What would you usually do when you see an important website or web page you want to preserve to check out later? Of course, you would save it as a bookmark. Like any good browser, Google Chrome also has an impeccable bookmarking feature that allows you to save any web page and keep it in an organized manner. But what if you accidentally delete indispensable bookmarks in Google Chrome, and need to recover them promptly?
What if a sudden browser update causes your bookmark folder to vanish into thin air, rendering the bookmark manager useless? Fortunately, there are multiple solutions to get them back. In this article, we will show you several methods to easily restore Google Chrome bookmarks. Let’s dig in.
Rescue Chrome Bookmarks by Undoing Changes
If you have deleted a bookmark or a bookmark folder a few minutes ago without closing the Google Chrome browser, you can restore it after opening the “Bookmarks sidebar” and pressing the “CTRL + Z” (Windows) or “Command + Z” (Mac) keys. You can also get them back by opening the “Library” window and clicking on the “Undo” option. However, these two methods will only work as long as you haven’t closed the Chrome browser after the deletion of your bookmarks. Even if you did, don’t worry. In the following sections, we pointed out another general guide, followed by techniques specific to an operating system.
Use Google History to Find a Bookmark on Chrome
This recovery method needs you to have a Google account in the Chrome browser when your bookmarks are deleted. All you have to do is check the browsing history of your Google account to find all the deleted bookmarks. To do so, in your Chrome browser, navigate to Google History > Google Account > History. You can find your entire browsing history categorized by time and date there. Go through the list and find the websites and web pages you bookmarked.
Recover Deleted Google Chrome Bookmarks via Local Backup on Windows
If you ever lose your bookmarks on Chrome, you can always rescue them using the bookmark backups located in your computer’s local folder. To do so, close your Google Chrome browser and follow the steps below:
- Type “This PC” on the “Search Bar,” and click on it.
- Once the “This PC” window opens, click on the “location shortcut” box and type this path: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data.
- Note. Replace the “UserName” with your computer’s “Windows account username” and press the “Enter” key.
- Next, on the “Search user data” box, type “bookmarks” and press the “Enter” key again. You will see a list of files with “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak” file names.
- Now, leave the “Bookmarks.bak” files and move the “Bookmarks” file to some other location.
- Change the “Bookmarks.bak” files’ name to “Bookmarks.”
- Next, reopen your Google Chrome browser. Your deleted bookmarks will be loaded from the backup files.
Please Note: You should always keep a backup of the “Bookmarks.bak” files in a separate storage media regularly. This way, even if your bookmarks are deleted, or you lose data from your Windows device, you can still instantly retrieve your Google Chrome bookmarks using these backup files.
Use DNS Cache on Windows to Restore Bookmarks After a Google Chrome Update
Did you suddenly lose your important bookmarks because of a Chrome browser update? If that’s the case, follow these instructions to rescue bookmarks from Google Chrome:
- Press the “Windows + R” keys to open the “Run dialog box.”
- Type “cmd” in the “Run dialog box” and press the “Enter” key. The Command Prompt window will open.
- Now, type the “ipconfig /displaydns” command and press the “Enter” key to execute the command. With this, the websites you have visited recently will be listed in Command Prompt.
- Now, go through the list, select the websites, and set a bookmark for the websites in your Chrome browser once again.
Recover Google Chrome Mac Bookmarks through Time Machine
If you have accidentally deleted your Google Chrome bookmarks or lost them from your Mac, you can use the built-in Mac app, Time Machine, to recover them. This application creates backups for all files stored inside your Mac, including the aforementioned bookmarks. Now, the question is where Time Machine keeps the backup files of Chrome bookmarks. Luckily, you shouldn’t be concerned—we have you covered. All you need to do is utilize the instructions below and restoring Google Chrome bookmarks becomes straightforward:
- Press the “Option + Command + Space” keys to open “Finder” on your Mac.
- Now, navigate to Macintosh HD > Users > Your username > Library > Application Support > Google > Chrome > Default.
- Note. Replace the “Your username” with your actual “Mac username.”
- Now, expand the “Default” folder, and you will see “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak” files.
- Next, move the “Bookmarks” files to a different location.
- After that, change the “Bookmarks.bak” file’s name to “Bookmarks.”
- Now, close “Finder” and open the Google Chrome browser on your Mac again. You can now see all the recently lost bookmarks in your browser again.
