Brave Confirms MV2 Extension Support After Settings Bug Briefly Hid Them

Brave has confirmed it will continue supporting four legacy MV2 browser extensions — uBlock Origin, NoScript, AdGuard and uMatrix — after a software bug briefly caused them to vanish from the browser’s settings menu.

A Reddit user flagged the disappearance in the latest stable release at the time, prompting Brave to respond directly in the thread and confirm that a fix was on the way.

The stable update containing that fix is now live.

What Happened

MV2, short for Manifest Version 2, is the older extension framework that major browsers built their add-on ecosystems on before Google pushed developers toward its successor, MV3.

a Bug That first appeared in Brave’s beta channel carried over into the stable release, temporarily stripping the extensions from the settings interface.

Brave’s Canary build — an early-release channel used for testing — retained full MV2 functionality throughout the incident.

How Brave Now Hosts the Extensions

Because Google plans to remove MV2 extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Brave has moved the four supported extensions to its own backend infrastructure.

Users can access them by typing `brave://settings/extensions/v2` directly into the address bar.

Brave labels them “Brave-hosted” extensions within the interface, and they operate independently from the Chrome Web Store with no link to Google’s platform.

A GitHub post from Brave elaborates that this hosting arrangement exists specifically because the Chrome Web Store will eventually drop MV2 support entirely.

Support Has a Time Limit

Brave has said it will maintain MV2 support for as long as the company considers it reasonable — but has stopped short of any open-ended commitment.

MV3, Google’s replacement framework, has drawn criticism from privacy advocates and extension developers who argue it weakens the capabilities of content-blocking tools like uBlock Origin.

Still, the industry shift away from MV2 is underway, and Brave has not pledged to sustain its workaround indefinitely.

Users who rely on any of the four hosted extensions should treat the current arrangement as a bridge, not a permanent solution.

Google began phasing out MV2 extensions in Chrome in 2024, citing security and performance improvements in MV3 as justification for the transition.