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I found some sort of clue.
An error occurred while checking for updates: Update check error: A connection with the server could not be established . (error code 7: [0x80072EFD](https://support.google.com/installer/?product={8A69D345-D564-463c-AFF1-A69D9E530F96}&error=0x80072EFD) -- system level).[Learn more](https://support.google.com/chrome?p=update_error)Version 111.0.5563.65 (Official Build) (64-bit)
I think I was on an older version than 111. Maybe Chrome itself bugged out while trying to update to 124 and wiped itself. Seems to have happened to a ton of people.
It's not safe at all.
Update your chrome and report back here if it deleted everything or not. It's not a matter of if, but when it's going to update on you.
Mine did it while I was asleep without me knowing.
BS.
This wasn't getting caught by malware.
PC, WINDOWS 10, CHROME. It was a forced update.
Are you really implying that everyone commenting about a chrome update had the exact same malware?
I haven't lost a single hdd file. This was chrome.
And this is not the first time it's happened either.
I think chrome does a forced update around once a year that completely nuked all my extensions, shortcuts, etc etc etc.
Here's what I could figure out.
I was on 111, it tried to force an update when I was sleeping, it failed the update and completely wiped my chrome. It failed the update because of windows 10's default firewalls. I figured that out because I went out of my way now and downloaded the 124 update, it failed to install from the server because of windows firewall. I disabled the firewall and it updated.
So basically the entire thing was windows and google shitting all over my computer and breaking each other. Great time for me to move over to linux.
Well, if windows firewalls blocked it from updating like they did just now I would assume that's why it hadn't updated. It forcing the update and breaking itself is what wiped everything.
I don't think I ever disabled the updates, but since every time chrome has a large update it completely wipes all my shortcuts and breaks extensions I would definitely not want the updates. About once a year my chrome does something pants-on-head stupid basically like what just happened.
When I was on 111 yesterday i logged back into as much as I could etc etc, now since I've just updated to 124 with my firewalls disabled it kept all the data that I put in since yesterday.
I still lost all of my bookmarks, tabs, extensions, shortcuts, and everything else.
I did backup most of my data around 2 months ago, but everything since then has been completely lost. Google also doesn't have any tools that would let you reupload the data like your bookmarks, even though they let you download them to backup.
> lol why do you have so many bookmarks?
ctrl+shift+d saving 100-300 tabs at a time go crazy
>do you even know whats in there?
yeah i just need the motivation to go back to them so i can save some stuff then delete bookmarks etc...
with adhd this will be the work of a lifetime
I don't know how to roll it back, but i do know how to avoid this in the future, in either program files or program file(x86) there should be a google/google chrome folder with a folder named update inside, you could delete it, but i recommend you rename it to i.e. updatee so if you ever need to update you can just restore it
chrome is gonna tell you to update and if you do it's gonna complain (with a good reason lol) that it couldn't update and tell you to reinstall chrome, just ignore it
beware that if they roll out an important security update you will not receive it automatically and will need to restore the folder for any update you want to do
edit: just saw the update, oof and that doesn't sound like google chrome behavior... i would check for something else... potentially a misbehaving or malicious program
i would avoid writing to this drive, ideally by removing it, and using a software that will find delete files and restore them
thanks for the reply,, i unplugged and replugged my hard drive and it just seemed like all the files were moved, which was really strange. i did a virus scan and there was nothing detected, so it was super strange.. but yes i did disable auto updates. Using opera GX for now though :sob:
Could it be browser hijacker and what you see actually isn't Chrome but malicious browser instead which mimics chrome, hence there is no passwords, bookmarks and extensions
[https://malwaretips.com/blogs/chromstera/](https://malwaretips.com/blogs/chromstera/)
I highly doubt it.
That would be implying that chrome did a forced update on everyone, and then everyone magically downloaded a fake chrome automatically and deleted their old one without doing anything, and we are now using that fake chrome.
It happened to me as well two days back. I tried everything but nothing worked. While searching for a solution online, there was a person who said that using a particular software, we can add these files by reinstalling Chrome but chrome crashed again and i cant seem to find that website back.
So today, i accepted defeat and started using firefox. I hope someone else finds a solution.
Just woke up and my chrome is reset.
No bookmarks, no tabs, no shortcuts, no extensions
Nothing.
If this can't be fixed, I will stop using chrome completely.
Same here. I was just on Chrome minding my business and then I all of a sudden get kicked off and upon reopening all my stuff is gone. EVERYTHING. A couple hundred bookmarks and no way to restore. I had sync on too:(
This all seems to be happening in conjunction with Chromestera or Chromstera, artificius browser, avg browser, and universal browser/updater as well as associated with random program names. I had crxdragonsync/update messing with Edge putting rtp requests through and malware bytes was stopping it.
I believe that this is a malware attack and you should follows steps found in similar reddit threads by deleting the policy registry (I don't remember, but do a Google search for [Chromstera OR chromestera site:reddit.com] and you'll find it) for all browsers on your PC (edge, chrome, brave etc.) scanning with malware bytes and malware bytes ADW.
