How to Recover Deleted Chrome Bookmarks on Mac?

How to Recover Deleted Chrome Bookmarks on Mac?

Bookmarks are easily one of Chrome’s most underrated features—until they disappear, that is. Whether you accidentally deleted them, ran into some sync issues, or experienced a system glitch, you can’t afford to lose those important saved links on your Mac.

Fortunately, recovering deleted Chrome bookmarks on macOS is rather straightforward (even if you don’t have a backup!). In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the working methods that helped us restore lost bookmarks on Mac.

Where Are Chrome Bookmarks Stored on Mac?

Before we help you recover deleted bookmarks, it would be worthwhile to know where exactly Chrome stores them on your Mac. Chrome usually saves your bookmarks in a local file inside your user library folder. The full path looks something like this: Macintosh HD/Users/[Your Username]/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default

In this “Default” folder, you’ll find two important files:

• Bookmarks: This one is the active file that Chrome reads from when displaying your saved bookmarks.
• Bookmarks.bak: This is a backup copy created automatically by Chrome.

[Note: The Library folder is hidden by default, so to access it, open Finder, click “Go” in the menu bar, hold the Option key, and select “Library” from the dropdown menu that appears.]

Once you understand where these files are, you can act quickly and use the .bak file or other recovery tools to restore your lost bookmarks on Mac.

How to Recover Deleted Chrome Bookmarks on Mac

We found two reliable manual methods to get your deleted Chrome bookmarks back on your Mac:
1) using Chrome’s local backup file and
2) Apple’s built-in Time Machine backup.

Let’s look into how to go about using them.

Method 1: Restore From the Bookmarks.bak File (Chrome’s Local Backup)

1. The first step is to make sure Chrome is fully closed before proceeding. Use Cmd+Q or right-click the Chrome icon and click on “Quit.”
2. Next, open Finder and navigate to: Macintosh HD>Users>[Your Username]>Library>Application Support>Google>Chrome>Default
   (Tip: If the Library folder is hidden, press Cmd+Shift+G in Finder and paste the path given above.)
3. Now’s a good time to find and copy the existing Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak files to your desktop (just in case).
4. Finally, you can delete the current Bookmarks file, then rename bak to Bookmarks.bak to Bookmarks (simply remove the .bak extension).
5. Now go ahead and relaunch Chrome. Your deleted bookmarks should now reappear!

⚠️ Note: This method only works if the .bak file hasn’t been overwritten by newer activity.

Method 2: Recover Bookmarks Using Time Machine

If your .bak file is missing or outdated, you can use the Time Machine—macOS’s built-in backup solution for situations just like this. Time Machine can help you retrieve an older version of your Chrome bookmarks. Here’s how to use it.

1. Once again, make sure Chrome is completely closed before restoring.
2. Open Finder, then navigate to: Macintosh HD>Users>[Your Username]>Library>Application Support>Google>Chrome>Default
3. Now launch Time Machine from the menu bar or by using Spotlight.
4. You should be able to scroll back through the Time Machine’s timeline and find a version of the Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak files from before the deletion occured (look for the corresponding date).
5. Next, click Restore to recover the older copies of the files. And that should do it!
6. Open Chrome again and check if your lost bookmarks have been restored.

✅ Note: Time Machine is especially useful if your local Chrome backup has been overwritten.

Method 3: Recover Deleted Chrome Bookmarks Using Your Google Account

If you were signed into Chrome with your Google Account and had sync enabled, there’s a good chance all your bookmarks are stored in the Google Cloud. However, this method will only work if the bookmarks aren’t deleted from your account itself.

Follow these steps to restore your bookmarks.

1. Launch Chrome.
2. Click on your profile icon in the top-right corner.
3. If you aren’t signed in, log in using the same Google account you were previously using.
4. Next, you’ll have to check whether the bookmark sync was enabled or not. Click the three dots in the top-right corner, and click Settings.
5. Click on “You and Google.” Now select “Sync and Google Services.”
6. Under the “Sync” tab, click on “Manage what you sync” and make sure that “Bookmarks” is turned on.

Once sync is enabled, Chrome will automatically pull bookmarks from your Google account. While trying out this method, we had to wait for a few moments and then re-checked the bookmarks bar, and sure enough, they were there. You can also go to chrome://bookmarks to confirm if your bookmarks have been restored.

[⚠️ Note: If any of the bookmarks were deleted while the sync was active and the deletion synced to your Google account, this method won’t recover them. In such a scenario, use a Time Machine backup or Stellar Data Recovery for Mac, which we’ll talk about in the next section.]

