[Quick Fix] How to Open Recently Closed Tabs in Chrome

By Sruthy

By Sruthy

Sruthy, with her 10+ years of experience, is a dynamic professional who seamlessly blends her creative soul with technical prowess. With a Technical Degree in Graphics Design and Communications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Communication, she brings a unique combination of artistic flair…

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Updated March 9, 2024

Here we will explore multiple effective methods to understand How to Open Recently Closed Tabs in Chrome on various devices:

Have you ever accidentally closed a tab or a window while working on multiple ones? Happens to me all the time. And trust me, it can be horrifying losing an important web page like that.

Chrome is known for its versatility and agility it offers. It offers features and performance, unlike any other browser.

With great traffic comes glitches and crashes for browsers. And Chrome is no exception. Sometimes it’s not your fault, you lose your important research and web pages because your browser crashes and closes unexpectedly.

But Chrome has it handled. Luckily, it remembers your browsing history. So, regardless of how you lost that tab or an entire window, you can easily recover it. In this article, we will tell you various ways how to open recently closed tabs in Chrome. We will also take you through various scenarios that can make you lose your tabs and how to recover them.

How To Open Closed Tabs In Chrome

How to Open Recently Closed Tabs in Chrome[Quick Fix] (1)

Desktop

Restore Google Chrome Tabs You Closed Accidently

You wanted to close a tab but accidentally closed another one? Don’t panic. You can easily restore it.

Follow the steps below:

  • Right-click on an empty space on the bar tab section.
  • Select Reopen Closed Tab.

Reopen Closed Tab

Or, you can press Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen the last tab you closed. If you have Mac, press Command+Shift+T.

Open Recently Closed Tabs Due to Chrome or System Crash

Chrome or system crashing is never a good experience. Imagine, you are in the middle of an important project and you lose all your hard work and research. Well, don’t worry, Chrome doesn’t lose your session.

  • Reopen Chrome.
  • You will see a popup window asking if you want to restore pages because Chrome didn’t shut down correctly.
  • Click on Restore.

Restore.

If you don’t get this option,

  • Click on the Chrome menu.
  • Select History.
  • You will find the number of tabs under recently closed.
  • Click on them for restoring all tabs.

restoring all tabs

You can also use the Ctrl+Shift+T command to open closed tabs due to Chrome or a system crash.

Set the settings to always start from where you left off.

To enable the option for restoring your previous session:

  • Go to the Chrome browser.
  • Click on the Chrome menu.
  • Go to Settings.
  • Click on Startup.

Settings

  • Check the circle beside the option ‘Continue where you left off’.

 option Continue where you left off

Opening A Recently Closed Tab

If you need to open a tab, you have closed recently, follow these steps:

  • Click on the Chrome menu.
  • Select History.

Select History

  • You will see a list of recently closed tabs.
  • Click on the tab you want to restore.

Click on the tab you want to restore

Open Previously Closed Tabs

If you want to restore a closed tab from a few days back, chances are you will not find it in the recently closed option.

Here is how you can restore:

  • Click on the Chrome menu.
  • Select History.
  • From the extended menu, click on History again.

History

  • It will open your entire Chrome history.
  • Scroll to the tab you are looking for.
  • Click on it to open it in the same tab as your history, overwriting it.

You can also open a new tab and use CTRL+H (Command+Y for Mac) for launching your Chrome history.

Pro Tip: If you want to restore multiple tabs from your history, right-click on the link you want to open and select Open Link in New Tab. Otherwise, start from scratch for every tab you want to restore. And forget opening tabs from history if you have been browsing Incognito. Chrome forgets your browsing history when you are working in Incognito.

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Android And iPhone

There is not much difference in the way you open a closed tab in Android and Desktop.

Here are the steps:

  • Open a new tab in your Mobile Chrome for avoiding to overwriting your current tab.
  • Click on the menu icon.
  • Go to History.
  • From the history, click on the link you want to reopen.

