribution uses. I don't think there's a solution for Mac people, but maybe someone else knows otherwise.
posted by FLAG (BASTARD WATER.) (Acorus Adulterinus.) at 6:55 PM on August 27, 2011

Manger = manager.
posted by FLAG (BASTARD WATER.) (Acorus Adulterinus.) at 6:56 PM on August 27, 2011

The Better Pop Up Blocker extension seems to kill all popups. You'll need to whitelist (easy) those sites - such as banks, and facebook - where they matter.
posted by unmake at 7:46 PM on August 27, 2011