Google Chrome error message: "ERR_QUIC_PROTOCOL_ERROR"

This article describes a problem that may occur when you browse the internet using Google Chrome, as well as how to resolve it.

Problem

When you try to visit a site using the Google Chrome browser, you receive the following error message:

This site can't be reached.
The webpage at https://example.com might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
ERR_QUIC_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Cause

QUIC (Quick UDP Internet Connections) is an experimental protocol developed by Google. It is designed to improve performance for connection-oriented web applications by using UDP (User Datagram Protocol) instead of the reliable, but slower TCP (Transmission Control Protocol).

Although QUIC is enabled by default in Google Chrome, it is not essential for internet browsing, and can be safely disabled.

Resolution

There are several steps you can take to try and resolve QUIC connection errors:

Method #1: Disable QUIC in Google Chrome

The easiest method is to disable QUIC in Google Chrome entirely. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In the Google Chrome address bar, type chrome://flags and then press Enter.
2. In the Search flags text box, type quic. The Experimental QUIC protocol setting appears.
3. Select Disabled.
4. Click Relaunch to restart Google Chrome. QUIC is now disabled.

Method #2: Disable extensions in Google Chrome

QUIC connection issues are frequently caused by a specific browser extension in Google Chrome. If you do not want to disable QUIC entirely, you can try selectively disabling extensions to determine which one is causing problems. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In the Google Chrome address bar, type chrome://extensions and then press Enter.
2. Use the blue slider to disable an extension. Try disabling one extension at a time and testing to see if the QUIC error message occurs.

Method #3: Disable proxy server (Windows only)

If you are running Microsoft Windows on your computer, you can try disabling the proxy server for your LAN connection. To do this, follow these steps:

1. In the search bar, type control panel and then press Enter.
2. In the View by list box, select Large icons.
3. Click Internet Options.
4. Click the Connections tab.
5. Click LAN settings.
6. Clear the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box, and then click OK.
   You may need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

More Information

For more information about QUIC, please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QUIC.