How to Recover Bookmarks in Chrome on Windows 10

Reading Time: 5 minutesAlthough most web browsers today can restore bookmarks you deleted, Chrome does not make that task easy. In order to recover bookmarks in Chrome, you need to know where the bookmarks backup file is located, and how you can actually restore it.

You could locate the file and restore the backup manually. But, if the backup file was deleted from your computer, you might want to consider using a program specifically designed to help you recover lost data, such as Disk Drill.

Keep in mind that the bookmarks backup file is often overwritten, and not even Disk Drill could help you recover overwritten files. This is why you should learn more about what you could do before your files get overwritten and are unable to be restored.

Finding your Google Chrome bookmarks

To open all your bookmarks in Chrome, just follow these steps:

1. Click on the three dots menu that is located in the top right corner of Chrome.
2. In the drop menu, hover over Bookmarks.
3. From there you can find a specific bookmark, or click on the Bookmark manager to explore all the bookmarks you have in Chrome.

You can also choose to have a couple of bookmarks listed in the bar below the URL. To do this, you should again click on the three dots menu, go to Bookmarks, and select ‘Show bookmarks bar’.

In case you lost your bookmarks, the bookmarks tab will be empty. But do not worry, because Chrome automatically creates a backup file for your bookmarks. More often than not, this file can help solve all your problems.

However, finding this file can be quite a challenge for those who do not know where to look. Thus, in order to take advantage of the backup file that Chrome automatically creates, you first need to know where your bookmarks backup file is located.

Where to search for your bookmarks backup file in Windows?

When you create a bookmark, Google Chrome stores that bookmark along with the backup file into the Windows file system. To locate this file, you need to click on your local disk C, then go to:

 Users/<your username>/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Profile 2.

In case you do not have a folder called Profile 2, you should look for a folder called Profile 1 or Default. Choose the folder that has the two files called Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak.

If you are unable to locate the AppData folder, that is probably because that folder is hidden. To show hidden folders on Windows 10, in the File Explorer click on View, and on the right, you should check the box beside Hidden items. This will show all the hidden files and folders, including the AppData folder that is hidden by default.

If you wish to modify any of the bookmarks, you can do that in Google Chrome. Open the Bookmarks manager, and there you will have different options to edit or delete your bookmarks.

Using a backup to restore Chrome bookmarks

Google Chrome has two main methods that allow you to import your exported or accidentally deleted bookmarks. Both of these methods will essentially do the same thing; import your bookmarks into Google Chrome.

One of these methods will import bookmarks through the Import Bookmarks and Settings option. To import bookmarks this way, follow these steps:

1. Click on the three-dots menu in the upper right corner of Chrome, hover over Bookmarks, and click on Import Bookmarks and Settings.
2. A small window should pop up. In the drop-menu select Bookmarks HTML File, and click on Choose File.
   
3. Navigate your way to your bookmarks backup file, select it, and click on Open.
4. This should automatically import all the bookmarks from your backup file.

The second method is done through the Bookmarks manager:

1. Click on the three-dots menu again, hover over Bookmarks, and click on the Bookmarks manager.
2. In the top right corner of the bookmarks manager page, click on the three-dots menu, and choose Import bookmarks.
   
3. Navigate your way to your bookmarks backup file, select it and click on Open.
4. This will then import all your bookmarks from that backup file.

Restoring your lost bookmarks in Chrome

Considering that both of the methods of restoring your bookmarks in Chrome (that are mentioned above) require you to have manually exported your bookmarks or to have your bookmarks backup file saved, what can you do if those files are deleted?

In this kind of situation, in order to recover accidentally deleted bookmarks, you should consider using data recovery software that can restore your deleted files, such as Disk Drill.

How to use Disk Drill to recover deleted bookmarks in Chrome:

1. Open the program, Disk Drill.
2. Locate your Local Disk C and click on it.
3. On the right side of the program, you will be able to select different recovery methods. Choose “All recovery methods” and click on “Search for lost data”.
   
4. After this, let the program work.
5. Once the scan is complete, locate the Bookmarks or Bookmarks.bak files.
6. Check the boxes on the left of the files that you wish to recover, and click on “Recover” at the bottom of the program.
   
7. Once you have recovered your Bookmarks file, you can import it into Chrome. This should bring back most, if not all, the bookmarks that you have lost.

Losing your Chrome bookmarks can be frustrating, and recovering them can sometimes be impossible, especially if the bookmarks files were overwritten. This is why you should always export your bookmarks and save them to a destination on your PC where you know they will not be deleted or overwritten.

In case you accidentally deleted your bookmarks file, or you wish to restore any accidentally deleted folder on Windows 10, as long as the file was not overwritten, you can use software, like Disk Drill, to recover it.