How to fix Google Chrome’s ‘Nearly up-to-date’ infinite loop issue on Windows

Recently, I’ve been test-driving Windows 11 to draw as many comparisons and contrasts from it as I can to Chrome OS both for fun and for research. I’ve concluded that Windows 11 borrowed more than a few things from Chrome OS, and the fact that that is not such a bad thing after all. Recently, I’ve been experiencing a bug with Chrome on Windows that causes me to be stuck in an infinite update loop. No matter how many times I relaunch the browser after it tells me it’s ‘Nearly up-to-date’, I’m met with the same message.

Today, I’m going to show you how to resolve this problem if you’re facing it too. I always recommend that you backup your bookmarks and other browser data just to be safe, or simply sign in to Chrome and make use of Google Sync so that it’s all stored in the cloud before we begin. You’ll be attempting this at your own risk, and I’m solely providing you with advice, but doing this for myself caused no data loss, so it should be fine. Hats off to TechAntidote for providing a solution and saving the day!

To get started, force quit all instances of Chrome.exe from your Windows task manager using Ctrl+Shift+Esc. If you’re met with an error that states Chrome is still running, you’ll need to be certain you’ve done the same for all other currently signed-in user accounts on your machine. Once you’ve done so, open your Windows File Explorer and navigate to the ‘C:\’ drive. Then, open ‘Program Files’, go to ‘Google’, ‘Chrome’, and then finally to the ‘Application folder. It should look practically identical to what you see in the image below. You may need to look in ‘Program Files (x86)’ if it’s not housed in the standard Program Files folder.

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Alright, let’s fix this issue and get on with our day, shall we? Right-click ‘chrome’ and delete it. Once it’s gone, right-click ‘new_chrome’ and rename it to ‘chrome’. Lastly, right-click the folder near the top that is for the older or current version of Chrome and leave the newer folder there. In the example above, ‘91.0.4472.164’ is my current version of Chrome whereas ‘92.0.4515.107’ is newer. Obviously, the goal is to delete the folder that has a lower number version and leave the one that is higher as Chrome versions increase in number with each update.

That’s it! Opening Chrome again and navigating to the Settings page and then to the ‘About Chrome’ tab on the left sidebar will reveal that ‘Google Chrome is up to date’ and the newest version number will be listed. If you’ve ever experienced an infinite update loop, you’ll know it can be super frustrating, and I wanted to provide a solution here for you to make use of and to share with others. I hope this helped!