Recover deleted Chrome bookmarks from Bookmarks.bak
Chrome has no recycle bin for bookmarks — but it keeps one silent backup file. Drop your profile's Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak here to see exactly what the backup still holds that the current file doesn't, and export just those as an HTML file Chrome imports. Everything happens in your browser; the files stay on your machine. A signed-in Chrome keeps a second bookmark tree in a file called AccountBookmarks, and Chrome writes no backup for that one — what that means is below.
Bookmarks
the tree as it is now — optional
Bookmarks.bak
the backup beside it — required
Drop the two files, or choose them. Nothing is uploaded — the comparison runs in this tab. Signed in to Chrome without sync? Your account bookmarks are a second tree, in a file called AccountBookmarks in the same folder; drop it into either box to list what it holds. Chrome writes no backup for that one, so there is no second file to pair it with.
Where the two files are
Both sit in your Chrome profile folder. Copy them out before you touch another bookmark: the backup is spent by the first bookmark change of each Chrome session — not by the restart itself (see below). Quitting Chrome first is the safe version, because sync can make that change for you.
| System | Profile folder |
|---|---|
| Windows | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\ |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/ |
| Linux | ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/ |
A second Chrome profile lives in Profile 1, Profile 2… instead of Default. On macOS, ~/Library is hidden — in Finder press ⌘⇧G and paste the path.
What each file in there is
| File | What it is |
|---|---|
| Bookmarks | The live bookmarks of this device. Plain JSON — openable in any text editor. |
| Bookmarks.bak | The backup of that file, written once per session at the first bookmark change. The only backup Chrome makes. |
| AccountBookmarks | A second, separate tree: the bookmarks that live in your Google Account. Present only when you are signed in without sync. Chrome never writes an AccountBookmarks.bak. |
| BookmarkMergedSurfaceOrdering | Only the order the two trees are shown in — no titles, no addresses, nothing to recover. Leave it where it is. |
| EncryptedBookmarks.bak | Sorts next to the real backup and is not one — it is ciphertext. See the FAQ. |
Four ways bookmarks go missing — and what works for each
| What happened | What works | Bookmarks.bak |
|---|---|---|
| You deleted it a moment ago | In chrome://bookmarks, Ctrl+Z (⌘Z on a Mac) undoes the last delete — but only while that tab is open. Close it and the undo is gone. | Still useful: Bookmarks.bak holds the file as it was just before this session's first bookmark change. |
| A cleanup removed more than you meant | Duplicate finders and “dead link” removers delete in bulk with no per-item undo. If the tool kept a report, export it; otherwise the backup file is the record. | Useful if nothing has changed your bookmarks since — the cleanup's own next delete counts. Copy the file out first. |
| Sync removed them on every device | A delete on one signed-in device is a delete everywhere within seconds, and Google's account bookmarks have no history to roll back. The only copy is a file on one of your machines. | The one place the pre-sync state still exists — on a device where the synced deletion was not the change that spent the backup. |
| The profile itself is gone | Reinstalling Chrome, deleting the profile or resetting it removes the device files together. Only a copy you made elsewhere — Time Machine, File History, a bookmarks export — can help. Bookmarks you had saved to your Google Account are the exception: sign in again and they come back. | Gone with the profile. This is the case a browser-side backup cannot cover. |
If you are signed in without sync, you have two bookmark trees
Since Chrome 134, signing in to Chrome without turning sync on splits your bookmarks in two. What was already on the machine stays on the device, in Bookmarks; everything you save from then on goes into your Google Account, in AccountBookmarks. Chrome's bar shows the two merged, so a profile can have two folders called “Bookmarks Bar” and two called “Other Bookmarks” without anyone ever noticing there are two of anything.
One fact decides how much this page can do for you: Chrome writes a backup for the device file only. The account tree is excluded from backups deliberately — it is an explicit branch in Chromium's storage code, not a gap that gets filled in later — so there is no AccountBookmarks.bak to look for, on any platform or any version.
So read the comparison above for what it is. Dropping Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak answers a question about the device tree. If the answer comes back “the backup holds nothing extra” and your bookmarks are still missing, the next step is not to conclude they are unrecoverable — it is to check whether they were in your Google Account, where a lost profile does not reach them at all: sign in again on a fresh profile and the account tree comes back.
You can drop AccountBookmarks into either box above. There is no backup to pair it with, so what you get is a listing of everything the account tree holds — useful for exporting it before a cleanup, or for comparing it against an older copy of the same file out of Time Machine or File History.
Why Bookmarks.bak fails after a sync — or a restart
Every official answer to “I lost my Chrome bookmarks” ends at this file, and most people who try it find it useless. The reason is when Chrome writes it — and it is not at launch, which is what those answers say. Chromium backs the file up lazily: once per session, at the first change to your bookmarks after Chrome starts, copying Bookmarks as it stood immediately before that change. A session that opens and closes without touching a bookmark leaves the backup exactly as it was.
Two things follow, and they pull in opposite directions. A backup can outlive several restarts untouched, so it is worth looking even after you have relaunched — giving up at that point is the common advice and it is too pessimistic. But the change that spends it does not have to be one you made: sync delivering a single edit from your phone is a bookmark change, and it will spend the session's one backup on the state you were trying to keep.
Sync makes that worse: a deletion on one device reaches every signed-in device within seconds, and Google keeps no history of account bookmarks to roll back. The pre-deletion state survives only in the Bookmarks.bak of a device that has not spent its backup since — copy that file out first, then bring it here. And none of this reaches AccountBookmarks: no backup is written for it in any session, so for that tree the only earlier copies are the ones you made yourself.
Got them back? Keep the library tidy.
The Bookmark Maestro extension finds duplicates, dead links and empty folders in your Chrome bookmarks and lets you clean them up with a preview first — entirely on your device.
Frequently asked questions
Related reading: Recover deleted Chrome bookmarks: what actually works walks through the four cases above, and how to back up Chrome bookmarks is the way to never need this page again.