How to Fix Chrome Policy Conflicts and Managed Browser Issues

A Chrome “policy” is a setting that someone other than you has locked: an employer, a school, or a program installed on your computer. When a policy is set, Chrome shows “Managed by your organization” at the bottom of the More menu, and you can’t change that setting yourself. To see exactly which policies are set and where each one comes from, paste this into the address bar:

chrome://policy

On that page, select Reload policies so the list is current, then use Filter policies by name to find the setting you’re stuck on. The Source of each policy tells you who set it. Google explains the columns in View a device’s current Chrome policies:

• Platform: set on the computer itself, through Windows Group Policy, Managed Preferences on a Mac, or another management tool. On a personal computer, a program you installed can also write these.
• Cloud: set in a Google Admin console. These apply when you sign in to Chrome with a managed work or school Google Account.
• Enterprise default: a default Chrome uses for managed browsers, which an admin can override.

The Applies to column says whether a policy covers the Machine (everyone who uses this computer) or the Current user.

When the same policy is set twice

A conflict happens when two sources set the same policy to different values, for example a group policy on the computer and a different value in the Admin console. Chrome doesn’t mix them. By default it uses the value from the highest source in this order and ignores the rest:

1. Platform policies (set on the computer)
2. Machine cloud policies (Admin console, for a browser enrolled in Chrome Enterprise Core)
3. OS-user policies (set for your user account on the computer)
4. Cloud-user policies (your managed Chrome profile)

Admins can change this order with the Admin console’s Policy precedence setting, or merge some policies from several sources (Policy mergelist). If you sign in with a profile from a different organization than the one managing the computer, the computer’s policies always win and the two are never merged. All of this is from Google’s Understand Chrome policy management. So if a setting isn’t taking effect, check chrome://policy for a higher-priority source setting the same policy.

On a work or school computer

Don’t try to remove the policies. Your organization set them on purpose, and getting around them may break its rules. Ask your IT administrator to change the setting or fix the conflict.

On your own computer

If you see “Managed by your organization” and nobody manages your computer, Google’s Check if your Chrome browser is managed gives these steps:

1. Check which account you’re signed in with. Select your Profile picture. An address at a company or school domain, rather than @gmail.com, means that organization manages your profile. Sign in with a personal account instead, or ask that organization.
2. Look for policies you don’t recognize at chrome://policy, and check chrome://management for extensions your “organization” installed.
3. Remove unwanted programs from your computer. On Windows: Start > Settings > Apps > Installed apps. On a Mac: Finder > Applications, then move anything you don’t recognize to the Trash. See Google’s Remove unwanted ads, pop-ups & malware.
4. Remove extensions you don’t recognize: More > Extensions > Manage extensions > Remove.
5. Reset Chrome’s settings: More > Settings > Reset settings > Restore settings to their original defaults. See reset Chrome settings.
6. Restart Chrome and your computer, then check chrome://policy again.

Older guides say to run the Chrome Cleanup Tool for this, but Google has retired it, so remove the program yourself as in step 3. For more detail on getting rid of the message, see how to remove “Managed by your organization”.