Yellow triangle in Chrome

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Lately I’ve been seeing a yellow triangle with an exclamation point on the top line of my Chrome screen, just to the left of the Minimize/Restore/Close buttons. It seems to come and go, but it’s usually there.

It’s on a button with my name, Lou. When I click the button, I get a window with my photo and email address, with the yellow triangle next to the email address. I also get buttons labeled “Switch Person” and “Go Incognito”

Who knows what this is?

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The button to the left of the minimize button is your profile.

From a post in New User Menu in Chrome: “If you’re seeing a yellow triangle next to your profile name, then it means there’s an error in the Account Sync. Click into it and you can re-authenticate with your password so that Chrome is signed in with your Google account. (There’s lots of benefits of that) That will take care of the yellow triangle and get your Chrome back to a happy state.”

Hope this helps…

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I’ll give it a try.

Further review seems to indicate that the yellow triangle is associated with certain websites that I visit repeatedly. Maybe there’s something about logging in to those sites that’s connected to the above — maybe my long-ago login info is at odds with my present browser settings.

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There is more going on here than meets the eye. I re-sync by entering my Google password, which has recently been changed. The yellow triangle goes away, but in a few seconds it comes back. Strange business.

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Have you been saving passwords in Chrome? If so, then I think it means the stored password is different to the changed one that you are now using. An easy way to check is, in Chrome:

1. Click on the Customize and control Google Chrome icon (the ‘burger’ icon (40400-burger) on the far right of the address bar.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Scroll to the bottom and click on + Show advanced settings.
4. Scroll down to Passwords and forms.
5. Click on Manage passwords.
6. Select any saved passwords one by one and click on the Show button that becomes visible to the right of the password entry box.
7. If any stored passwords show your old password, make a note of the URL then click on the X button (to the right of Show) to delete the entry.
8. Click on Finished to exit the dialog then close the Settings tab.
9. Using the URL’s that you made a note of, go to these webpages again and, when you’re prompted, save the new password for them.

As there will no longer be a discrepancy with any stored password the yellow triangle should no longer appear.

Hope this helps…

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Thanks. I’ll try it.

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It doesn’t work. I deleted every password, and I still get the triangle, even when I visit sites that don’t have passwords.

I’ve seen advice that mentions a yellow triangle with a lock. That is NOT what I’m getting. Mine is a yellow triangle, with a point at the top, and it seems to have a white exclamation point in it.

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Hi Lou – I believe you also need to disconnect/reconnect to allow the data to re-sync.

1. Click on the Burger icon to the right of the address bar then click on Settings.

2. In the right-hand pane at the top, under Sign in, you should see either a Sign in to Chrome button or a Disconnect your Google account button.

If it’s the former, click on the Sign in to Chrome button and reconnect.

If it’s the latter, especially if you also see an error box showing Account sign-in details are out of date. Sign in again., click on the Disconnect your Google Account button.

3. When the Disconnect your Google Account dialog appears, just click on the Disconnect account button.
40410-disconnect

4. Click on the Sign in to Chrome button and reconnect.

5. Click on the OK, got it button to dismiss the Signed in dialog.
40411-signed_in

This should re-sync your data.

(You’ll also get an email from Google to let you know you’ve signed in.)

Hope this helps…

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Did it. I still get the triangle. I’ve done it a couple of times before, too, in an effort to kill the triangle. I did NOT get an email from Google.

Some possible clues:

[*]Sometimes the triangle is absent for a while, especially after doing a procedure like the one above.
[*]It usually returns quickly, either in a second or two after I’m on a site, or if that doesn’t happen, when I visit a different site.
[*]I HAVE changed passwords two or three times lately, in an effort to fix this problem.
[*]I DO get an email when I change passwords.
[*]I also get a reset code (what’s it called?) sent to my cell phone. I enter it into the computer and something finishes up.
[*]At least one time, the code never arrived. I’m thinking that this might have something to do with the triangle.
[*]I have a couple of other Google accounts, but I don’t think I’ve signed in with them for a long time.

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I also get a reset code (what’s it called?) sent to my cell phone. I enter it into the computer and something finishes up.

Unless you’ve set up 2-step Verification, the message sent to your mobile (cell) phone is used as part of the password recovery process, i.e. it’s the same as receiving an email in which you have to click a link to verify that you’ve received the email or, in this case, received the SMS message on your phone.

I’ve seen advice that mentions a yellow triangle with a lock.

The yellow triangle with a lock appears on the far right end of the address bar when the web page you are visiting has both secure and non-secure elements to it.

