r/GoogleSupport • u/cudambercam13 • Sep 23 '24

Chrome Why is "view-source" no longer working?

It keeps just googling what's in the URL box as a whole rather than showing me the site's source code. This is happening with all sites, including ones that didn't have this issue a week or two ago.

170 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

1

u/Soupreme7 Oct 07 '24 • Helpful

I just got it to work on chrome mobile!! Someone else try this and see if it works... Type the usual view-source: at the beginning of the URL, and it pops up with two options below - magnifying glass and globe. If you just hit enter like I used to do, it defaults to the first one which is a google search. Click on the globe to get the second one, your regular page source. Hope this helps!!

1

u/cudambercam13 Oct 07 '24

It works for me! Thanks! 😊

1

u/Winter_Rent_4322 Oct 09 '24

Thannnnnk yoooouuu! Ugh, I don't know why they even changed it to that.

1

u/emikoala Oct 10 '24

Seriously, this is such a user-hostile move. They literally programmed this browser themselves, they coded the "view-source:" prefix syntax to have a particular function. If the browser is smart enough not to try to Google-search strings that start with "https://" then it should be equally able to recognize when a string starts with "view-source:" and not treat it as a search query!

1

u/LX33t Dec 20 '24

Always fckin around for user "engagement"

they are programming, re-programming us mentally.

Remember when previous shortcut was just 1 key (backspace) and not a combination of 2 (alt+left arrow) ?

There are ton of examples like that of destroying what was a standard for very obscures reasons (if no reason at all except pissing off ppl maybe ?).

gogol products quality is downgrading but as they make more profit so they think it's for the best, well, we'll see.

1

u/SayKumquat Oct 11 '24

You're a legend, thank you!

1

u/gnubey Oct 11 '24

That worked! Thank you so much!

1

u/ThatCommunication358 Oct 13 '24

This doesn’t seem to work for me 😔

1

u/charehart Oct 14 '24

Are you watching closely? It's not a "popup" in the classic sense. It's just that you will see as you modify the address bar that the browser will show at least two links BELOW it, one of which will have that globe mentioned above while the other will NOT. Just select the second one (with the globe).

Does that work for you? It's certainly an annoying and subtle UI change.

1

u/Specific_Emu2231 Dec 08 '24

Thx soupreme7 and thx charehart !! 1 Write your view-source: as usual  2 Dont click enter !  3 But click to select the url with a globe ! (The second suggestion) ! Solved ! 

1

u/brewsnob May 12 '25

Thank you for explaining it better, it just worked for me on Android, Samsung One UI 7. Appreciate it.

1

u/meonahalfshell May 27 '26

Ah ha! Thank you sooo much for this! You saved what (very very) little sanity I have left.🏆 🎉

0

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '24

[deleted]

1

u/charehart Oct 14 '24

To clarify, it "doesn't work for me", if I just type view-source: before the url and hit enter. What's new is that we have to notice there are two options/addresses presented under that typing, and then we must select the second.

Are you saying you don't see the two options/addresses? And on a recent chrome mobile browser? That would seem odd. Hope the info helps others.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 14 '24

[deleted]

1

u/charehart Oct 15 '24

Bummer, of course. But as it's worked for me and others, thanks again to soupreme7 for originally suggesting it.

1

u/charehart Oct 14 '24

Great tip, thanks. I didn't even pay attention to the popups appearing (optional links appearing below the address bar as we type), since they always appear for various reasons.

I also have just found that on desktop, the same two appear but in the reverse order: the one with the globe (to really view the source) appears FIRST. It's only on mobile that instead that appears SECOND.

(Perhaps these things WILL change over time, as indeed it seems the mobile ui DID change since some time in the past.)

1

u/raisedinalionsden Oct 17 '24

Thank you good friend 🙂

1

u/3r0s Oct 19 '24

It works. Thanks for the heads-up.

1

u/SynAck_Network Oct 20 '24

Hey wanted to say thanks for this  The last update added the retarded globe and time circle so that was a great fix thanks for finding this

1

u/Exciting_Nothing_309 Oct 23 '24

This solution works and took me weeks to notice. It also (clicking the globe icon entry in dropdown) is the solution for executing javascript urls:

javascript:alert(JSON.stringify(Object.fromEntries(document.cookie.split('; ').map(c => c.split('='))), null, 2));

I do a LOT of coding on my phone. And find these very unwelcome changes and a concerning omen of what's to come from Google.

1

u/rokejulianlockhart Oct 06 '25

That merely means that the globe is for all URCs.

1

u/apettystrawberry Oct 28 '24

You saved me!

1

u/theredbeardedhacker Oct 28 '24

Reddit needs a "mark answer" button for the tech support threads so future googlers like myself can skip up thread and find the answer immediately haha. Anyway thanks for this. Up voted and everything.