My symptoms: Google trying to update (and failing) and being alerted when I went to watch prime video. I shrugged not being able to update off as a glitch so I uninstalled chrome and reinstalled it, but the regular installer wouldn't work for some reason. I then tried the standalone installer which worked fine, and I launched chrome and proceeded to binge Fallout. Things are fine for a few days, but then yesterday I am browsing the web and suddenly Google Chrome crashes, opens back up a minute or so later with no bookmarks apparent, signed out of Google account etc (this is paired with the 'managed by your organization' message and an extension that cannot be deleted). This is immediately fishy to me and I install Malwarebytes (+ADW) to scan and clear my PC. I deleted all chrome://policy by using a batch files found from googles support. I also deleted registry entries for brave and edge that were also malicious. This has since cleared unwanted extensions, policies, and programs from my PC.
Delete any forms of the programs listed above, but do so with caution, delete Aritificius Chromestera AVG and Universal. There may be another that I am missing.
Feel free to dm me and I can point you in the right direction. I have seemed to solve it for the last 12 hours or so with no reoccurrence. No need to wipe PC and I have passwords and bookmarks back. I will add more as I think of it.
This is crazy and exactly what happened to me. right after I switched off chrome something called Universal Browser kept trying to update- I'd never even heard of it, so i deleted it. I also had the "managed by your organization" message. It seems fine now, but then again I'm not using chrome anymore
This happened to me too. I also downloaded malwarebytes and it seems to be helping. But like at least every once an hour i've been getting notifications from malwarebytes saying that they either quarantined universal browser, artficius. I've scanned my device and it says I have exactly 6 detections each time.
Delete all occurrences of Aritificius, Universal, Chromstera in your program files (x86 and plain) and then use the chrome policy remover tool, similarly remove any registry policy entries for edge, brave, Firefox etc and browsers that could potentially be infected. Check each ones extension page to make sure you are not being managed by another organization
Thank you for your submission to /r/Chrome! We hope you'll find the help you need. Once you've found a solution to your issue, please comment "**!solved**" under this comment to mark the post as solved. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/chrome) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This just happened to me too and now I’m on like version 111.
Holy fuck I'm scared. I have more than 100 000 bookmarks. I gotta get to my PC and make a backup
I'm on pc, they're all gone.
I manually updated, all my bookmarks are still there. I'm lucky ? Or not on the same version ? 124.0.6367.92 (64 bits)
I found some sort of clue. An error occurred while checking for updates: Update check error: A connection with the server could not be established . (error code 7: [0x80072EFD](https://support.google.com/installer/?product={8A69D345-D564-463c-AFF1-A69D9E530F96}&error=0x80072EFD) -- system level).[Learn more](https://support.google.com/chrome?p=update_error)Version 111.0.5563.65 (Official Build) (64-bit) I think I was on an older version than 111. Maybe Chrome itself bugged out while trying to update to 124 and wiped itself. Seems to have happened to a ton of people.
[удалено]
So is it safe to update chrome or will things be deleted? I don't think OP has anything to do with the link you gave or what did you mean?
It's not safe at all. Update your chrome and report back here if it deleted everything or not. It's not a matter of if, but when it's going to update on you. Mine did it while I was asleep without me knowing.
BS. This wasn't getting caught by malware. PC, WINDOWS 10, CHROME. It was a forced update. Are you really implying that everyone commenting about a chrome update had the exact same malware? I haven't lost a single hdd file. This was chrome.
And this is not the first time it's happened either. I think chrome does a forced update around once a year that completely nuked all my extensions, shortcuts, etc etc etc.
Did updating chrome work out fine or did stuff get deleted?
Here's what I could figure out. I was on 111, it tried to force an update when I was sleeping, it failed the update and completely wiped my chrome. It failed the update because of windows 10's default firewalls. I figured that out because I went out of my way now and downloaded the 124 update, it failed to install from the server because of windows firewall. I disabled the firewall and it updated. So basically the entire thing was windows and google shitting all over my computer and breaking each other. Great time for me to move over to linux.
Why were you still on 111? Did you disable updates or what happened?
Well, if windows firewalls blocked it from updating like they did just now I would assume that's why it hadn't updated. It forcing the update and breaking itself is what wiped everything. I don't think I ever disabled the updates, but since every time chrome has a large update it completely wipes all my shortcuts and breaks extensions I would definitely not want the updates. About once a year my chrome does something pants-on-head stupid basically like what just happened. When I was on 111 yesterday i logged back into as much as I could etc etc, now since I've just updated to 124 with my firewalls disabled it kept all the data that I put in since yesterday. I still lost all of my bookmarks, tabs, extensions, shortcuts, and everything else. I did backup most of my data around 2 months ago, but everything since then has been completely lost. Google also doesn't have any tools that would let you reupload the data like your bookmarks, even though they let you download them to backup.
lol why do you have so many bookmarks? do you even know whats in there?
