I went to install a new extension in Google Chrome / Chromium and I was getting the error message “Could not create directory for unzipping.”

This doesn’t seem to be a permissions issue, as I have full rights on the PC I’m working on.

I found this thread in which some others report the same error.

The funny thing is, it seems to go away & come back randomly, so some of the suggested permanent fixes either don’t work for everyone, or they stop working after a period of time. (Or, worse, they cause other problems.)

I did find a work around that allows you to install the extension without getting the “Could not create directory for unzipping” error.

Here is how to work around the “Could not create directory for unzipping” error:

  1. Download the extension you want to install to your hard drive by right-clicking the install button and choosing “Save Link As”

  2. Change the file extension from “.crx” to “.zip”.
  3. Open the file in your favorite zip program. (I use WinRAR)
  4. Extract the files to a folder on your hard drive
  5. In Chrome, open the extension tab by typing “chrome://extensions/” into the location bar
  6. Choose the “Developer Mode” link, and then hit the “Load Unpacked Extension” button

  7. Browse to the directory containing the extracted extension files & hit “OK”.

That’s it! Chrome should now load the new extension without giving you the error message about creating a directory.