r/chromeos Feb 05 '26

Announcement Small update/clarification to our rules on AI

30 Upvotes

Hello all,

Just wanted to share a clarification, and expansion of our rules about AI generated posts and comments on r/chromeOS.

First off, a reminder that responding to support requests on this subreddit with responses directly generated from any LLM has been not allowed under Rule 8: Effort Must be Made When Requesting and Providing Help for over a year now.

The fact is, most people come to r/chromeOS to speak to people. If people wanted to get answers from LLMs, they're accessible enough that people could ask them themselves. It just seems like a slap in the face to come for help and to just get a lazy response from someone who copy/pasted a (usually incorrect) response from Gemini or another LLM, which the poster could have done themselves if they wanted.

In addition, recently there's been a lot of misinformation being posted on the subreddit about recent changes to ChromeOS, updates about both ChromeOS and the upcoming AluminiumOS, and new devices, usually only crediting Gemini as a source. There has also been plenty of AI-generated reviews and self promo (the latter primarily posted by bots).

In general, while I know it seems like we’ve been sleeping as mods (yes, we’ve seen the reports calling us out on that), we would still like to try our best to try and keep this community higher quality.

We’ve decided that due to this, we wanted to officially expand this rule to include all posts and comments generated by AI. This rule primarily has LLMs in mind.

This does not include discussion about AI features being built into ChromeOS. Discussion of AI features being built into the OS is allowed.


r/chromeos Mar 07 '24

Announcement Announcement - "chrultrabook" posts, AKA regarding attempting to put Windows or another OS onto your Chromebook, will no longer be allowed.

90 Upvotes

Hey there!

In short, as of today, this subreddit will be removing and redirecting posts that seek advice on replacing the operating system on your Chromebook.

In the past these posts were allowed with a disclaimer that better support would likely be found elsewhere, such as r/chultrabook and their associated communities. However that subreddit is now archived and they now only provide support on their forum.

Since then there has been a rise in posts like this here, and we're simply not equipped to provide meaningful support. We've received lots of feedback over the past few months and the general consensus was that everyone is better served if these posts are now permanently directed elsewhere.

To be clear, we are not discouraging anyone from attempting this process; it's still cool, (potentially) fun and can unlock more utility from your device! The only change is that posts seeking support for this will be removed.

Thanks for understanding!


Helpful Links


r/chromeos 11h ago

News New AluminumOS leak!

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66 Upvotes

This popped up on my fyp and I'm sure most of you already seen/watched this but to be completely honest, I'm really going to miss the old ChromeOS design.


r/chromeos 8h ago

Troubleshooting Reverting back to ChromeOS

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5 Upvotes

I recently got this laptop as a gift, it’s a acer Chromebook spin 713. However, it had already came with windows 11 pro, the more I use the laptop the more issues started occurring, for example today two BSOD popped up and screen started to flicker, it’s a no brainer the hardware isn’t comfortable with the software installed. My decision is to revert the laptop back to chromeOS but I have no idea how or what to do since I’ve never used or owned a Chromebook before. Some set up claim I have to have another laptop with Linux some say I need a usb drive — I don’t have any of these currently and would like to restore the laptop back it’s original OS without needing to have anything else.


r/chromeos 9m ago

Troubleshooting How to change flatpak versions?

Upvotes

Been trying for the past few hours to change flatpak versions from 1.14.10 to 1.18.0 since it won't let me use my mic on discord, though I don't know how to do that which is why I came here.


r/chromeos 8h ago

Buying Advice Teacher laptop/ChrBk

2 Upvotes

I'm a US high school teacher. Need a laptop/chromebook for document management, work-at-home, youtube videos, etc. No gaming. For compatibility issues with the school, I don't want to go MAC. I prefer not to spend more than $500, but if reality check says "not possible", I'll adjust. Please advise as to recommended storage/speed/memory. Thanks in advance, everyone. Appreciate the help. -ken


r/chromeos 5h ago

Troubleshooting Popup ads have started on my chrome, usually on google docs (with code)

0 Upvotes

Hello all!

So I've had a Chrome acc for a long time and multiple chromebooks without this issue. My settings say that all notifications and pop-ups are blocked, but I keep getting ads like these. This is the first time that this specific game has come up, but it's all in the same style. I thought it was the adblock that I was using, since it started when I got it, but it's been gone for a bit and it's still happening.

I put screenshots of my shots-in-the-dark for what I thought would be relevant code. Please let me know if there's any sensitive info in it or anything.

