On my laptop I installed the portable installer (from this site) and installed many extensions & all was fine until...
I tried to use the same install on my desktop (PortableApps folder syncs between laptop & desktop) - it shows the extnesion when I open the Extension tab but none of them show on the menu bar (at top) and none are actually working even though they show enabled.
Any ideas?
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Is it the same path on both PCs (example: C:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable and D:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable)
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hi John,
No the paths are different... isn't the point to Papps is that it should not matter?
Portable apps are designed to be installed to a device and then moved about between PCs (Ideally to X:\PortableApps\). Many apps' add-ons will fail if you change the path because only the drive letter is updated within the configuration files.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
John,
Since no one can guarantee a USB drive will have the same drive letter (path) on different systems this seems against the logical & methods of how portable apps are designed to work?
The intention of portable apps is that they are self contained (all necessary files & config settings) and can work on any compatible OS - drive & path are irrelevant and removed from the equation, along with any settings needed to run the app.
I run ~40 portable apps and not a single one has this issue/result - they all work as expected (including FF3.6).
I suspect there is a bug/problem with Chrome Portable or it is not a portable app at all.
Portable apps can generally handle a drive letter change, such as C:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable to X:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable; however, they usually can't handle path changes, such as C:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable to C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\GoogleChromePortable.
IIUC, John was trying to ask if you're changing the path - drive letter doesn't matter.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
My point is since properly portable apps use relative pathing drive/path is not even relevant.
I figured it out... file sync messed up the default profile... the extensions folder was only partly copied over and thusly, Chrome thought the extensions were installed and could not launch them.
A resync fixed this issue.
>properly portable apps use relative pathing drive/path is not even relevant.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
not all formats for storing paths actually even support relative pathing.
For example, file://x:/PortableApps/etc pathnames as are stored by the Mozilla apps are only valid as URIs if they are absolute, complete with drive letter.
Also, since these can be stored in arbitrary locations by extensions, etc., and since they are also stored in sqlite databases as well as text files, it is non-trivial to perform a reliable replace on them if you are trying to replace entire path strings. Just and only drive letter replaces are much more safely and consistently achievable.
Many portable apps from here do successfully work if you change the complete path as well as the drive letter, but the specification is only that they must cope with a drive letter change.
The relative paths stays the same on a drive as you move it around. The launchers handle changing F:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable to I:\PortableApps\GoogleChromePortable with ease. What I'd said is you can't go changing the path other than that with some apps like Google Chrome. The launcher changes the driver letters, not the path. With Firefox, certain extensions will break but the app itself will continue to work fine. Some other apps the most recently used app list fail if you change the path. Some apps certain plugins break.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
This problem has occurred to me in the past, it can happen if the Preferences file becomes corrupt, usually because two copies of chrome are started at once and they don't realize the other is running, and try to grab the file at the same time.
Try uninstalling and reinstalling the extensions, this is the only way I know of how to fix it. It SHOULD be a one-time glitch though, and you shouldn't see it happen again when you switch computers, it's very rare.
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