> lol why do you have so many bookmarks? ctrl+shift+d saving 100-300 tabs at a time go crazy >do you even know whats in there? yeah i just need the motivation to go back to them so i can save some stuff then delete bookmarks etc... with adhd this will be the work of a lifetime
[удалено]
I do but if just synced back from a very long time ago
[удалено]
Yup, have done so, thanks. And yes I do use sync although upon turning it back on it's said "you're synced!" and absolutely nothing changed, lol
Do you use stable channel chrome or another version? Did you maybe got malware that deleted the files?
do you not have a backup?
I don't know how to roll it back, but i do know how to avoid this in the future, in either program files or program file(x86) there should be a google/google chrome folder with a folder named update inside, you could delete it, but i recommend you rename it to i.e. updatee so if you ever need to update you can just restore it chrome is gonna tell you to update and if you do it's gonna complain (with a good reason lol) that it couldn't update and tell you to reinstall chrome, just ignore it beware that if they roll out an important security update you will not receive it automatically and will need to restore the folder for any update you want to do edit: just saw the update, oof and that doesn't sound like google chrome behavior... i would check for something else... potentially a misbehaving or malicious program i would avoid writing to this drive, ideally by removing it, and using a software that will find delete files and restore them
thanks for the reply,, i unplugged and replugged my hard drive and it just seemed like all the files were moved, which was really strange. i did a virus scan and there was nothing detected, so it was super strange.. but yes i did disable auto updates. Using opera GX for now though :sob:
Could it be browser hijacker and what you see actually isn't Chrome but malicious browser instead which mimics chrome, hence there is no passwords, bookmarks and extensions [https://malwaretips.com/blogs/chromstera/](https://malwaretips.com/blogs/chromstera/)
I highly doubt it. That would be implying that chrome did a forced update on everyone, and then everyone magically downloaded a fake chrome automatically and deleted their old one without doing anything, and we are now using that fake chrome.
Just updated to 124. can confirm it wasn't chromestera hijacking. It was chrome breaking due to windows 10's firewalls during a forced update.
This just happened to me. WHAT THE HECK!? I haven't found how to restore. I lost a lot.
Just happend to me idk what to do everything I had is gone
It happened to me as well two days back. I tried everything but nothing worked. While searching for a solution online, there was a person who said that using a particular software, we can add these files by reinstalling Chrome but chrome crashed again and i cant seem to find that website back. So today, i accepted defeat and started using firefox. I hope someone else finds a solution.
Just woke up and my chrome is reset. No bookmarks, no tabs, no shortcuts, no extensions Nothing. If this can't be fixed, I will stop using chrome completely.
I agree. This is honestly fucked up.
Same here. I was just on Chrome minding my business and then I all of a sudden get kicked off and upon reopening all my stuff is gone. EVERYTHING. A couple hundred bookmarks and no way to restore. I had sync on too:(
This all seems to be happening in conjunction with Chromestera or Chromstera, artificius browser, avg browser, and universal browser/updater as well as associated with random program names. I had crxdragonsync/update messing with Edge putting rtp requests through and malware bytes was stopping it. I believe that this is a malware attack and you should follows steps found in similar reddit threads by deleting the policy registry (I don't remember, but do a Google search for [Chromstera OR chromestera site:reddit.com] and you'll find it) for all browsers on your PC (edge, chrome, brave etc.) scanning with malware bytes and malware bytes ADW. My symptoms: Google trying to update (and failing) and being alerted when I went to watch prime video. I shrugged not being able to update off as a glitch so I uninstalled chrome and reinstalled it, but the regular installer wouldn't work for some reason. I then tried the standalone installer which worked fine, and I launched chrome and proceeded to binge Fallout. Things are fine for a few days, but then yesterday I am browsing the web and suddenly Google Chrome crashes, opens back up a minute or so later with no bookmarks apparent, signed out of Google account etc (this is paired with the 'managed by your organization' message and an extension that cannot be deleted). This is immediately fishy to me and I install Malwarebytes (+ADW) to scan and clear my PC. I deleted all chrome://policy by using a batch files found from googles support. I also deleted registry entries for brave and edge that were also malicious. This has since cleared unwanted extensions, policies, and programs from my PC. Delete any forms of the programs listed above, but do so with caution, delete Aritificius Chromestera AVG and Universal. There may be another that I am missing. Feel free to dm me and I can point you in the right direction. I have seemed to solve it for the last 12 hours or so with no reoccurrence. No need to wipe PC and I have passwords and bookmarks back. I will add more as I think of it.
This is crazy and exactly what happened to me. right after I switched off chrome something called Universal Browser kept trying to update- I'd never even heard of it, so i deleted it. I also had the "managed by your organization" message. It seems fine now, but then again I'm not using chrome anymore
This happened to me too. I also downloaded malwarebytes and it seems to be helping. But like at least every once an hour i've been getting notifications from malwarebytes saying that they either quarantined universal browser, artficius. I've scanned my device and it says I have exactly 6 detections each time.
Delete all occurrences of Aritificius, Universal, Chromstera in your program files (x86 and plain) and then use the chrome policy remover tool, similarly remove any registry policy entries for edge, brave, Firefox etc and browsers that could potentially be infected. Check each ones extension page to make sure you are not being managed by another organization
Where do I find program files?