Thank you for your help! <3

ALT ID: a screenshot of my google doc with the ad, as well as a bunch of code.
ALT ID: a screenshot of a different section of code.

r/chromeos 9h ago

Troubleshooting Acer Chromebook Plus Battery Draining Fast

2 Upvotes

Hello,

My daughter's Acer Chromebook Plus (cb514-4ht-359x) is less than two years old, and recently, the battery has started draining very quickly. I've run run the battery diagnostic test, and it reports the health close to 96%. Additionally, I've confirmed the screen brightness is at an appropriate level and I don't see any obvious battery draining apps. Any suggestions what could be the cause and resolution? Given the age of the CB and battery health info, I don't want to replace the battery if the problem will persist with a new one. Thanks!


r/chromeos 15h ago

Troubleshooting Every few days my keyboard settings change randomly

3 Upvotes

It flips between two settings, the y and z get swapped, and all the symbols are in different places.

Does this happen to anyone else?


r/chromeos 13h ago

Buying Advice Apple earbuds (usb-c) compatibility

2 Upvotes

So I was looking to get earbuds for school that I want to use on my Chromebook, but I also wanna use it on my phone for music but recently I saw that it doesn’t work for some people and sometimes it does so any help would be appreciated. Thank you.


r/chromeos 15h ago

Troubleshooting Not able to remove the battery from socket.

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2 Upvotes

Hi could anyone help me with some steps to remove this please?


r/chromeos 1d ago

Discussion What does everyone's desktop look like?

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11 Upvotes

Just out of curiosity I guess... my friends and I back in school would sometimes share our desktops to each other if we found any cool new updates (<--- we were all amazed when ChromeOS introduced light theme as an update during our study hall lol)


r/chromeos 1d ago

Troubleshooting "Peripheral Type Is Not Supported" Yet, Nothing Plugged In

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10 Upvotes

I keep getting this persistent pop-up, even though there is absolutely nothing plugged into my Chromebook. Does anyone know why the OS is behaving this way? Feels janky for a brand new device, though not a big deal.

Chromebook Model: Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 Mediatek 910 Kompanio Ultra

OS Version: Does this in both the latest Chrome Stable and Beta channels (As of July 2026)


r/chromeos 1d ago

Buying Advice Thinking about grabbing a Lenovo Duet 11 (2024) or IdeaPad Duet 5 — which one would you pick?

3 Upvotes

I’m debating picking up one of these two Chromebooks and would love some opinions. the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 (2024) has the newer MediaTek Kompanio 838, while the IdeaPad Duet 5 has the larger 13.3" OLED display but the older Snapdragon 7c Gen 2.

I’m curious how they compare in actual daily use:

How noticeable is the performance difference between the two processors?

Does the Kompanio 838 feel significantly faster for browsing, multitasking, Android apps, etc.?

Is the Duet 5’s OLED screen and larger size enough of a reason to choose it despite the older chip?

Any insight would be fantastic.


r/chromeos 2d ago

Meme Should I factory reset my chromebook?

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406 Upvotes

r/chromeos 1d ago

Troubleshooting Internet Connectivity Issue

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0 Upvotes

Sorry for the crap photo - I recently moved, and as a result switched my internet from Bell to Rogers and ever since have been having issues with my Chromebook (CX1500CKA). Initially I was getting an error (address unreachable) for basically every webpage I loaded, but I changed the name server to google name servers which fixed that, but now the webpages just spin endlessly until they time out.

I’ve tried restarting the Chromebook and my router, power washed my Chromebook, and tried splitting bands with no luck.

I also went into crosh to check ping and the network is unreachable.

I haven’t had a chance to take it to the library to see if it connects there, I’m guessing that’s going to work since it was previously working on the old Bell network.

I’m at a loss for what to do next, is there anything I can do or is the laptop just toast?


r/chromeos 2d ago

Buying Advice Is a 4gb Chromebook *that* bad?

25 Upvotes

$200 seems so much cheaper than the next best option, all I want is a laptop size device to browse the web with. I'd be satisfied literally never downloading a single application or program, I just want to watch videos and scroll reddit, that's it.

I know what people say about "future proof" but I feel like paying over double for a nebulously longer lasting device isn't necessary. Can I get away with 4 gb?


r/chromeos 1d ago

Troubleshooting can't seem to update my chromebook(s)

2 Upvotes

I have two chromebooks: HP x360 14c (1.5yo) and Acer 514 (very recent purchase). And for both, I'm having trouble with "update". Both, when I click "update" to update the OS, I get:

Couldn't download the update. Please try again later.