Method 4: Use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to Recover Chrome Bookmarks

If your Chrome bookmarks are still unavailable after trying the methods above, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac is your best option. Stellar’s powerful algorithms can recover Chrome’s “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak” files even if they’ve been deleted or lost due to issues like formatting, disk corruption, etc. These steps will help you recover your Chrome bookmark files on Mac using Stellar.

1. Download and Install Stellar Data Recovery for Mac. Go ahead and launch the software.
2. On the first screen, select “Documents” or “Everything” under “What to Recover.” Click Next.
3. Choose your drive where Chrome was installed (it’s typically the Macintosh HD drive).
4. Now, turn on “Deep Scan” if the files were deleted quite a while ago or if a quick scan doesn’t return any results. Click “Scan.”
5. After the scan completes, you can browse the results in the pane on the left.
6. Look for the same path that we showed earlier (in case you’ve forgotten: Macintosh HD>Users>[Your Username]>Library> Application Support>Google>Chrome>Default).
7. Check for “Bookmarks” or “Bookmarks.bak” files. Select all the files you want to retrieve and click on “Recover.”
8. Now save them to a safe location temporarily (do not overwrite the original directory right away to prevent data loss.)

Now that you have recovered the Bookmark files using Stellar, you can restore the bookmarks to Chrome.

1. Go to Finder and navigate again to: Macintosh HD>Users>[Your Username]>Library> Application Support>Google>Chrome>Default
2. If a “Bookmarks” file already exists, rename or back it up, and then copy your recovered file here.
3. If the file is named “Bookmarks.bak,” change it to “Bookmarks” with no extension.
4. Finally, restart Chrome and check if your bookmarks are back.

Tips to Prevent Bookmark Loss on Chrome for Mac

Now that you’ve gone through the entire recovery process and recovered your bookmarks, you must have realized that accidentally deleting bookmarks and having to recover them can be frustrating! But here are some preventive tips you can keep in mind to reduce the chances of losing them again.

• 🔐 Always log into your Google account and enable bookmark sync.
• 🔄 Regularly check if the sync is working by visiting Chrome’s sync settings, as we showed above.
• 💾 Manually back up the “Bookmarks” and “Bookmarks.bak” files from the path we showed.
• 📁 Store a copy of these bookmark files in a safe location or external drive.
• 🧠 Use a dedicated bookmark manager to export and manage bookmarks across browsers.
• 🔧 Keep Chrome updated to its latest version to avoid bugs that can cause you to lose bookmarks.
• ⏱️ Enable Time Machine on your Mac and ensure that regular backups are being created so that even in case of failure, your data is safe.
• 🚫 Avoid third-party extensions that claim to manage bookmarks unless they are from trusted developers (these can be very unsafe, so steer clear!).

Conclusion

Losing your Chrome bookmarks on Mac is worrisome, but not the end of the road. Whether you accidentally deleted them, faced sync issues, or other software errors, there are reliable ways to bring them back.

Google Sync and Mac’s Time Machine are the simplest fixes, but if those options don’t work, use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to scan your system and restore the bookmark files directly. Stellar’s software is designed to handle various data loss scenarios and is a powerful safety net for your Mac.

FAQs

1. Why did my Google Chrome bookmarks disappear on Mac?
   Bookmarks can disappear due to accidental deletion, browser sync issues, profile corruption, or Chrome updates resetting your data on Mac.
2. Can I recover Chrome bookmarks without a backup?
   Yes, you can recover them using the Bookmarks.bak file if it still exists. Alternatively, use Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to scan and retrieve deleted Chrome data from your drive.
3. How do I know if Chrome sync is working properly?
   Go to Chrome>Settings>You and Google>Sync and Google Services. Check if the “Sync” is on and that bookmarks are included under your synced items.
4. Can I restore deleted bookmarks using Google Account sync?
   Yes, you can, but only if the bookmarks were synced before they were deleted. If the account was syncing, you may recover the bookmarks by re-enabling sync or logging into the same account on another device.
5. What happens if the .bak file is missing?
   If the .bak (backup file) is also deleted, use Time Machine or a professional recovery tool like Stellar Data Recovery for Mac to retrieve it from the system disk.
6. Does Stellar Data Recovery for Mac recover Chrome bookmarks specifically?
   Yes, Stellar Data Recovery for Mac recovers Chrome’s bookmark files (Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak) as long as they haven’t been overwritten. You can locate them manually after recovery and restore them using the methods in this guide.

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