How to restore Tabs and Session in Google Chrome
IONOS editorial team4 mins
Google's Chrome browser offers many useful features to make surfing the World Wide Web as enjoyable as possible. For example, you can import new bookmarks with one mouse click and seamlessly integrate them into your favorites library. You can also add new features using extensions, or synchronize your personal settings and entire history across all your devices.
Another valuable feature is the ability to restore your previous Chrome session or recently closed tabs. We’ll show you how to do this in the following guide.
Restoring tabs in Chrome: A quick guide (including shortcuts)
If you accidentally closed a tab in Chrome and can’t find your way back to that page it is quite simple to find your way back. Simply follow these steps to recover your most recently closed tab in Chrome:
- Right-click anywhere in the tab bar.
- Select the Reopen closed tab option.
- You can also skip the above two steps and simply use the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [T]. Chrome will then restore the tab. No other steps are necessary.
If Chrome crashes due to a program or system error, the Google browser automatically asks you if you want to restore the last session when you restart Chrome. In this case, simply confirm that you want to restore, and you’ll get your closed tabs back.
How to restore your previous session in Chrome: Restoring multiple tabs
In some situations, you might need or want to restore several tabs at once, for example if you accidentally quit the browser or if it automatically closed due to a system update. However, Chrome only offers a restore option for the entire session if the browser crashes. As a result, you usually have to use the following workaround to restore several tabs or your entire previous Chrome session at once:
Step 1: Launch Chrome and open the main menu by clicking the three-dots icon, which is located at the top right next to the address bar:
Step 2: Select History in the main menu and click History in the new menu that appears. Chrome then lists all the pages that you opened in the last session (even more history is often shown, unless you delete your browser history regularly or set it to delete automatically):
Step 3: To restore your Chrome tabs, hold down the [Ctrl] key and then left-click the pages you want to restore. These pages will then automatically reappear in the tab bar:
Configuring Chrome to reopen the previous session by default
Chrome also includes an option that lets you easily reopen your recently closed pages: In the browser's settings, you can specify that you want to “continue where you left off” every time you open Chrome. That way, you no longer have to worry about accidentally closing tabs or the browser quitting unexpectedly. All you have to do is restart Chrome and the tabs will be restored. Here's how to enable this feature:
- Open Google Chrome.
- Open the main menu by clicking the three-dots icon or using the keyboard shortcut [Alt] + [F].
- Click Settings.
- Scroll down to the ‘On startup’ section.
- Select the ‘Continue where you left off’ option in the middle.
