Is it possible to run three versions of Google Chrome?

Question

How might I run 3+ versions of google chrome so I can log into to 3 different google accounts.

More specifically I am looking to have separate icons in the dock for the 3 separate running applications.

How might I run duplicate and or copy versions of the same application. The following linked question on SuperUser by Mark works for a lot of applications but not for Google Chrome.

It appears the following might work link.

@Mark As written in my answer the linked answer above doesn't work for Google Chrome. — William, Mar 16 '15 at 23:23
That info should in the the question not an answer. However in this case my answer correctly answers your question and that question is not on here before I think it would be best to leave this question as is and then create a new question referring this and ask explicitly about Google Chrome — mmmmmm, Mar 16 '15 at 23:30
A couple of questions. What version of macOS are you running? And, are you wanting to run the three versions of Chrome simultaneously? — Monomeeth, Apr 12 '17 at 05:16
@patrix I suspect not - I visited the link and the download isn't available anymore. In fact, the page itself is no longer linked to from the main home page - I'm guessing the OP found the link from a secondary source. — Monomeeth, Apr 12 '17 at 06:31
You've already asked the identical question two years ago. I've merged the answers you've got then into the question here (as closing this one as a duplicate doesn't work if you set a bounty). — nohillside, Apr 12 '17 at 06:47
Any reason you're not just using the Chrome People feature to be able to have the equivalent of 3 instances running? You wouldn't have dock icons but is that a dealbreaker? The way Chrome is designed makes this difficult to do easily and you're going to run into the issue of the three instances all trying to edit settings files that they assume they have exclusive access to and you may have all sorts of weird errors and behavior resulting. — Todd Dabney, Apr 16 '17 at 17:42
@ToddDabney I would like separate icons(I plan to change the icon tint even). Other then that no reason. This is relatively easy on windows last time I tried it. Any idea to solve the settings issues. I figured running then I separate users would solve most issues. Is there an equivalent of pocket apps for Mac maybe? — William, Apr 16 '17 at 22:13
@William I think I figured out the problem. Chrome isn't actually running as one big application that can be run separately. It's a main app that launches a bunch of other processes for each tab you have open. So when you launch it again it it just spawns a new process that gets bundled in with all the others. This prevents it from launching multiple independent copies. Could be totally wrong but I'm pretty sure that's the situation. — Todd Dabney, Apr 16 '17 at 22:18

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 07 '15 at 16:40

Google Chrome Canary is a bleeding-edge version of Chrome which uses its own profile, so it can be run in parallel to a regular copy of Chrome. The Canary browser is the least tested version of Chrome in their development pipeline (Canary → dev → beta → stable), but contains the newest features. For this reason it may not always work as expected, or sometimes not at all. It receives updates every single day. This SO post describes it in more detail.

I gave it an upvote because this is what I am currently doing. — William, Oct 07 '15 at 17:03

user2707001 · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-12T18:54:24.980

6

I used to do that some years ago. Just tested it and it still works. Add two different accounts

System Preferences->Users&Groups
+
Full : Chrome1, Account : chrome1, Pass : password, Ver : password
+
Full : Chrome2, Account : chrome2, Pass : password, Ver : password

Open a Terminal (Applications->Utilities->Terminal) and launch Chrome under these accounts (Plus, launch one under the account you are logged in to get at total of 3)

sudo -u chrome1 /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome

Open a new tab in Terminal cmdT and enter:

sudo -u chrome2 /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome

You will have 3 separate "Chrome" icons in the Dock now. Now sign in separately into each Chrome.

I recommend that you login once to these accounts using the GUI, otherwise you will get Keychain errors when you quit Chrome.

To put direct "links" to open these browsers into the Dock

Applications->Automator File->New In the search field, enter "script", add a "Run shell script"

echo yourpassword | sudo -S -u chrome1 /Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome

(Change yourpassword of course)

File->Save->Applications->Chrome1.app

Close Automator

Open /Applications in Finder

Drag "Chrome1" to the Dock

Click Chrome1 in the Dock

Hope this works for you as for me.

edited Apr 12 '17 at 18:54

answered Apr 12 '17 at 11:06

user2707001

3,226

Setting a bounty and not responding is kind of discouraging – user2707001 Apr 15 '17 at 21:49
2 problems. 1) Is there a way to make a custom icons? 2) the dock icon is not used by the application when it opens so there are essentially 2 icons in the dock(3 if you include the original google chrome icon) – William Apr 16 '17 at 01:56
Change icon as usual? Right click, Show in Finder, right click, Get Info, paste you custom icon on the application icon. Should work. 2) Different story. What I do is I just assigned a key combination to the "Lauch Applications" so I can open my 4 different Chrome browsers by pressing Ctrl-Shift-F9 to F12 and I don't keep them in the Dock. Then, only one Icon appears in the Dock per Chrome when I open them and I usually don't quit the applications but just close all windows. I'm not aware of a way to directly link clicking the dock icon to opening the application under a different user.

