Question 1

Is Nyan Progress Bar free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Extension is completely free with no paid tiers, no premium cats, and no in-extension ads. The project is supported entirely by optional donations via Ko-fi, Patreon, Donatello, and others — see the Support page for details.

Question 2

Which browsers does it support?

Accepted Answer

The Extension officially supports Chrome 88 and later. It also works on Chromium-based browsers including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Arc, and Vivaldi. A Safari port is on the roadmap. Firefox is not currently supported.

Question 3

How do I install it?

Accepted Answer

Visit the Chrome Web Store listing for Nyan Progress Bar and click "Add to Chrome". Confirm the install in the dialog and the cat appears on YouTube immediately — no reload, no sign-in. For a full walkthrough, see the install guide in the Guides section.

Question 4

Does it work on YouTube and YouTube Music?

Accepted Answer

Yes — both. The Extension activates on youtube.com and music.youtube.com. It works in the standard player, the mini player, and the theatre mode. It does not run on any other website.

Question 5

Can I upload my own GIF?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. Open the Extension popup, click the upload tile in the cat grid, and pick any GIF from your computer. The Extension reads the file locally and uses it as your scrubber. The GIF is never uploaded to a server.

Question 6

What file formats are supported?

Accepted Answer

The Extension supports animated .gif files. Static images and other animated formats (APNG, WebP, MP4) are not supported. There is no strict size limit, but smaller GIFs (under a few hundred kilobytes) tend to feel snappier on the progress bar.

Question 7

How do I change the cat's size or position?

Accepted Answer

Open the popup, pick a cat, and use the Height and Top offset sliders that appear. Height ranges from 8 px to 80 px; top offset from -50 px to +20 px. Settings are saved per-cat, so each theme remembers its own look.

Question 8

Why is my cat off-centre or off-screen?

Accepted Answer

Different GIFs have different padding around the animation, so the default offset may not fit your custom GIF perfectly. Open the popup and nudge the Top offset slider by a few pixels until the cat lines up with the scrubber. If you over-adjust, click "Set default position" to reset.

Question 9

Does the Extension track me?

Accepted Answer

No. The Extension does not collect, transmit, or store any personal data. It does not read your watch history, your search queries, or any other YouTube activity. The only data saved is your cat selection and slider positions — both stored locally on your own device.

Question 10

Does it send anything over the internet?

Accepted Answer

No. The Extension makes no network requests. Your GIF uploads and settings stay on your device. The website itself uses Google Analytics for anonymised traffic statistics — see the Privacy Policy for details — but the Extension is fully offline.

Question 11

Does it work offline?

Accepted Answer

The Extension itself runs offline. YouTube videos obviously need an internet connection to play, but the cat overlay does not require any external connection of its own.

Question 12

The cat isn't showing up on YouTube. What do I do?

Accepted Answer

First, refresh the YouTube tab — the Extension needs to inject the overlay on page load. If that doesn't help, make sure the Extension is enabled by visiting chrome://extensions and checking the toggle. If a recent YouTube player update has broken the overlay, please report it via the contact form so we can ship a fix.

Question 13

The Extension icon disappeared from my toolbar.

Accepted Answer

Chrome may have unpinned it. Click the puzzle-piece icon next to your address bar to see all your extensions, then click the pin icon next to Nyan Progress Bar to bring it back to the toolbar.

Question 14

My GIF won't upload.

Accepted Answer

Make sure the file has a .gif extension and is a true animated GIF (some "GIFs" on social media are actually MP4 videos with a misleading label). If the file is very large, try a smaller version — Chrome's local storage has limits. Otherwise, send a copy via the contact form and we'll take a look.

Question 15

How do I uninstall the Extension?

Accepted Answer

Visit chrome://extensions, find Nyan Progress Bar, and click "Remove". All locally stored settings and uploaded GIFs are deleted automatically. If you have a moment, the short uninstall feedback form helps us improve the next release.

Frequently Asked Questions

Getting started

Customization

Privacy & data

Troubleshooting

Still have a question?