[🐛 Bug]: Chrome team removes `--load-extension` switch on Chrome builds

[vinaghost]

Description

They remove --load-extension that cause .AddExtensions() and other similar method broken

their commit https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/290ed8046692651ce76088914750cb659b65fb17%5E%21/chrome/browser/extensions/extension_service.cc

Version affected: Chrome 137

Reproducible Code

var options = new ChromeOptions();
options.AddExtensions(_extensionsPath);
var driver = new ChromeDriver(options);

Debugging Logs

[13564:10684:0524/222309.634:WARNING:chrome\browser\extensions\extension_service.cc:359] --load-extension is not allowed in Google Chrome, ignoring.

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ℹ️ Last known working version: it broke on Chrome 137, worked on 136 and below

[selenium-ci]

@vinaghost, thank you for creating this issue. We will troubleshoot it as soon as we can.

Selenium Triage Team: remember to follow the Triage Guide

[Delta456]

We probably would have to remove support for this method. We cannot deprecate this since the flag is removed in the Chrome itself

[vinaghost]

@Delta456, so no workaround?

[Delta456]

There isn't a workaround with CDP. You will have to downgrade Chrome version, though this will be available with BiDi. Java and Python will have them implemented by next Selenium release.

[vinaghost]

can new BiDirectional feature downgrade Chrome version ? or you mean it can help to enable the flag needed for --load-extension ?

[navin772]

@vinaghost you can still use --load-extension on non-Chrome branded builds like Chromium and Chrome for Testing. Thread - https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/aEHdhDZ-V0E/m/UWP4-k32AgAJ

[cgoldberg]

can new BiDirectional feature downgrade Chrome version ? or you mean it can help to enable the flag needed for --load-extension ?

@vinaghost
The BiDi feature will be a new way to load extensions. For a workaround right now, it looks like you will have to use an older version of Chrome (or else current version of Chromium or Chrome-for-Testing).

[cgoldberg]

this will be available with BiDi. Java and Python will have them implemented by next Selenium release.

Note to anyone using Python:

This feature has already landed via #15749 (make sure to read the comments for the necessary startup flags needed to use it in Chrome).

To get it before the official Selenium 4.34 release, you can upgrade to the nightly release with pip install -U -i https://test.pypi.org/simple/ selenium