Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to teach recruiters how to use Chrome extensions to help find contact information, highlight keywords, organize their tabs, create boolean strings and view aggregated social media presences for the candidates they are trying to recruit.
I feel bad for our IT department sometimes, as I am sure they get numerous calls and emails from our Recruiters regarding the dreaded puzzle piece showing up out of nowhere or their favorite extension completely disappearing from their Chrome bar.
Have you seen the notorious puzzle piece icon in your Chrome bar?
Or maybe your Chrome bar is empty these days and you are sat wondering how to get them back.
This is very frustrating when you are new to Chrome extensions and have no idea how to navigate through settings to make them functional again.
So what is going on? Why did it disappear, and how do you get it back?
WHAT IT IS NOT
- Your IT department is having fun, trolling you and making it a point to delete them off your Chrome bar (just you) every day.
SO WHAT’S THE DEAL?
- Sometimes Chrome itself has had a version update that is not compatible with the developer’s extension, and an update is necessary on their end to make it work.
- On the other hand, the developer may have made an upgrade (Yay for new features!) where you need to uninstall/repair or re-install the extension again.
- Finally, and sadly, your Chrome extension has been retired or removed from the Chrome store. There can be many reasons for this, but my best advice is to reach out to the developer and see if you can get the scoop or ETA on its return.
HOW TO FIX IT:
Head over to the three dots on the far right side of your Chrome bar.
Click the three dots and head down to “More tools.”
Then select “Extensions.”
Scroll down until you find the name of the Chrome extension that vanished. You may have a few options for a solution!
- If provided the option, you can easily click “Repair” in the blue box and quickly get it restored to your Chrome bar!
- Or you will need to “Remove” and re-install.
- Pro tip: Click on “Details” then scroll down to “View in Chrome Web Store” – this will allow you to uninstall and reinstall straight from the Chrome Store in the event your forget the exact name of your extension. (Hey, it happens!)