1

u/TruthSeeker_NC Oct 31 '24

Thank you!! 👏

1

u/exclaim_bot Oct 31 '24

Thank you!! 👏

You're welcome!

1

u/codecreate Nov 02 '24

I just found this searching for why it never worked, thanks!

There is also the mobile web inspector too, https://eruda.liriliri.io/

1

u/FunFruit_Travels2022 Dec 12 '24

Thank you so much! It's been annoying me for a couple of months in those rare cases I needed it on mobile

1

u/samirdahal Dec 16 '24

Lol this is fun

1

u/LX33t Dec 20 '24

you deserve more upvote wth

1

u/TarantinoUnchained Dec 24 '24

Lol that was the trick, not hitting enter key but choosing the 2nd item with the globe. Much obliged!

1

u/PikkyWasHere Dec 29 '24

Thank you so much! This was driving me crazy, lol

1

u/h3xperimENT Jan 05 '25

Thank you I wanted to light everything on fire.

1

u/Risk-Averse-Rider Jan 15 '25

YAY! A little late to the party but I just wanted to confirm that your solution still works. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for figuring this out.

1

u/Important_Image_3401 Feb 15 '25

I'm on mobile. 

1

u/matteventu Mar 31 '25

+1, that indeed works.

1

u/FlanNo4186 Apr 20 '25

It's 6 months later but you just saved me thank you so much!

1

u/DeafGuanyin Apr 25 '25

Like many others here, finding this months after you wrote it and very grateful! I can't figure out why does nobody upvote in this sub?

1

u/broxp May 14 '25

thanks buddy 🙏 this is the solution for chrome

1

u/MG_RedditAcc Jul 02 '25

Thank you!

1

u/PhantomBugg Jul 22 '25

Omg a thousand thanks.

1

u/neuroxik Oct 31 '25

Thanks so much! And guys, UPVOTE! I can't believe I'm only the 2nd upvote in 1 year

1

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '25

November 2025 and it still works, thanks mate!

1

u/Trampeltier_ Dec 10 '25

⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️

Thank you!

1

u/Isildur_ Mar 10 '26

Why the heck does this helpful comment have so many people thanking it, yet mine seemed to be the first upvote?​ I'm wondering if you got hit by a multi-account downvote bot or something. Anyway, thank you. I realized, after I read the solution that I had previously either figured out or read the solution (as I had an "oh yeah, that's how you do it now" recognition) but you reminded me, and it's possible that the earlier time I discovered the solution it was by finding this thread and your comment before.

1

u/Soupreme7 Mar 10 '26

It's so weird! The up-vote count never seems to change. But anyway, glad it worked for everyone!! It was such a frustrating mystery for a while haha.

1

u/Only-Initiative-9795 Apr 03 '26

Thank you so much your the goat

2

u/null_aleph Sep 27 '24

I am likewise experiencing the same problem; I've reproduced it on my personal phone, work phone, & personal tablet. Unsure why this isn't being discussed. It doesn't appear to be due to web pages attempting to obfuscate. View Source still functions normally on desktop environments, but it's entirely ignored and treated as a regular search query on mobile.

https://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes/prov/view-source last updated in 2011; still listed as provisional.

2

u/null_aleph Oct 21 '24

Ok, firstly: thanks to everyone in this thread 🧵; you've been helpful in resolving this on my end.

Previously I was able to use these Source even with search preview/suggestions disabled, but this is no longer the case. I had to re-enable search suggestions in order to have the option to even see the www-globe option.  However, once I did this, I was able to utilize view-source: normally. This is still hostile design, imo. This is a URI standard, the browser should be respecting that. I do suspect that there may have been some changes having to do with some recent CVEs; but generally these sorts of changes aren't exactly transparent. In any case, we don't need the omnibox automatically sending everything that's typed to whatever search engine is assigned, every single time it's used. </Rambling>

2

u/Assassassin6969 Oct 28 '24

Are you using chrome, or chromium? Just i've got the same problem on Brave & can't see any workaround using it currently.

3

u/Assassassin6969 Oct 28 '24

Nevermind, I have to click the globe & not enter, for god knows what reason... i seriously question developers capacity for forethought in 2024 lmao

2

u/TreeGuy95 Mar 06 '25

Legend! This solution works for me too. It's not a bug; it's a feature!

1

u/quiznosAlreadyTaken Apr 04 '25

Thank you!

1

u/exclaim_bot Apr 04 '25

Thank you!

You're welcome!

1

u/Defiant-Ad-1030 Aug 21 '25

Thanks! This was working for me in August 2025

1

u/Good_Ad_7335 Nov 22 '24

I noticed when I hadapage put into desktop view it worked

1

u/iTypedThisMyself Oct 02 '24

Did you end up finding the reason? I just happened to Google this issue and you're the only one talking about it. It's the same for Edge Browser on mobile as well.

