New Extension Manager Silently Fails to Install Anything

[B4D5YN74X]

Prerequisites

• I am running the latest version of ComfyUI
• I have searched existing issues to make sure this isn't a duplicate
• I have tested with all custom nodes disabled (see how)

What happened?

Running a fresh manual install (as of 12.14.25), installing the extension manager as per the instructions on the comfyui git. No errors during install. Attempted to install a custom node from Extension Manager by clicking "Install" button. Initially it appears to work - a progress dialog followed by a restart prompt. Clicking restart does indeed initiate a restart. I then performed a manual page refresh and found that the node list was not updated. Checking Extension Manager again to verify installation, only to see "Install" as an option again. Checking the "Installed" section shows no entries. Same behavior with another custom node. No errors in logs that I could find. No indication that anything at all actually happened, either.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Extension Manager
2. Click "Install" on any available node

How is this affecting you?

Feature doesn't work as expected

ComfyUI Frontend Version

1.34.8

Browser

Firefox

Console Errors

Logs

Additional Context

CUI version - 0.4.0
OS - linux
Python Version - 3.13.11 | packaged by Anaconda, Inc. | (main, Dec 10 2025, 21:28:48) [GCC 14.3.0]
Embedded Python - false
Pytorch Version - 2.9.1+cu130
Arguments - main.py --enable-manager --listen 0.0.0.0 --preview-method auto
RAM Total - 125.56 GB
RAM Free - 109.92 GB

┆Issue is synchronized with this Notion page by Unito

[dosubot]

Hi @B4D5YN74X! I'm Dosu and I’m helping the ComfyUI_frontend team.

This is a known issue with the new Extension Manager—there are multiple reports of installs appearing to succeed (progress dialog, restart prompt) but nothing actually being installed, with no errors in the UI or logs. The most common causes are backend communication failures, frontend state detection bugs, or install path validation problems. Sometimes, conflicts with custom nodes (especially ComfyUI-LJNodes) are to blame, but this can also happen with only the Manager extension enabled, pointing to a bug or detection failure in the Manager or frontend itself [source] [source].

Recent frontend updates removed the fallback to the legacy Manager UI, so if the Manager extension isn’t detected or fails to initialize, the UI may silently fail to update the installed list or just show the Settings dialog [source]. Also, recent PRs added explicit error messages for unsafe install paths (like inside the app bundle or updater cache), but if your install path is invalid and the error isn’t surfaced, the install can silently fail [source].

The Extension Manager’s error handling relies on backend API responses and WebSocket events to update the UI. If these fail or aren’t received, the UI may not show any errors—even if the install failed [source].

Troubleshooting steps that have helped others:

• Make sure both ComfyUI-Manager and ComfyUI_frontend are fully up to date (pull latest for both).
• Try a clean reinstall: back up your models and configs, then delete and reinstall ComfyUI (including persistent files outside custom_nodes).
• Disable all browser extensions, especially translation plugins, as these can interfere with the UI.
• Double-check your install path isn’t inside a protected or unsafe directory.

If the issue persists after these steps, it’s likely a bug or detection problem in the Manager or frontend, and there’s no reliable workaround right now. Keeping an eye out for future updates is the best move. If you want to help maintainers, sharing your ComfyUI and Manager versions, plus any backend logs or API responses (if available), could be useful [source].

To reply, just mention @dosu.

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