New chrome extension working perfectly on the local file, but not working in the chrome web store downloaded version
04:09 20 Feb 2026

I managed to get my first extension reviewed and published today, but it doesn't work properly on the downloaded Chrome Web Store version. I've double-checked that the .crx files had the same code within them and that I zipped the folders correctly. My extension tracks websites in the background with a stopwatch to see how much time was spent on a certain website vs another. The stopwatch works fine on the Chrome web store version, but it only tracks the time spent on specific websites when I have the pop-up open. On the other hand, when I'm using the local file, the extension works perfectly, and it can track time
spent on specific websites without the pop-up being open.

I've researched online about this issue, and most of the articles point to an inactive service worker being the issue, but I've used dev tools and it shows that the service worker was always active (even when the popup was closed) When starting the stopwatch in my extension pop-up. I'm using manifest V3, and I already have the permissions alarms, storage, activeTab, tabs, and even the host permissions for all URLs. Is this problem due to the Chrome Web Store? Do I just have to wait afew days?

javascript google-chrome google-chrome-extension manifest.json chrome-web-store