How to recover deleted bookmarks in Opera and Opera GX

Updated 18 October 2026

Opera moves deleted bookmarks to a Trash folder at the bottom of the bookmarks page’s left panel (Opera’s help calls it Bin on a Mac). Open it, hover over the bookmark and click Undo delete, and Opera puts it back in Other bookmarks.

Restore a bookmark from the Trash

1. Open the bookmarks page: the heart icon in the sidebar, Ctrl+Shift+B, or Bookmarks > Bookmarks in the Opera menu.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the left panel and click Trash.
3. Hover over the bookmark or folder you want and click Undo delete.
4. Open Other bookmarks, where restored items go, and drag it back to its old folder.

A deleted folder goes to the Trash with everything inside it, so one Undo delete brings the whole folder back. Speed Dial entries you remove from the start page end up in the same Trash.

In Opera GX

Press Ctrl+Shift+B to open the Bookmark Manager. Opera’s GX page says deleted bookmarks stay in the trash until you empty it, so the same three moves work: open the trash, hover, Undo delete.

Emptying the Trash

Nothing leaves the Trash until you clear it. To empty it, right-click Trash in the left panel and choose the empty option, the route given on Opera’s forums; Opera’s help for older versions also puts an Empty Trash button at the top right of the Trash page. Emptying removes those bookmarks from Opera for good, and with sync on, the change reaches your other devices too.

To delete all your bookmarks, hover over each folder or bookmark on the bookmarks page and click its delete icon (a folder takes its contents with it), then empty the Trash.

Trash already emptied? Look for Bookmarks.bak

Opera keeps your bookmarks in a file named Bookmarks in its profile folder, the first file on Opera’s own backup list. To find the folder, open About Opera (the Opera menu > About Opera, or type opera://about) and copy the profile path from the Paths section.

Next to Bookmarks you may find Bookmarks.bak, an older copy. Opera is built on Chromium, and Chromium copies the bookmarks file to .bak the first time your bookmarks change after the browser starts, so the backup shows them as they were when that session began. If its Date modified is earlier than the delete, it probably still has what you lost. Copy both files to your desktop before you restart Opera, because the next session can replace the backup.

Option A: convert the backup and import it

1. Drop the copy of Bookmarks.bak into our free bookmarks JSON to HTML tool, which reads the Chromium bookmark format. Check its preview for the folder you lost.
2. Download the HTML file. In Opera, go to Settings > Synchronization > Import bookmarks and settings and choose the bookmarks HTML file option.
3. Find the imported bookmarks on the bookmarks page, drag back what you need and delete the rest.

Your current bookmarks stay as they are, which makes this the safer route if you sync.

Option B: swap the files

A moderator on Opera’s forums gives this fix. Quit Opera (Ctrl+Shift+X on Windows and Linux, Cmd+Q on a Mac), rename Bookmarks to Bookmarks.old, make a copy of Bookmarks.bak, rename the copy to Bookmarks and start Opera. Anything you bookmarked after the backup was made disappears, and if you sync, Opera may bring the delete back from your account.

Other places your bookmarks may still be

• An old export: an HTML file from before the delete imports in a minute (how to import).
• A system backup: File History, Time Machine or any backup of your user folder may hold an older Bookmarks file. Restore a copy to the desktop and convert it as in option A.
• A computer that hasn’t synced yet: Opera syncs bookmark changes to your other devices, so a computer that has been off since the delete still has the old set. Disconnect it from the internet, open Opera there, export the bookmarks, then reconnect.

Next time

Export your bookmarks every month or so and keep the file somewhere other than the computer. Opera’s help also suggests backing up Bookmarks and BookmarksExtras (the bookmark thumbnails) before you upgrade.