In the second quarter of 2015, version 5 of the extension for Firefox was rebased using Mozilla's Add-ons SDK (previous versions used XUL).įirefox Quantum ceased support for extensions that use XUL or the Add-ons SDK so the extension was rebased using WebExtensions APIs. The extension was developed by Michel Gutierrez.Īs of December 2019, Video DownloadHelper is the third most popular extension for Firefox (after Adblock Plus and uBlock Origin) and the second most popular Mozilla-recommended extension with 2,848,968 users. It allows the user to download videos from sites that stream videos through HTTP.

UPDATE: As of October 2022, this method no longer works.Video DownloadHelper is an extension for the Firefox web browser and Chrome web browser. Install Firefox via “Mozilla Team” team PPAĪfter reinstalling Firefox, you have to reinstall the Video Download Helper extension and the Companion App The issue has been reported at the project Github at: So I tried using the Chrome extension, but it could not find the companion app in Chrome either. Then reinstalled the companion app using all 3 methods, restarting the browser and checking for the companion app each time, and it never found it.

So I uninstalled again, verified it was uninstalled, and installed firefox from flathub.

I tried uninstalling firefox and installing from command line, but that only reinstalled the snap. I could be wrong, but I suspect in 22.04 browsers or extensions are sandboxed into a directory and don't have access to where the companion app is being installed. No matter which method is used to install the companion app, the browser extension replies: Companion app not installed: Checking companion app returned: Specified native messaging host not found. I had issues with the 22.04 upgrade and so had to erase and do a clean install.Īttempting to download a video from the extension prompts the user to install the companion app. This extension worked in 20.04 and I believe earlier versions as I have been using both for many years. The poster is asking about how to get the Video Download Helper for Firefox or Chrome browser extension working in Ubuntu 22.04. I stumbled upon this post doing a search for the error message.

Please see the end for the only solution I have found:

Downloadhelper extension