The extension is optional. Tracking works without it. What it improves is the accuracy of website detection, and the reliability of blocking where a plan is in use.
Why policy, and not “ask people to install it”
The ReclaimTime client never offers the extension to the person using the machine. That is deliberate and built in, not a setting: the offer is disabled in the enterprise build outright, on the reasoning that employees cannot install extensions themselves anyway, so a prompt would only nag. There is no configuration that turns it back on. So on a managed fleet the extension arrives by policy or it does not arrive at all.The two halves
Both have to be in place. Deploying one without the other is the usual reason this appears not to work.Chrome
Force-install the extension withExtensionInstallForcelist, either through the Chrome ADMX template or directly:
cijnapdipoibhbanfhkfdefgfobbiale. Its listing is on the Chrome Web Store.
Force-installed extensions cannot be removed or disabled by the person using the browser, which is the behaviour you want here.
Edge
Edge takes the same extension from the Chrome Web Store, using the same ID and the Chrome update URL:If the extension installs but nothing improves
The client sets up its side separately for each Windows user, when it runs as them. A browser that has been deployed to the machine but never opened by that user may not be ready for it yet.Checking it worked
On one machine, in order:- The extension appears in the browser’s extensions page, marked as installed by policy.
- Website activity for that machine starts showing site addresses in the dashboard.
Firefox
A Firefox build of the extension exists. Firefox uses its own policy mechanism,policies.json or the Firefox ADMX, rather than the keys above. Ask us for the current Firefox extension ID before deploying it, since it is not the Chrome one.
What this does not change
- It does not change what is recorded. The fields are the same either way. See Data collected and not collected.
- It does not send browsing anywhere new. The extension talks to the local client only, over a local channel.
- It does not require the extension to be present for tracking to work.
Related tasks
Checked against ReclaimTime client 8.0.0.9 and dashboard V3 on 8 September 2026.