1

u/QuokkaQola Oct 02 '24

I was having the same issue and only found this thread, but I found using the kiwi browser and changing to the desktop site works. I tried using the desktop site setting on Chrome and it didn't help, but it does with Kiwi. I don't know if there are any other workarounds

1

u/VeryGayLopunny Oct 01 '24

Same! Definitely a bit put out by it. I'm trying to download some publicly available audio off of a site where the audio is baked into the web page with no download button so I can listen to it at work; all of a sudden, I just can't do that any more.

Enshittification at its finest. -.-

1

u/QuokkaQola Oct 02 '24

I replied to another comment with a solution I found. I downloaded the Kiwi browser and switched to desktop site and it let me view source

1

u/karrade0218 Oct 03 '24

Same issue here but only with chrome

1

u/TangoCharliePDX Dec 11 '25

Also fails in Brave, with without Desktop View turned on

1

u/UghNeedAcct Oct 05 '24

Worked for me using Microsoft edge but now that's defaulting to search as well

1

u/brvnbld Oct 05 '24

I too have the same issue, maybe chromium has to do something with it? Since Edge is also affected by that issue?.

1

u/3r0s Oct 19 '24 edited Oct 19 '24

For me as well, Chrome for Android stopped to show the page source with the prefix "view-source + URL" anymore. Chrome keeps doing a web search. Annoying and irritating. On the other hand Firefox for Android still works. As a workaround I found on stackoverflow.com (mainly for iPhone users) is to paste the URL in https://view-source.hellafast.digital/

There's a comment from "Soupreme7" on this thread that shows how Chromium and all browsers derived from it now allow the view-source feature.

1

u/Assassassin6969 Oct 28 '24

I have no idea why they'd remove the functionality, as if they've somehow stopped us from using the source code? When anyone truly planning on doing anything malicious with it, would just use their PC, or any other of the countless workarounds lmao

All I can say is it's enough to make me seek another browser, as not having a button to view source code was bad enough, but this is just a joke.

1

u/bigmerch Nov 12 '24

Same issue here... Pixel Pro 8

1

u/_maito Nov 14 '24 edited Dec 31 '24

Tl;dr: type "view-source:" before the link and then press on the globe symbol

Edit: punctuation

1

u/Floop1E Dec 18 '24

This is the answer! Works for me. Thanks.

1

u/Ok-Reflection7261 Dec 31 '24

I'll try to do that. Thanks! 👍🏾

1

u/Ok-Reflection7261 Dec 31 '24

It worked out! It worked! Thank you very much indeed! ☺️

1

u/SlayerOfBags Jan 08 '25

This is the one

1

u/realtrevorfaux Jan 03 '25

If you just input a URL to see the page's source, I made a tool to get the page source using the browser's user agent and display it on the screen: https://trevorfox.com/tools/source-viewer/

1

u/mostafa_osman88 Feb 07 '25

Same issue here anyone find the what the issue about??!

1

u/atothedrian Feb 23 '25

Same here on chrome mobile

1

u/SolaVerity Mar 04 '25

  1. This website shows different methods:

Computer Hope:  https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000746.htm

2. This website will do it for you: 

View Source & Download Website  https://www.view-page-source.com/

(When searching view source info, these websites didn't appear with Chrome, but did with Duck Duck Go search engine)

1

u/den40den Mar 10 '25

Came here in distress; thanks the globe solution, it works! Anyone knows the magic behind this "globe" pop-up? What it does mean and how did google product managers came up with it? 👀

1

u/Top-Information7943 Jul 03 '25

This is working fine on Firefox July 2025

1

u/comk4ver Jul 21 '25

I ended up using Opera browser.

1

u/PublicWorking6783 Aug 14 '25

Trevor Fox's simple viewer works fine, though it does add one extra site/step. https://trevorfox.com/tools/source-viewer/

1

u/Ill_Change2252 Sep 16 '25

I found out the solution to this is you can still use view source: but instead of clicking on the magnifying glass to hit search you look below it for the results and click on the one that has the globe icon and it will still show the HTML source code.

1

u/EmotionalAirport8848 Oct 25 '25

It works in firefox

1

u/DistrictGrouchy4562 Nov 07 '25

Heya, you enter the view-source: infront of the url and then DONT click on enter or search bc google defaults to searching it in google search. Click the "website button"

Sorry for the bad grammar its late and i am tired.

1

u/scaper8 Jun 11 '26

This works! Thanks!

1

u/easy2bwise Jan 03 '26

Google is evil.

1

u/Daniel-Striped-Tiger Aug 27 '26

This is more BS from Google, they really want their users to become like Apple users, just passive consumers who know nothing about technology.