Can you just confirm that you’re seeing a yellow triangle with exclamation mark next to your user name (on the button to the left of the Minimize button), e.g. similar to this:
40414-exclaim
Click to enlarge

PS – It’s 4 am here… I’m going to bed. 🙂

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The triangle next to your email is the one I am seeing. Have a good sleep, and thanks for your efforts on this!

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More clues:

I have three computers on which I use Chrome: two desktops and a laptop.
This problem seems to occur only on one of the desktops.

I’m guessing it might be good to remove and reinstall Chrome on that machine. What say you?

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More clues:

I have three computers on which I use Chrome: two desktops and a laptop.
This problem seems to occur only on one of the desktops.

I’m guessing it might be good to remove and reinstall Chrome on that machine. What say you?

Hi Lou,

IMHO, this more or less confirms that the problem appears to be down to syncing your Google data between multiple devices (using different passwords) rather than Google Chrome itself. (The info that you were using multiple devices would have been very helpful before my replies in post #5 and post #8.)

Instead of removing and reinstalling Chrome on the ‘offending’ machine, I suggest you use Google Chrome on each of the 3 devices to ‘disconnect’ from your Google account on each device then re-connect on each device (i.e. to re-sync your data) and let us know what the outcome is.

Hope this helps…

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I will try this and let you know. The more I think about it, the more I see that I’m probably signed in on the other two devices using an old password. Neither of them are used very often — they just sit there, powered up but seldom put into action (probably the reason I didn’t mention them sooner). Another reason is that none of the Chrome help I got elsewhere mentioned the need to deal with multiple devices. Live and learn.

Thinking more, I also have an old XP machine, always powered down unless I need it to drive some old printers that I have. It hasn’t been turned on in months.

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Thinking more, I also have an old XP machine, always powered down unless I need it to drive some old printers that I have. It hasn’t been turned on in months.

ROFL… Lou, please remember the old GIGA rule (Garbage In, Garbage Out). If you keep adding more info then it becomes exponentially more difficult to help. 🙂

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Things are better now, but still somewhat random. Sometimes I get the yellow triangle on one or more of the three machines, sometimes I don’t. Ditto on some sites, possibly associated with how I access the site… via a desktop shortcut or via entering a URL into an address bar. It is all so random it’s hard to tell.

More randomness: I formerly had a photo associated with my Chrome account. Now, sometimes it shows up, sometimes it doesn’t.

Hoping to start with a clean slate, I’ve disconnected Chrome on all three machines. They all show this:

40428-Chrome1

Two of the machines show this (the thumbnails below the search bar only show up on one of them. I wish I knew why):

40429-HPGoogle

One of them shows this (note the additional area with the second picture):

40430-GatewayGoogle

My plan is to stay disconnected for at least several hours, to let anything within Google or Chrome propagate to wherever it needs to.

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Well, I left all three computers disconnected from Chrome, and waited for over 24 hours. Then I signed in on all of them, using the same email address and password.

Everything looked good at first, except that instead of “Lou” in the button to the left of the three min/max/close buttons, each computer showed the little “anonymous” head.

After a few minutes of visiting web sites (by clicking existing desktop shortcuts), the “Lou” returned on my primary desktop, along with the yellow triangle.

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I am giving up on this. Chrome posts a yellow triangle, and provides zero information on what it might signify. Shame on them.

Endless tinkering provides no solutions to anything. The triangle seems to appear and disappear at random.

Efforts to provide more context are met with laughter.

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Never say die. I got a Private Message that shed some light on this, and I think I’ve solved the bug.

It’s still a bit foggy, but it seems there are two places to sign in. One is to Google, the other is to Chrome (maybe). If you are signed into Chrome, your name appears in the far upper right, next to the Minimize icon. If you are not, a generic head and shoulders icon appears there. I’ll call this thing the “name icon”.

The other place is located on the “sandwich” icon at the far right of Chrome’s address bar. If you are not “signed in” there, your sandwich turns orange, at least some of the time.

What I did in order to kill the yellow triangle, at least so far, was this:

Click the “sandwiches” on all computers, and on each one select “Settings” then “Disconnect your Google account…”

Click the “name icon” on all computers, and on each one click “Switch person”. This will open a window with a photo or other image in the center. Here’s the hidden part: Mouse over the image, and a down arrow will appear in its upper right corner. Click the arrow, then choose “Remove this person”.

At this point, all computers seem to be totally disconnected from any Google and Chrome accounts.

Then, one by one, reconnect each computer. First sign in from the “sandwich”, then add yourself as a person to the “generic head/your name” icon.

That, so far, has gotten rid of the yellow triangle for me. I’m not at all sure about all this signing in stuff and how it works or what it means, but at least I’m no longer bothered by unexplained caution icons.

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