Nothing is more frustrating than your Chrome Extension being rejected when it works perfectly on your machine. The "Yellow Magnesium" rejection code comes from how you built, packaged and uploaded to the Chrome Web Store. This policy ensures minimum quality for all the items published on Chrome Web Store.
You will typically see this rejection when your uploaded ZIP file or manifest configuration does not allow the extension to work as expected during review. This usually means that there was a problem during your packaging process, such as an image that didn't get included in the final zip or missing file or a mismatched path.
The good news? Once you understand what Chrome's reviewers are looking for, these problems tend to be simple fixes.
While your source code may be perfectly fine, reviewers found some problem that will not allow your extension to work. Some typical reasons for this type of rejection are incorrect file references in manifest.json, lack of background scripts, or some functionality that simply did not activate while the reviewers were testing your extension. Sometimes reviewers cannot even test your app at all because of needing to log in or not having a backend service available.
In sum, the Chrome reviewer could not find or execute the necessary code, preventing your extension from displaying any working functionality.
After many submissions and reviews, we have found the below to be the most common reasons for the rejection:
Once you are aware of what Chrome's review process requires, fixing the rejection is simple. Here’s a simple approach:
Verify that the file names, paths, and structure precisely match those in your build folder by going over each line. Also, Chrome's environment is case-sensitive, programs that function properly on Windows might not work properly on Linux.
Test the exact files that you submit to the web store, not just a local development version of your extension. This may mean extracting resources from the package that you submitted
After manually installing the packed extension in Chrome, you should test every interaction, which includes verifying popup menus, the content scripts, and background listeners. Make sure any service worker and/or event triggering loads appropriately.
If your extension requires sign-in or special access to backend, make sure to add simple testing instructions in the submission notes. Also, if login is required, include demo credentials. This can save your extension from being unnecessarily rejected.
Check for unhandled errors or exceptions using the Chrome console and your service worker logs. The execution of your extension halts if a file or reference is missing. Before resubmitting, please correct any mistakes and test once more.
To ensure everything goes smoothly, take a moment to perform a pre-submission QA review:
Taking additional few minutes to execute this checklist can save you days of back and forth with the review team.
Your launch date should't be delayed because of packaging issues. At Coditude, we work with developers to troubleshoot, test, and publish Chrome extensions that get first pass review approval. Regardless of whether you have to check for a manifest or need to ensure that it works with MV3, we will apply our expert knowledge to help you package your extension accordingly with the highest quality possible.
