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How to downgrade Google Chrome in Ubuntu

Florian Heinle
October 08, 2020Software engineer at makandra GmbH

If you're experiencing problems with your Google Chrome installation after an update, it might help downgrading Chrome to check if the problem disappears. Keep in mind though that running outdated software, especially web browsers, is in most cases not a good idea. Please verify periodically if you still need to run the old version or if an even more recently updated version fixes the problems introduced in your version.

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Read more Show archive.org snapshot

Here's how to get old versions of Chrome for your Ubuntu installation:

First, go to UbuntuUpdates Show archive.org snapshot and pick the full version string of the version you want to install. Just copy and paste the version string, do not download any packages from this 3rd party website!

Now download the older version directly from Google's Download Servers:

$ VERSION_STRING="85.0.4183.121-1" # Replace this value with the one you copied earlier
$ wget "https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/google-chrome-stable_${VERSION_STRING}_amd64.deb"
$ sudo dpkg -i "google-chrome-stable_${VERSION_STRING}_amd64.deb"
$ rm -i "google-chrome-stable_${VERSION_STRING}_amd64.deb"

It's possible that Google remove older versions from their download servers and not all listed versions are still present for downloading.

Keep in mind that the next regular system update will also affect your Chrome installation and you'll have to exempt Chrome from Upgrades for as long as you need the downgrade.

Again, please do not use old and potentially unsafe versions unless strictly necessary.

Posted by Florian Heinle to makandra dev (2020-10-08 12:36)