Accidentally closing a tab in Google Chrome can be frustrating, especially when you’re juggling multiple windows and tabs for a task. Fortunately, Chrome offers straightforward methods to recover your lost tabs, whether you’re using a desktop, a Chromebook, or a mobile device. This guide will walk you through the steps to restore your Chrome tabs and sessions efficiently, ensuring that you can continue your work without missing a beat.
How to Restore a Closed Tab in Chrome
If you’ve accidentally closed a tab, there’s an easy way to restore it. You can do so by right-clicking in your tab bar or using a shortcut on your keyboard. However, mobile doesn’t offer the same option, but you can find tabs by navigating your history. This tutorial covers how to restore a recently closed tab using both methods. We use an Android phone and a Windows PC, but you can use any Chrome-supported device for these steps.
- In Google Chrome, right-click anywhere in the tab bar.
- Select the Reopen closed tab. Alternatively, you can use Ctrl+Shift+T or Shift-Command-T on Mac as a shortcut to reopen a closed tab.
On your mobile device:
- Navigate to Google Chrome and tap the Three-dot icon.
- Select History.
- Tap on a web page you’ve previously viewed; the tab you’ve closed should be on this page.
- This will change the web page to the tab you’ve reopened.
Note: If you manage and remove your web browser history often enough or use incognito mode, older tabs might not appear under your history.
You can also select Recent tabs in your browser menu. It will list the last four tabs you’ve recently closed; choosing a tab will reopen the page. We recommend using this option if you’ve recently closed a group tab on mobile; the group tab will show on the Recent Tabs page.
How to Restore Your Previous Session in Chrome
You can restore all your tabs from a previous session in one go. If you’ve exited an entire web browser page, there’s an easy way to restore it. Here’s how:
- Launch Google Chrome.
- Navigate to the Three-dot icon in the top right corner.
- Click History.
- Hold the Ctrl key and left-click on all the pages you want to restore. You can also view Grouped history to find tabs based on a previously searched topic.
Note: Some tabs might be missing if you consistently clear Chrome’s web browser history or browse tabs in incognito mode.
If your web browser recently crashed, closing down all your tabs, perform this quick fix:
- Open Google Chrome.
- A message will prompt you that your session didn’t shut down correctly and ask you to restore previous tabs and pages; click Restore to confirm.
When a Chrome update is available, do the following to save your tabs:
- Click New Chrome available in the top right corner next to the Three-dot icon.
- Select Relaunch to update.
Restoring Multiple Chrome Tabs on Mobile
If you’ve lost multiple mobile tabs, you must restore them individually. Having Chrome synced across devices can help you find your mobile tabs on a computer, making it easier to locate them. Otherwise, use the group tab feature and bookmark the group; you can also share and export bookmarks across all devices.
How to Enable Continue Where You Left Off Feature in Chrome
If you’ve accidentally closed pages worth of tabs (as is possible when working with many windows), it might be worth using Chrome’s Continue where you left off feature. It is also a sure way to restore your tabs if you’ve had web pages close unexpectedly.
After you exit a session, all the tabs you’ve previously opened will reopen on startup. To learn how to enable this feature, follow the steps below. Note that these steps only apply to Chrome’s desktop web browser version; you cannot do this on mobile.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click the Three-dots icon or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+F.
- Click Settings — alternatively, type chrome://settings/ in the address bar to access the Chrome settings page.
- Click On startup in the left panel or type chrome://settings/onStartup in the address bar.
- Select Continue where you left off.
Saving Chrome Tabs on Mobile
Unfortunately, mobile devices lack the option to customize startup settings outside of choosing your home page. To safeguard your mobile tabs, we recommend selecting all tabs and bookmarking them. You can restore your bookmarks and switch between tabs without fear of losing them.
Losing Progress on Google Chrome
Sometimes, you’re in the middle of a 500-word email, and the web browser crashes unexpectedly. In cases like those, losing progress becomes frustrating. But no matter how many updates you push through, you can’t fix the problem, so having Google Chrome set as your default web browser doesn’t work out.
In some cases, it might be your computer. Consider looking into less resource-intensive alternatives like Microsoft Edge when working on important tasks. Otherwise, keep your pages bookmarked and frequently save when you can. You can also download extensions, like the Toblerone tab manager, to generate backups when needed.
