How to fix common Highlite problems
Updated
Annotations are gone after a reload, a restart or in a new tab
Highlite is switched on per tab. It stays on when you reload, but starts off in a new tab and after a browser restart, and your annotations only show while it is on. Recent versions put a green number on the icon when the page has saved annotations.
- Click the Highlite icon. Saved annotations appear with the toolbar.
- Check the address. Annotations are tied to the exact address, so anything different after a ? or a # (tracking tags added by a newsletter, for example) makes it another page. Open the address you annotated.
- If only some highlights are missing, the site probably changed the text they were on. Highlite does not show a highlight whose words it can no longer find.
Before you uninstall: annotations are deleted with the extension
Removing the extension deletes every annotation it stored, and they cannot be recovered. Reinstalling starts from an empty state. If they are already gone, there is no copy anywhere else.
- Capture a screenshot of each page you want to keep: Export, then Full page and Download.
- To keep annotations you can edit later, export each page as JSON. Export needs Premium; importing the file after reinstalling is free.
- Uninstalling does not cancel a Premium subscription. Cancel it from your billing page.
Nothing happens when you click the icon, or it shows a red !
Browsers do not let extensions run on their own pages (chrome://, edge://, about:, brave://), on extension store pages (Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons, Edge Add-ons) or on other extensions. On the Chrome Web Store and chrome:// pages the icon shows a red ! and clicking it does nothing. Text in PDFs opened in the browser viewer, in images and in apps that draw their text as an image cannot be highlighted either.
- Check the address bar. If it starts with chrome://, edge://, about: or brave://, or shows an extension store, open an ordinary webpage instead.
- On an ordinary webpage, reload the page and click the icon again.
Annotations have moved or sit next to the wrong element
Highlights follow the text they are on. Sticky notes, text boxes, drawings, arrows and shapes are placed at a position on the page. When the page lays out differently from when you annotated it, because of a different window width, a redesign or content that loads in another order, those annotations stay where they were while the content moves.
- Resize the browser window back to the width you used when you annotated.
- If that is not enough, press Esc to put the current tool down, then drag each annotation into place.
Annotations are not on your other computer or browser
Highlite has no sync and no cloud copy. Annotations live in the browser profile where you made them.
- On the first browser, export the page as JSON. This needs Premium.
- Move the file to the other computer, by email, a drive or a chat.
- On the other browser, open the same page and use Import (JSON), which is free. The export and import guide has the details.
A keyboard shortcut does nothing
Shortcuts only work while the toolbar is open on the page, and they pause while the cursor is in a text field.
- Click the Highlite icon if the toolbar is not showing.
- Click an empty part of the page to leave any text field, then press the key again.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Highlite store my annotations?
In your browser, in the profile where you made them, tied to the page URL. Nothing is stored on Highlite servers, which is why there is no sync and why uninstalling deletes them.
Can I recover annotations after uninstalling Highlite?
No. Uninstalling deletes them from the browser and there is no copy anywhere else. If you exported a page as JSON before uninstalling, import that file after reinstalling.
Why does Highlite not work on the Chrome Web Store?
Browsers block every extension on their store pages and internal pages such as chrome:// or about:. Highlite works on ordinary webpages.