How to recover deleted bookmarks in Chrome

Updated 18 October 2026

If Chrome is still open, go to the Bookmark Manager (Ctrl+Shift+O) and press Ctrl+Z: Chrome can undo recent bookmark deletes until you close it. After that, your best chance is the Bookmarks.bak backup file in your Chrome profile folder, so copy it somewhere safe before you restart Chrome.

1. Undo it before you close Chrome

1. Open the Bookmark Manager: Ctrl+Shift+O on Windows and Linux, Cmd+Option+B on a Mac.
2. Click an empty part of the page. The shortcut is ignored while the cursor is in the search box.
3. Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac). Each press steps back one change, newest first, so press it once for every bookmark change you made after the delete. Ctrl+Y (Cmd+Shift+Z) redoes.

This works because Chrome remembers your last 100 bookmark changes while it runs, wherever you made them: the bookmarks bar, the side panel, the Bookmark Manager or an extension. The list lives in memory and is gone once Chrome closes. Google’s help page says a deleted bookmark can’t be brought back; after a restart the undo list can’t help, but the backup file below might. If you deleted inside the Bookmark Manager, the message at the bottom of the page also has an Undo button.

2. Restore the Bookmarks.bak backup

Chrome keeps one backup, Bookmarks.bak, next to its Bookmarks file. It’s made the first time your bookmarks change after Chrome starts, so it shows your bookmarks as they were when the current session began. It usually still has what you deleted since you last opened Chrome, and it gets replaced soon after a restart.

Other profiles use folders named Profile 1, Profile 2 and so on; chrome://version shows yours next to Profile Path. Check the backup’s Date modified: if it’s earlier than the moment you deleted the bookmarks, the file should still have them. Copy Bookmarks.bak to your desktop now.

Option A, the safer route: convert it and import it

1. Open our free Chrome bookmarks JSON to HTML tool and drop in the copy from your desktop. It builds an HTML bookmarks file in your browser.
2. In Chrome, open the Bookmark Manager, click its three-dot menu at the top right, choose Import bookmarks and pick the new HTML file.
3. The backup arrives as a folder called Imported at the end of your bookmarks bar. Drag what you lost back into place, then delete the rest of that folder.

Chrome stays open and nothing in your current bookmarks is replaced. If you’re signed in, the restored bookmarks are added as new ones and sync to your other devices like any bookmark.

Option B: swap the files (Chrome must be closed)

1. Quit Chrome completely: Cmd+Q on a Mac; on Windows or Linux use the three-dot menu > Exit, or type chrome://quit in the address bar.
2. In the profile folder, move Bookmarks to your desktop as a fallback. If you see EncryptedBookmarks2, move it out too: recent versions keep this encrypted copy and can load it in place of the file you restore.
3. Make a copy of Bookmarks.bak and rename the copy to Bookmarks, with no extension.
4. Start Chrome and check your bookmarks.

The swap replaces all your bookmarks with the backup, so anything added since then disappears (it’s still in the file you moved to the desktop, which the tool can convert). If sync is on, Chrome can download the delete again from your Google Account once it reconnects, so signed-in users are better off with option A.

3. Bookmarks saved in your Google Account

Newer versions of Chrome can keep bookmarks that are saved to your Google Account in a separate file, AccountBookmarks, in the same folder, and Chrome makes no .bak copy of it. If that file exists and Bookmarks.bak doesn’t hold the lost folder, the backup can’t help.

Sync also copies a delete to your account and to every signed-in device. Google’s page for Chrome data in your account, chrome.google.com/sync, is for managing and deleting that data, and Google’s help offers no way to restore a deleted bookmark.

4. Rescue them from a computer that hasn’t synced

Another computer signed in to the same account, where Chrome hasn’t run since the delete, still has the old bookmarks. Disconnect it from the internet first (turn off Wi-Fi or unplug the cable), open Chrome, export the bookmarks from the Bookmark Manager, then reconnect. Import that file on your main computer and keep what you need. Phones can’t export, so this only works with a computer.

5. Older backups

An HTML export from before the delete imports in a minute (how to import). A system backup that covers your user folder, such as Time Machine on a Mac, may hold an older Bookmarks or AccountBookmarks file: restore a copy of it to your desktop and convert it with the same tool.

Make the next one painless

Export your bookmarks every month or so (how to export). If you organize bookmarks in Stackboard, every delete there can be undone with Ctrl+Z or the button on the message that appears, and deleting a whole space asks you first.

Lost bookmarks in another browser? Each has its own safety net: Firefox keeps automatic bookmark backups, Safari can bring back an earlier set from iCloud.com and Opera moves deleted bookmarks to a Trash folder. See Firefox, Edge, Safari and Opera.