I understand that Chrome extensions can be launched by clicking their icons located across the address bar, or from a drop-down menu below a chevron to the immediate left of the Chrome control icon (3 horizontal lines).
I have an extension "Extension Manager (aka Switcher)" that shows the extensions I have enabled, but it does not provide a way to launch them. The icons on the address bar do launch their respective extensions, but several of the enabled extensions do not have icons there. I have no chevron to the immediate left of the Chrome control icon.
I am not using any "hide button" options.
I have tried disabling and then re-enabling the extensions.
My computer has been rebooted multiple times.
I have been struggling with this for several days and I'm getting desperate because I really need to have access to some of the extensions, such as my to-do lists. I'm afraid to uninstall and reinstall any extensions for fear I will lose what I have already put into them (ex: to-do lists).
Did I inadvertently do something to cause this, or is it a bug or a fluke?
I have Googled everything I can think of with almost no hits so it doesn't seem to be a common problem.
Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Best Answer
I finally found something that worked - at least partially:
Chrome > Help > Basic Troubleshooting Steps. This is such a general set of instructions "to fix some common (and unspecified) Chrome issues," I was skeptical about finding a solution through this procedure, but I did get a partial remedy.
The "Basic Troubleshooting Steps" Link
An advantage of using this link directly is that each trouble-shooting step has its own link to instructions for completing that step.
However, in case the link dies, I have listed the steps here.
These steps were presented in the order I have them below, with instructions to go on to the next step if the problem hasn't been resolved by the current step.
Update Google Chrome, if you’re not already using the most current version.
Clear your cache and other browser data.
Try using Chrome in incognito mode - This is to check and see if an extension is causing the "issue." This step didn't do anything for me, but if using the incognito mode does solve the problem, you're supposed to disable all of the extensions and then add them back one at a time to identify which extension is the culprit.
Reset the browser to its default settings.
This last step disabled all of my extensions and allowed me to enable them one by one which automatically put a functioning launch icon for each of them on the address bar. Not wanting to press my luck, I only enabled my critical extensions, so I don't know if my original problem would have reoccurred if I had tried to enable more of them.
Also, when I was experiencing my problem before, I had some extension names appearing in the general right-click menu on web pages, but they were just context menus for those specific extensions and would not launch anything. When I was re-enabling the extensions after Step 4, one extension's icon did not appear on the address bar. I finally found it in this right-click menu, and I could launch the extension from there. However the other extension names that had been in the right-click menu all along still would not launch anything.
Even though now I have been able to add some more of my launch icons to the address bar, I still don’t have the chevron that is supposed to give me a drop-down menu for launching all of my extensions.
If anyone has any answers for how to revive the chevron, I’ll be most appreciative.