How to Restore Tabs in Chrome

Lost your tabs in Google Chrome? We'll show you how to open closed tabs as quickly as possible.

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Steps to open closed tabs (how to restore tabs in Chrome)

It happens to the best of us — you close a tab you didn’t mean to. These steps will help you restore tabs in Chrome with just a few clicks.

The easiest way to restore closed tabs is with a keyboard shortcut. The shortcut you’ll use depends on whether you’re on a Mac or Windows computer. On a Mac, you can also click File > Reopen Closed Tab from the menu at the top of your browser.

If that doesn't work, try these steps to bring back closed tabs from Chrome history.

Mac shortcut to restore tabs in Chrome

⌘+Shift+T

Windows shortcut to restore closed tabs

Control+Shift+T

Steps to restore the last session in Chrome

If you’re looking for a way to save Google Chrome windows so you can easily restore them later, try Workona’s Chrome extension.

Workona gives you the power to restore a previous session in Google Chrome with the click of a button. Workona also automatically saves your tabs, so you can close your browser anytime without worrying about losing your work. The next time you open your browser, it will remember the tabs you had previously opened.

Try Workona Now

Enable setting to restore Google Chrome tabs after restart

If you’re looking for a way to restore all tabs when Chrome restarts, it’s easy:

  1. Open the Chrome menu (click the 3-dot menu in the upper-right corner of Chrome)
  2. Click Settings
  3. Scroll to the On Startup section at the bottom of the page
  4. Click to enable the setting Continue where you left off
Screenshot of Chrome setting 'Continue where you left off' enabled

Now whenever you close and restart Chrome, any windows and tabs you had open previously will be automatically reopened. This setting works well with Workona too, so any workspaces you had open in your last session will be reopened the next time you start Chrome.

If you’ve lost your bookmarks after restart, check out these instructions to help you recover your missing Chrome bookmarks.

Recover Chrome tabs after a crash

Tabs are the modern equivalent of a desk full of papers. If you lose them, you could be losing hours of work or missing an important deadline.

But don't worry — there are ways to restore Chrome tabs after a crash. Chrome has built in a crash recovery process that will help most people. However, for some people the prompt doesn't appear in Chrome. In either case, here’s what we recommend:

  1. Follow Chrome's recovery prompts if you see them
  2. If you don't see the recovery prompts, use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Shift + T (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + T (Windows)

Chrome won't restore tabs — how do I open closed tabs?

If the other steps don't work, you may still be able to get your tabs back:

  1. Open the Chrome menu (click the 3-dot menu in the upper-right corner of Chrome)
  2. Click History
  3. Click # Tabs results if they appear
  4. Otherwise, click any tab you see to open it individually. To see all tabs, open your full browser history with Cmd + Y (Mac) or Ctrl + Y (Windows).
Screenshot of Chrome session history recovered

One of the perks of using Workona is knowing that your tabs are safe no matter what happens. Think of it as a highly reliable method of backing up your Chrome tabs. Once Workona is installed, your Chrome tabs are automatically and securely saved to the cloud. So if your browser crashes, you can recover and reopen tabs with just a few clicks.

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