Accidentally deleted chrome bookmarks from profile

[meltonboy]

We've had problems with chrome so logged out, uninstalled, reinstalled and logged in.

In this process I seemed to have deleted many years worth of bookmarks. I recall deleting browsing history but not specifically bookmarks.

Wife furious!!

I've tried to log in on my iPad and no bookmarks so looks like I've properly deleted from the chrome server. I found the folders in Windows 10 but bookmarks Files are 2kb so assume it's wiped.

Any ideas?

Heeeeeeeeeelp

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[next010]

You could try a file un-delete utility and see if it can locate the chrome bookmarks.bak file, use that to merge bookmarks back into Chrome.

If you didn't sync your bookmarks to your Google account or somehow deleted them then finding a backup of that file is your only hope I think. If you did delete them by accident then the bookmarks file would have been wiped but the bookmarks.bak file is a backup copy and might still have them.

You must have a backup somewhere if you have years of bookmarks that pre-date Win10 ?

 

[meltonboy]

Thanks @next010

I found that bookmarks.bak file but it was only 2kb so i think i wiped it.

However, i do have my previous laptop. I reformatted this and the installed chrome. I guess if we signed into chrome on it we might have a bookmarks folder on it? However, i'm fairly sure we didn't ever sign in..

I appreciate your help. Right now i need any help i can get...

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[MarkyPancake]

I know that Firefox stores a local backup of its browser bookmarks, even when using Firefox sync, but I'm not aware that Chrome does the same thing.

I sync my Chrome bookmarks across my devices to my Google Account, so if I was to delete them all on one device, then Chrome sync would detect this change and remove them from my Google Account and in turn they would be removed from all my devices.

The only way I can think of to get around this, would be to open Chrome on a synced device, but don't connect it to your network, so Chrome sync can't remove them, then you should be able to save them all from this device.

I use Firefox as the source of my bookmarks, so whenever I make changes to my Firefox bookmarks, I manually save a local backup that I upload to my Dropbox. I then use the HTML export to update my Chrome boomarks. By doing this, I always have a local and cloud file that contains all my bookmarks, so if I lost them in either browser, I can quickly restore them.

 

[meltonboy]

^^ Thanks @MarkyPancake The trouble is i don't think i have another device where the log in was used. I need to check. It seems like my only hope.

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[MarkyPancake]

I've done some digging around and if you've closed and reopened Chrome since deleting the bookmarks, it looks like you're out of luck I'm afraid:

Don’t close and reopen Chrome. If Chrome is already closed, leave it closed. Chrome saves a single backup of your bookmarks file, and it overwrites the backup each time you launch Chrome.

Source: How to Recover Accidentally Deleted Bookmarks in Chrome & Firefox

 

[meltonboy]

Thanks again. I have my old laptop but to try to access hidden local files I've now hidden all files in c drive! Can't seem to find unhide?

I haven't opened chrome on it so there's some hope although I don't think I had logged in anyway

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