How to Restore Tabs on Chrome, No Matter What

If you’ve lost tabs on Google Chrome, don’t lose hope — most of the time, you can reopen closed tabs and pages in just a few clicks.

We’ll show you 3 easy methods for how to restore tabs on Chrome. We’ll also show you how to set up your browser so you can easily restore pages in Chrome anytime, including entire sessions of closed tabs if you need them.

How to:

• Reopen closed tabs via shortcut - Best for restoring recently closed tabs
• Reopen closed tabs via history or search - Best for restoring older tabs
• Restore entire session or window in Chrome
• Enable setting to restore tabs after restart - To prevent this from happening again!

1. How to reopen closed tabs on Chrome

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

If the tabs you’re trying to recover are older than a day or so, skip to step 2.

The easiest way to restore recently 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.

Mac shortcut to restore tabs on Chrome

Windows shortcut to restore closed tabs

2. How to restore tabs on Chrome from history or search

If Chrome won’t restore tabs when you use the keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T, you may still be able to reopen the closed tabs by going into Chrome’s history:

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. To see tabs from your synced devices, click # Tabs from other devices at the bottom of the list of tabs. Unfortunately, Chrome sync doesn't always work, in which case you might see No Tabs From Other Devices at the bottom.

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).

5. If the tab was closed a while ago, try to remember when you had the tab open (both date and time). This makes it easier to scan through the tabs, since they show up in your history from most recent to least recent.
6. If you don't see the tab(s) you need, try Google Chrome's tab search at the top. This can be a lifesaver if you don't want to scroll through all the tabs chronologically. Select More from this site on the right side to filter the search results further.

3. How to restore the last session or window in Chrome

If you only need to restore one session or browser window, you can follow these steps:

1. Open the Chrome menu (click the 3-dot menu in the upper-right corner of Chrome)
2. Click History
3. Click # Tabs results to restore all the closed tabs from your session at once

You might notice that Chrome doesn't reliably save sessions. To make sure you can restore sessions in the future, we recommend using Workona’s Chrome extension. It gives you the power to restore any previous session in Google Chrome with the click of a button.

Workona 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.

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

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.

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 these steps don't work, you can go on the offensive by saving your tabs with a reliable tab manager. This won't bring back your closed tabs, but it will make sure you don't lose important tabs in the future.

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, with backup snapshots taken every hour.

Whatever happens — your browser crashes, you accidentally close all of your windows, or you even lose your laptop — Workona will help you recover and reopen closed tabs.