Is there a way to recover deleted bookmarks in Chrome?

If you delete a bookmark in Chrome, you have a few seconds where an Undo button appears that you can click on to reverse the deletion. You can still recover your bookmarks if you don’t catch this in time. Here’s how: Close Chrome, then open your Chrome folder. On Windows, this is “C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.” For macOS, it’s “~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default.” On Linux, it’s “~/.config/google-chrome/default.” You will see two files in this folder: “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak.” The latter is a backup of your Chrome bookmarks taken the last time you opened the browser. Rename the existing “Bookmarks” file to something else, like “Bookmarks.new,” and change “Bookmarks.bak” to “Bookmarks” to make it the new file that Chrome will use. Reopen Chrome and see if your bookmarks are back. If not, it may be that the backup file was created after you deleted your bookmarks, in which case it’s too late. If you use Sync to save your bookmarks, you can see if they’re still in your Sync account. However, Sync automatically updates itself to match your profile across devices, so again it might be too late if you wait too long.

Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.

Computing

How to delete bookmarks in your Chrome browser

Quickly remove one or all of your bookmarks with these easy steps.

•

Published onApril 20, 2023

Your browser can quickly get cluttered with bookmarks, so here’s how to delete bookmarks in Chrome.

QUICK ANSWER

To delete a single bookmark in Chrome, open Settings (⁝) > Bookmarks > Bookmark manager. Click the (⁝) icon next to a bookmark and choose Delete from the menu.

If you want to delete all your bookmarks in Chrome, open Settings (⁝) > Bookmarks > Bookmark manager and click on a folder. Press Ctrl+A on Windows and Linux or Command+A on macOS, and then select Delete at the top of the page. Do this in every bookmarks folder.

JUMP TO KEY SECTIONS

How to delete a single bookmark in Chrome
How to delete all bookmarks in Chrome

How to delete a single bookmark in Chrome

To delete a single bookmark in Chrome, do the following:

Open the Settings menu (⁝) > Bookmarks > Bookmark manager.
Click on the (⁝) icon next to a bookmark.
Choose Delete from the menu.

If you realize you didn’t want to delete that bookmark, click on Undo in the bottom left-hand corner when it appears.

How to delete all bookmarks in Chrome

A screenshot of the Chrome bookmarks manager showing multiple bookmarks selected and an option the Delete them all at the top of the page.

Zak Khan / Android Authority

If you want to delete all your bookmarks in Chrome, open Settings (⁝) > Bookmarks > Bookmark manager and click on a folder. Then press Ctrl+A on Windows and Linux or Command+A on macOS, and then select Delete at the top of the page. Do this for every bookmarks folder you have.

FAQs

If you delete a bookmark in Chrome, you have a few seconds where an Undo button appears that you can click on to reverse the deletion. You can still recover your bookmarks if you don’t catch this in time. Here’s how:

Close Chrome, then open your Chrome folder. On Windows, this is “C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default.” For macOS, it’s “~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default.” On Linux, it’s “~/.config/google-chrome/default.”
You will see two files in this folder: “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak.” The latter is a backup of your Chrome bookmarks taken the last time you opened the browser.
Rename the existing “Bookmarks” file to something else, like “Bookmarks.new,” and change “Bookmarks.bak” to “Bookmarks” to make it the new file that Chrome will use.
Reopen Chrome and see if your bookmarks are back. If not, it may be that the backup file was created after you deleted your bookmarks, in which case it’s too late.

If you use Sync to save your bookmarks, you can see if they’re still in your Sync account. However, Sync automatically updates itself to match your profile across devices, so again it might be too late if you wait too long.

It shouldn’t; reinstalling the browser does not clear local data. However, if you uninstalled Chrome and selected the “Also delete your browsing data” option and then reinstalled Chrome, your bookmarks will be gone. Before reinstalling Chrome, you can try backing up your Bookmarks file as described above to be sure they remain. Additionally, if you use Sync to save your bookmarks, your bookmarks will reappear once you log in to Sync again after reinstalling Chrome.

No, clearing the cache does not delete your bookmarks.