FAQ: Broken Elasticsearch Head Chrome Extension Workaround

FAQ relevant for: all Academy versions

Hi all,

Support for Manifest V2 has officially been disabled in Google Chrome, which means the Elasticsearch Head Chrome extension is no longer functioning properly on the VDIs.

When you try to add the Elasticsearch Head Chrome extension you may see the following error:

Error Message: This extension was turned off because it is no longer supported

"This extension was turned off because it is no longer supported"

or this error:

Error message: Cannot install extension because it uses an unsupported manifest version. Could not load manifest.

"Cannot install extension because it uses an unsupported manifest version. Could not load manifest."

We are looking into ways we can resolve this issue, however for now we have a workaround to get the extension working.

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Latest Workaround

Step 1: Go to the Ubuntu terminal and run the following command:

nano ~/Desktop/chrome-v2.desktop

Step 2: Enter the following and save the changes:

[Desktop Entry] 
Version=1.0 
Type=Application 
Name=Chrome (Manifest V2 Enabled) 
Comment=Run Google Chrome with Manifest V2 enabled 
Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --disable-features=ExtensionManifestV2Unsupported,ExtensionManifestV2Disabled 
Icon=google-chrome 
Terminal=false

This will create a new shortcut for Google Chrome which should allow you to add and use the Elasticsearch Chrome extension!

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(Old) Workaround

Here are the steps you can follow to work around this error:

Step 1: Navigate to chrome://flags/ in the Chrome browser:

Step 2: Disable the following settings:

• Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Warning Stage

• Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Disabled Stage

• Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Unsupported Stage

Alternatively on some versions the setting may appear as the following:

•  Allow legacy extension manifest versions 

In this case you will need to enable the setting as seen above.

Step 3: Restart Chrome.

Step 4: Re-add the Elasticsearch Head Chrome extension. This comment details how to add the extension to Chrome.

You should now be able to use the Elasticsearch Head Chrome extension as normal!

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Alternative Elasticsearch Query Tool

Alternatively you can query your Elastic indices without using the Elastic head Chrome extension!

This post walks you through this method:

ElasticSearch alternative query tool | Quantexa Community

Thanks pashadia​ for creating this post!

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Apologies for the inconvenience, I hope this helps!