Recover bookmarks from Chrome

[Penelope8]

Hello! I screwed up big-time. I hope someone can save my butt! I accidentally deleted ALL of my husband's bookmarks from Chrome when I installed Chrome on my brand new MBP. I have tried searching for solutions, but I don't seem to have the same folder heirarchy in order to find a backup bookmarks file as is commonly suggested. I have Mavericks installed and everything is brand new. Oh, please say there is a way to recover the bookmarks! I have not closed/re-opened Chrome yet since my dumb move. Thank you in advance!

 

[chscag]

If this is a brand new MBP, do you still have your old MBP? If you do, you can always copy or migrate the bookmarks from the older machine to your new one. Also, I'm not quite sure how you could lose all his bookmarks? Finding the bookmarks folder in Chrome is not easy and would not be easy to delete.

Here's where the Chrome bookmarks and the backup are located:

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Bookmarks

Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Bookmarks.bak

Keep in mind that in Mavericks the User Library is hidden by default. In order to view it, open Finder and select "Go" from the menu. Then select at the bottom, "Go to folder", and then your user library.

Complicated, so be careful.

 

[Penelope8]

Hi, Thank you so much for your reply.

We tried recovery from his MBP, but he was unsuccessful. I had never synced my old MBP with the Chrome account, so the bookmarks are nowhere on my old one.

I have a talent for defeating machinery in ways no one knew possible, it seems...

I simply opened the bookmarks tab from Chrome and selected everything and right-click/deleted it. I did not understand that it would delete from every Chrome open on every computer that was signed in to the email address used.

I have come across the advice you suggest below, but I do not appear to have the same order of folders. I can get to Macintosh HD/Users/your user name/, but the Library folder is not there. I do have the line Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support to get a bit further, but there is not a folder for Chrome. I tried searching for "Chrome", "bookmarks", ".bak", "bookmarks.bak" in Finder, but there is nothing.

I also tried finding the Library folder as you suggested with "Go" in Finder, but I receive the message that the folder could not be found (even though I could easily access it via the path I listed above). Weird.

 

[chscag]

The bookmarks probably have been deleted but I suspect the backup folder may still be there.

Let's try this:

Open your terminal application: (Applications, Utilities, terminal.app) and type the following in the terminal and then press enter.

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

Your user library should now appear in the Finder. Go ahead and try to find the folders I gave you in the previous reply.

 

[Penelope8]

Thank you again. That worked! Now I'm afraid to do anything. What should I do to restore the bookmarks.bak file?

 

[Penelope8]

I proceeded with the instructions I had saved elsewhere to copy the files and replace the bookmarks with the bookmarks.bak (renaming to bookmarks), but alas, I was unsuccessful. My husband also tried but he had closed/reopened Chrome (I guess I did, too, and forgot?), so he was also unsuccessful.

Is there any other way on earth to recover? I am guessing no, but I can't keep from asking. My husband had been saving many important items that I just wiped away without even a care. I feel like the biggest moron in the world.

 

[chscag]

You should be able to copy the bookmarks.bak file over the top of the bookmarks file and that would restore your bookmarks. Did you try to open the bookmarks.bak file to see if there was anything there? Both my bookmarks and bookmarks.bak files are 177KB in size and contain the same information.

 

[Penelope8]

I did try the above. My files were both the same size as well, which I am guessing means I must have closed Chrome and reopened it. I guess it could be worse; none of our work was deleted. I just feel so badly for screwing up a massive list my husband had been accumulating for months to use in the near future for work. I appreciate the replies so very much.

 

[chscag]

Sorry it didn't help. Another thing you might try if you are also using Safari and have bookmarks for Safari saved. Chrome will import Safari bookmarks directly into Chrome. If possible, give that a try.

 

[Penelope8]

Sorry it didn't help. Another thing you might try if you are also using Safari and have bookmarks for Safari saved. Chrome will import Safari bookmarks directly into Chrome. If possible, give that a try.

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm afraid my husband was only using Chrome and only on his MBP. I would like to sign my computer out of Chrome now so it doesn't sync anything else, but I'm afraid I will mess up his stuff again. Is there a moron-proof way to de-sync my MBP from Chrome without de-syncing his?

 

[chscag]

You shouldn't have a problem closing down Chrome. Just shut Chrome off, start Safari, go into preferences, and set Safari as your default browser. You can always use Chrome in addition to Safari. I have both on my iMac and have identical bookmarks.

As long as your new MacBook Pro is not attached to your husband's MacBook Pro, there should be no problem with accidentally syncing or deleting anything.

 

[domlanic]

I 'signed in to Chrome' because the dialogue box requested it- and lost all my bookmarks! Why would this happen? Seems idiotic to me! Imported bookmarks from Safari (which is rubbish c.f. Chrome, IMO)

Very annoyed at this behaviour; tried both your recovery methids- "File not found"

I suppose now I will just have to open and bookmark ALL my old set??

 

[13111y]

Recover Chrome bookmarks deleted on another device

I hope this might help someone else who was stupid enough (like me) to accidentally deleted their bookmarks while logged on to another device...

Here's how I recovered my bookmarks on my Mac OSX 10.9.4 using Chrome 37:

1) DO NOT OPEN CHROME! - If you already have, then I'm afraid you may be screwed.
2) 'Go' (cmd-shft-G) to folder '~/Library'
3) Navigate to Google,Chrome,Default (or username)
4) Duplicate 'Bookmarks' so it is safe - keep this window open
5) Fire up Chrome - after a sec it will sync and delete your bookmarks - don't worry.
6) Go to 'Settings', 'Advanced Sync Settings' and turn off the syncing of bookmarks.
7) Close Chrome, Quit Chrome
8) Switch back to the 'Library' window
9) Delete 'bookmarks' and 'bookmarks.bak'
10) Duplicate the 'bookmarks copy' - to keep it safe
11) Rename 'bookmarks copy' to 'bookmarks'
12) Launch Chrome
13) 'cmd-alt-B' to Bookmarks manager
14) 'Organize', 'Export bookmarks to HTML file' and save the file to your desktop
15) Turn syncing of bookmarks back on
16) When your bookmarks disappear simply import your bookmarks from the file you have just saved

Phew! ;D

 

[Rayan]

I hope this might help someone else who was stupid enough (like me) to accidentally deleted their bookmarks while logged on to another device...

Here's how I recovered my bookmarks on my Mac OSX 10.9.4 using Chrome 37:

1) DO NOT OPEN CHROME! - If you already have, then I'm afraid you may be screwed.
2) 'Go' (cmd-shft-G) to folder '~/Library'
3) Navigate to Google,Chrome,Default (or username)

Phew! ;D

Hi,
thank you for your help,
unfortunately when I open the "Google" folder, I only see a plist file named "Google Chrome Brand" & a folder named "GoogleSoftwareUpdate".
The folder does not include any of the files you mentioned. Are they hidden?

Thank you
Rayan