How can I make chrome (stop asking to be) the default browser?

Question

I am running Linux Mint Debian edition (essentially Debian testing) and the Cinnamon desktop environment. Every time I launch google-chrome it asks to become the default browser. I have told it to do so in all ways I can think of but I still get this pop-up:

What I have tried:

• Clicking on "Set as default" in the pop-up.

• Making chrome the default in its settings:

  

• Using my desktop environment's (cinnamon) settings app to set it as default:

  

• Associating it with all relevant mimetypes in the various ways and files where such things are defined:

  $ xdg-mime query default text/html 
  chrome.desktop
  
  $ grep chrome .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
  text/html=chrome.desktop
  x-scheme-handler/http=chrome.desktop
  x-scheme-handler/https=chrome.desktop
  x-scheme-handler/about=google-chrome.desktop
  x-scheme-handler/about=google-chrome.desktop;
  text/html=emacs.desktop;google-chrome.desktop;firefox.desktop;
  x-scheme-handler/http=chrome.desktop;
  
  $ grep chrome /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
  application/xhtml+xml=google-chrome.desktop
  text/html=google-chrome.desktop
  text/xml=gedit.desktop;pluma.desktop;google-chrome.desktop
  x-scheme-handler/http=google-chrome.desktop
  x-scheme-handler/https=google-chrome.desktop
  

  In those files, I replaced all occurrences of firefox (my previous default) with google-chrome. No other browsers are defined anywhere in the file:

  $ grep -E 'firefox|opera|chromium' /usr/share/applications/defaults.list \ 
     .local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
  $ 
  

• Launching chrome as root in case that helps but it won't let me:

  

• Using Debian's alternatives system to set it as default:

  $ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/www-browser www-browser /usr/bin/google-chrome 1080
  update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/google-chrome to provide /usr/bin/www-browser (www-browser) in auto mode
  
  $ ls -l /etc/alternatives/www-browser
  lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Jan 23 17:03 /etc/alternatives/www-browser -> /usr/bin/google-chrome
  

None of these seem to have any effect. Will no one rid me of this turbulent pop-up?

Answer 1

For Chromium, when I choose "Don't ask again", Chromium stores the following setting in my ~/.config/chromium/Profile 1/Preferences file:

{
   "alternate_error_pages": {
      "enabled": false
   },
   "apps": {
      "shortcuts_have_been_created": true
   },
   "autofill": {
      "negative_upload_rate": 1.0,
      "positive_upload_rate": 1.0
   },
   "bookmark_bar": {
      "show_on_all_tabs": true
   },
   "bookmark_editor": {
      "expanded_nodes": [ "1" ]
   },
   "browser": {
      "check_default_browser": false,
      [...]

For standard Google Chrome:

1. Close Chrome.
2. In Terminal, paste open ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Preferences (and then hit enter)
3. search for "browser":{​ and replace it with "browser":{"check_default_browser":false,

When you start chrome back up it shouldn't prompt you anymore.

Note:

The preferences setting seems to differ substantially between chrome versions. On Chrome-78.0 the setting

"browser":{"default_browser_infobar_last_declined":"13236762067983049"}

seems to work. I assume it simulates clicking the x.

Answer 2

found the solution:

When you get the question again, don’t press the button that makes Chrome the default browser, but click on the far right of the bar on the X to make the bar disappear. Big chance it won’t come back.

via a manjaro forum post

Answer 3

Here is a quick solution as worth as the one above I guess but different: Run in a terminal :

echo '# Disable set default browser
export CHROMIUM_FLAGS="$CHROMIUM_FLAGS --no-default-browser-check"' \
| sudo tee /etc/chromium.d/disable-set-default-browser

It will create a file that will launch Chromium without checking ... Very useful when the "don't ask again" question doesn't pop up :)

Answer 4

Why manual edits?
Just "Click on "Don't ask again" in the pop-up." as indicated.

I don't see any indication in your question that you have tried that.

Answer 5

I managed to solve this, in Ubuntu 20.04, by editing ~/.local/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop. Look for Exec and add -no-default-browser-check to it, like this:

Exec=/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable -no-default-browser-check %U

You may need to logout and login for it to take effect. I also noticed I had a lot of google-*-Default.desktop in ~/.local/share/applications. I removed them and copied /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop to ~/.local/share/applications/.

Answer 6

The most voted answer this is not the case on my machine but definitely leads to the right solution..

I would suggest that you just run..

cd ~/.config/chromium/
grep -ri check_default_browser

Then edit the corresponding file(s) to false.

Answer 7

This worked for me in 2021

On your computer, open Chrome. At the top right, click More More and then Settings. Under “You and Google,” select Sync and Google services. Turn on or off Help improve Chrome's features and performance.

After I did that, It never prompts this popup