History

Open A Tab You Just Closed On Another Device

We all use Chrome across various devices. Sometimes you might need to open a tab in WIndows, you closed on Android. And yes, you can do it. Chrome allows you to access the tabs you have opened across all devices with the same Google ID.

Here is how to open a tab you just closed on another device:

  • Click on the Chrome menu.
  • Go to History.
  • In the extended menu, you will see the recent tabs you have closed across all your devices.

recent tabs

  • Click on the one you want to open.

Or

  • Go to the Chrome menu.
  • Go to History.
  • Click on History from the extended menu.
  • Click on Tabs from other devices.

Click on Tabs from other devices

  • Select the tabs you want to open.

Open Closed Tabs In Chrome Using Extensions

You can also use some extensions Chrome offers to restore your tabs. Sessions Buddy is the top-rated extension you can use to save the collection of a few open tabs.

You can open these tabs later, even if your browser crashes. One Tab and Tab Restore are two other extensions you can use to reopen any tab you have closed in your ongoing Chrome session or the ones you closed in your previous sessions. You can also access your browsing history as well.

To add an extension,

  • Go to the Chrome menu.
  • Click on More Tools.

Click on More Tools

  • Select Extensions.

Select Extensions

  • Click on the Extensions menu.
  • Select Open Chrome Web Store.

 Open Chrome Web Store

  • In the search bar, type the name of the extension.
  • Hit enter.
  • Click on the Extension.
  • Click on Add to Chrome.
  • Select Add Extension.
  • Go to the Extensions icon on the top right-hand side of Chrome.
  • Navigate to the extension you have added.
  • Click on the Pin option to pin it to the taskbar.

Pin option

Frequently Asked Questions

Q #1) How do you open recently closed tabs on Google Chrome?

Answer: Go to the Chrome menu by clicking on the three vertical dots. Click on History. If you have closed multiple tabs, you will find all links there. Click on the links you want to open. If you find the “#tabs” option, # is the number of tabs you closed recently. Click on it to restore all those tabs.

Q #2) How do I undo closing all tabs?

Answer: Click on the Chrome menu, Go to the History option, you will find an option with the number of tabs you have recently closed, click on it to undo closing all tabs and restore them. If you don’t find that option, you will see the links you have closed recently. Click on them to open them.

Q #3) How long do recently closed tabs stay?

Answer: In the recently closed tab heading, you will find the last 25 tabs you closed.

Q #4) Why have my tabs disappeared in Chrome?

Answer: Your toolbar gets hidden by default when you go into full-screen mode. This is commonly the reason tabs disappear. If this is the case and you want to exit the full-screen mode, press F11.

Q #5) How do you close a tab with the keyboard?

Answer: You can use Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4 to close a tab with the keyboard and Alt+F4 to close the current window. You can use Ctrl+Shift+T to reopen the tab that closed the last.

Q #6) Where did my tabs go?

Answer: If you have accidentally closed or lost your tabs, you can click on an empty space of the Chrome bar and click on Reopen Closed Tabs. All your lost tabs will be recovered in no time.

Q #7) How do I quickly delete tabs?

Answer: Click on the Chrome menu and go to the More Tools option. From the extended menu options, click on the clear browsing data option. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+Shift+Del to delete your browsing history.

Q #8) How do I stop Chrome from closing tabs?

Answer: Right-click on the tab you want to keep open. Click on Pin and after your tab is pinned, move it out of the way so that you don’t close it accidentally. You can do that for every tab your Chrome is closing.

Q #9) How do I manage tabs in Chrome?

Answer: You can use the Tab Groups feature from Google to manage tabs in Chrome. Right-click on a tab and choose the option. Add a tab to the new group.

A colored dot will be assigned to the tab. You can name it or change the color of the tab by right-clicking on the dot. You can assign the same colored dots for one project and give each project a color. This will help you in knowing which tabs are for which project.

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Conclusion

The feature of Chrome that allows you to open recently closed tabs is an extremely helpful function. That goes especially for people like me who accidentally close the tabs all the time. It helps in keeping the workflow and saves time and effort that I would have to spend finding that particular tab from the scratch otherwise.

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