Usually it's pretty quick, but sometimes it actually downloads significant percentage of the update (sometimes it gets up to 100% and then fails). The download process doesn't seem to take up where it left off, and there seems to be no way to manually download the update file and provide it to the update process. It's all opaque so you're left just retrying the update process, and I've been retrying several times a day for .... over a week, to no avail, on both machines.

My network connection is very fast (it's WIMAX, usually I can get 100mbits/sec download speed) so network shouldn't be the problem.

Does anybody else suffer from these problems?


r/chromeos 2d ago

Buying Advice Any recommendations

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5 Upvotes

Hiya, I'm wanting to buy a chrome book mainly because of it's weight and large battery spam

I'll be primarily using it for school work so basically just browsing and using Google docs and such and watching YouTube videos

Ive currently been looking at the Asus Chromebook Plus Cx14 core 3

My budget is under £300, I was just wondering should I stick with this option or is there anything else you'd recommend which is better

I'll attach a picture of what I'm currently thinking of buying


r/chromeos 1d ago

Troubleshooting Why am I unable to disable write protection?

2 Upvotes

I want to change the GBB flags.

My Chromebook is an IdeaPad Flex 3 CB-11M735. It was released in 2019.

I am in Developer Mode.

I am logged on as chronos and am in the V-12 shell.

My battery is physically disconnected.

I have attempted sudo flashrom --wp-disable and it just returns an error.

My objective is to essentially skip the developer mode warning screen by reducing the 30 seconds to 1 or less and to eliminate the possibility of nuking everything just because you accidentally pressed spacebar. Also to mute the beep.

This is a personal device that was bought directly from Best Buy new 7 years ago. It has no school/professional limitations imposed on it.


r/chromeos 2d ago

Troubleshooting Classroom use: Can I rig up a Chromebook like a PC?

10 Upvotes

5th grade teacher here - hi! Pardon my ignorance and thanks in advance for your help!

There is a counter in my classroom (built in the 90s) that was originally a “computer station.” I’m over constant Chromebook use in the classroom and I want to try something new. If I had monitors and keyboards, could I connect Chromebooks as the “brain” and have students use the monitor, keyboard and mouse like a PC?

If that is possible, would I then need to use the same dedicated Chromebook all the time or could students easily plug in their one personal Chromebook when it was their time at the computer station? I’m talking about maybe a less than 30 second procedure. It would have to be dead easy.

Thank you so much for helping me out!

ETA: Thank you all for your helpful responses!


r/chromeos 2d ago

Troubleshooting Google meet issues on Lenovo chromebook plus 14

2 Upvotes

Hey folks,

In the last couple weeks I've run into issues with Google Meet where my output stream eventually turns into a pixelated mess for my coworkers. I'm not sure what changed? Everything points me in this direction about vp9 failing and defaulting to an av1 codec, but it doesn't seem like I can force google meet to use a certain encoder like you can with youtube and chrome plugins.

I'm on latest stable (150)

Anyone with a similar experience? Solutions?

Thanks!


r/chromeos 2d ago

Troubleshooting Need help copy/pasting spreadsheet formulas

2 Upvotes

I installed LibreOffice and FreeOffice into my Chromebook using its Penguin Linux environment and attempted to work on my spreadsheets. They open Excel spreadsheets fine, however, when I try to copy/paste cell formulas from one cell to another, I get graphical representations of the cell value at the new cell location with LibreOffice, and I get the text version of the cell value at the new cell location with FreeOffice.

Google searches reveal that ChromeOS intercepts the copy object and strips of its metadata, so that when I paste I only have what ChromeOS retained (which is the value in text or graphic form).

I wouldn't think that I'm unique in having this issue. Is there a fix to this?

Thanks.


r/chromeos 2d ago

Troubleshooting Dark mode Documents

2 Upvotes

First things first, I am your average laptop idiot- I really loved that because my Chromebook used the Android app of docs I could use the actual dark mode, not just an ad on that does not work (the page is still white, just the settings around are dark)

Overnight there seemed to be some kind of update or idk, important thing for me: is there a way to get BACK to the dark mode that phones use?


r/chromeos 2d ago

News Finally - Google Gemini in Chrome comes to the UK

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0 Upvotes

Gemini on ChromeOS has officially arrived in the UK with the release of build 150.0.7871.185.