user2707001

Apr 16 '17 at 21:01

I keep getting what I think is a keychain reset error any idea? I'll post most information when I get off my phone on in the computer. – William Apr 16 '17 at 22:09

You need to log in once to the accounts you created to initialize the key chains. – user2707001 Apr 16 '17 at 22:20

This is the error I keep getting even after logging in to the second account https://i.stack.imgur.com/42PRe.jpg On a side note it appears you can copy and paste Google Chrome and rename so the docks icons at least have different names. I have figured out how to reset the icon of the separate Google Chrome accounts. To repair keychain has been removed in El Captain https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/27077/the-error-keychain-login-cannot-be-found-to-store – William Apr 16 '17 at 23:20

Typo: I haven't figured out how to reset the icon of the separate Google Chrome accounts. – William Apr 16 '17 at 23:30

To change the icons you'll probably need to create 2 extra copies of Chrome in your Applications folder and set each one with a different icon and then launch each one using the instructions provided by user2707001 – Todd Dabney Apr 17 '17 at 19:56

1

Keychain : You may try this https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7464268?start=0&tstart=0 under the additional accounts – user2707001 Apr 17 '17 at 20:41

I have marked it as the accepted answer which should give you more points. This is the only answer that works pretty much at all. Still haven't figured out how to change the Google Chrome icons. Maybe I can use something like Res Hacker except for Mac because changing the App.icns in the resource folder doesn't seem to work. – William Apr 21 '17 at 15:34

1

Thanks for that. If you need multiple icons, you need to copy Chrome. Let's say you copy to "Google Chrome 2" etc. Then, do "Show Package Contents", Contents, Resources. Replace app.icns with a new icon set. Then, go to a Terminal and do "touch /Applications/Google\ Chrome\ 2.app/". Voilà. – user2707001 Apr 21 '17 at 16:00

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '15 at 00:47

3

Perhaps a relatively new feature in Chrome might do the trick, except you won't have two icons in the Dock, and only one instance of Chrome running:

enter image description here

You can have multiple user's accounts at the press of a button:

enter image description here

answered Mar 17 '15 at 00:47

IconDaemon

19,234

1

I want multiple dock icons. – William Jan 14 '17 at 14:49

score 2 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

2

I recommend Incognito Mode for a second instance of Chrome.

For Windows, create a desktop shortcut and use this line:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" -incognito

For macOS, use this method found here:

How do I open Google Chrome in Incognito mode by default

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

1

answered Nov 02 '16 at 17:57

BeyondtheTech

29

This will work, but your login, preferences, etc, will not persist between sessions or between windows. Some sites, especially those that require multiple windows, will not act as expected when visited under Incognito mode. – Christopher Hostage Aug 07 '17 at 15:41

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 16 '15 at 23:32

1

It really depends on the application. More specifically, it depends on wether the application needs exclusive access to it's support files.

If all you want to do is use a second online user, you want a second browser, not specifically a second session of Chrome. Use Safari.

answered Mar 16 '15 at 23:32

paul

2,665
12
8

Creative although certainly not what I was looking for. – William Mar 16 '15 at 23:43
Another option is to run an OS in a virtual machine, like Linux Mint and use the second Google Chrome from there. If you don't already have VMware Fusion or Parallels, both are paid apps, there is VirtualBox for free. – user3439894 Mar 17 '15 at 00:46
@user3439894 the OS in the VM could be OS X so no need to learn another OS – mmmmmm Mar 17 '15 at 00:57
@Mark, Yes one could use OS X in the VM however OS X performance in a VM basically sucks, no Accelerate 3D Graphics and sound is choppy, just to name 2 of its shortcomings. Linux Mint is extremely easy to learn, especially if just using as a Browser Appliance and the performance in comparison to OS X in a VM is night vs. day. The UI can be customized so the Close, Minimize, Maximize buttons are on the top left like OS X, etc. I'd only run OS X in a VM where it was an absolute necessity to have it even with its degraded performance. – user3439894 Mar 17 '15 at 01:18
and Firefox if you need one more. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen Sep 05 '19 at 05:21

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 04 '19 at 20:32

You just need to create a different user data directory for each chrome instance. Something like this:

alias chrome1='/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --user-data-dir=/Users/<USER>/chrome-config/chrome1 > /dev/null 2>&1 &'

Where you would create /Users/<USER>/chrome-config/chrome1 directory to keep config data for this instance.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 17 '15 at 03:36

0

There are different ways to login as two users.

Create a new desktop and open the Chrome again.
Add another person to your Chrome account. Go to Chrome > Settings > Add Person
Open a new Incognito window and sign in as someone else.

answered Mar 17 '15 at 03:36

user3554664

101

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 04 '19 at 12:01

0

One of the easiest solutions for me was to find a custom build of the browser. In Russia, those are Yandex Browser and Atom.

answered Apr 04 '19 at 12:01

Andrey Chaschev

101

score -1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 02 '16 at 17:41

-1

You can run Google Chrome and Google's nightly developer build, Canary (https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html), on the same machine at the same time.

answered Nov 02 '16 at 17:41

travyo

107

Is it possible to run three versions of Google Chrome?

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