Chrome lost all your tabs? Here is how to get them back

Updated 8 October 2026 · by Roman Denisov, maker of Tabfort

Chrome crashed, restarted for an update, or opened with a single empty window — and dozens of tabs are gone. Try these steps in order. Most of the time the tabs can still be recovered, but some steps only work before you open and close Chrome again, so read the first section before clicking around.

First, don't close and reopen Chrome again and again. Chrome keeps only the last couple of sessions on disk. Every new start can overwrite the session that still holds your tabs.

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+T

In the Chrome window, press Ctrl+Shift+T (on a Mac: ⌘+Shift+T). It reopens the last closed tab or window. Right after a restart it often brings back the whole previous window with all its tabs. Press it several times — each press goes one step further back.

2. Use “Restore” after a crash

If Chrome didn't shut down correctly, it usually shows a Restore button on the next start (“Chrome didn't shut down correctly”). Click it before opening anything else. If you dismissed it, go to step 3.

3. Check History → Recently closed

Open the Chrome menu ⋮ → History. Under Recently closed you'll see whole windows listed as “N tabs”. Clicking such a line reopens the window with every tab in it. The full history (Ctrl+H) has each page you visited, but there you have to reopen tabs one by one.

4. Look in “Tabs from other devices”

If you're signed in to Chrome with sync turned on, the same History menu shows Tabs from other devices. Tabs that are still open on your phone or another computer can be opened from there.

5. Last resort: the Sessions folder

Chrome stores the current and previous session in files inside your profile. If nothing above worked, close Chrome completely and make a copy of this folder before doing anything else:

Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Sessions
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Sessions
Linux: ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Sessions

The files are named Session_… and Tabs_… with a number. The older pair may still hold the session you lost. Restoring from it is fiddly and not guaranteed — keep the copy, then search for a guide for your Chrome version, or ask a technical friend. If you use another profile than the first one, replace Default with Profile 1, Profile 2 and so on.

Why Chrome loses tabs

A crash or forced restart — after a system update, a power cut, or when the computer runs out of memory.
Closing windows one by one. Chrome restores only the window you closed last. If you closed three windows separately, the first two are not part of the “last session”.
“Continue where you left off” is off. Check Settings → On startup. Without it, Chrome opens a new tab page instead of your previous tabs.
Cleaning tools or clearing browsing data can delete the session files.
A broken profile or sync problem after an update — the window opens empty and the old session is overwritten on the next start.

How to make sure it never happens again

Turn on Settings → On startup → Continue where you left off. That covers a normal restart. It does not help when the session itself is lost or overwritten — Chrome keeps no history of earlier sessions you could go back to.

For that you need a copy of your tabs outside Chrome's own session files. You can bookmark all tabs by hand (Ctrl+Shift+D) — if you remember to do it every day. Or use an extension that does it for you.

Never lose tabs again. Tabfort saves every window, tab and tab group automatically and brings them back after a crash, an update or a restart. Free forever, no account.

Add Tabfort to Chrome — free

How Tabfort handles this

Every change to your windows, tabs and tab groups is saved within seconds, plus a full snapshot every 5 minutes. You never press “save”.
After a crash, Tabfort notices on the next start and offers to bring every window back — with tab groups, their names, colours and pinned tabs.
Because it saves continuously, a Chrome update or restart can't take your tabs; before its own updates Tabfort also keeps an extra copy.
You can go back to any snapshot of the last 7 days (30 days with the optional founder license).
Your tabs stay on your computer. No account, nothing is uploaded.

Never lose tabs again. Tabfort saves every window, tab and tab group automatically and brings them back after a crash, an update or a restart. Free forever, no account.

Add Tabfort to Chrome — free

Questions

Can I recover tabs after Chrome crashed?

Usually yes. Click Restore on the next start, press Ctrl+Shift+T, or open History → Recently closed. Do it before restarting Chrome again, because a new start can overwrite the previous session.

Why did Chrome open with no tabs after an update?

Most often the previous session was not saved correctly during the restart, or “Continue where you left off” is turned off in Settings → On startup. Check History → Recently closed first.

Where does Chrome store open tabs?

In the Sessions folder of your Chrome profile, in files named Session_… and Tabs_…. Chrome keeps only the last couple of sessions there.