Chrome extensions load slowly on macOS, and Google has launched an investigation

Chrome extensions on macOS are slow to load, and Google has launched an investigation. (Photo / Drawing by this newspaper)

I feel like Google Chrom browser is weird lately, maybe it’s not an illusion. Google has confirmed that a bug has recently appeared in Chrome on macOS, causing the loading speed of some extensions to be abnormally slow. Functions that were originally launched in almost seconds may have to wait for about 60 seconds at worst.

Chrome on macOS crashes

According to foreign media reports, this wave of problems mainly occurs in the macOS version of Chrome. Currently, the Windows and mobile device versions have not reported the same disaster. Judging from user reports, the affected extensions are not limited to a single tool, including 1Password, which is commonly used by many people.

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1Password has also noticed related issues and stated that after updating Google Chrome, the performance of extensions may indeed slow down. For people who are used to automatically filling in their account and password through the browser, it will indeed be quite inconvenient if they have to wait tens of seconds every time they click on it.

Currently, other users have reported that different extensions may encounter similar situations, but the problem does not occur every time, so the scope of the impact still needs to be further confirmed.

As for why it is slowing down, foreign media analysis suggests that the problem may be related to Chrome's management of program priority. To put it simply, the browser may judge some extensions as lower-priority work and leave resources to other programs first, causing the extensions to be temporarily put in the background and the loading time will be greatly extended.

However, this reason has not yet been officially confirmed by Google, so it cannot be directly regarded as the final conclusion. Known issues at this stage are mainly concentrated in the macOS 26 environment.

Google has started investigating

Google responded on the official community, stating that it is currently prioritizing this issue and continuing to investigate it, and is also evaluating whether it can further expand the scope of the correction experiment; if there are new developments in the future, it will continue to announce updates.

Currently, some users have pointed out that turning on Chrome's "PMLoadingPageVoter" experimental flag can temporarily improve the slowdown of extension functions. However, Chrome's experimental flag may affect browser stability. Therefore, if ordinary users have no special needs, it is still recommended to wait for Google's official correction first, rather than changing settings rashly.

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