Get back a tab or window you closed in Chrome
Closed a tab or a whole Chrome window by mistake? Chrome keeps a list of what you closed, so you can usually get it back in a few seconds.
Way 1: Use the keyboard shortcut
Click anywhere in Chrome
Click in a Chrome window that is still open so Chrome is the active program. If you closed your last Chrome window, open Chrome first.
Press the shortcut
Hold down Ctrl and Shift, tap T once, then let go of all three keys.
Press it again to go further back
Each press brings back one more item, newest first. If what you closed was a whole window, the whole window comes back with all its tabs.
Way 2: Right-click the tab bar
Find an empty spot on the tab bar
Look at the strip along the top of the window where your tabs are. Find the empty space just to the right of the last tab (next to the + button).
Right-click it
Click the right mouse button on that empty space. On a Mac trackpad or a Chromebook touchpad, tap with two fingers.
Choose “Reopen closed tab”
Click Reopen closed tab in the menu that appears. If you last closed a whole window, it says Reopen closed window instead.
Way 3: Pick from the “Recently closed” list
Use this when the thing you want wasn’t the last thing you closed, or you’d rather choose it from a list.
Open the Chrome menu
Click the three dots ⋮ in the top-right corner of Chrome.
Point to History
Move your mouse over History. A second menu opens beside it.
Click what you want back
Under Recently closed, click the page you want. Closed windows show as an entry like 3 tabs. Click it and the whole window comes back.
Way 4: If Chrome closed completely
This could be because you closed the last window, the computer restarted, or Chrome crashed.
Open Chrome again
Start Chrome as you normally would.
Look for a “Restore” button
If Chrome shut down unexpectedly, a small box may appear near the top right saying Chrome didn’t shut down correctly. Click Restore.
No Restore button? Use the shortcut
Press Ctrl + Shift + T (Mac: ⌘ Cmd + Shift + T). Your previous windows should come back. You can also use the Recently closed list from Way 3.
On a phone or tablet
- Straight after closing a tab: an Undo button appears briefly at the bottom of the screen. Tap it.
- Later on: tap the Chrome menu (⋮ on Android, ••• on iPhone and iPad), tap Recent tabs, then tap the page under Recently closed.
When it won’t work
- Incognito tabs: once every Incognito window is closed, those tabs are gone for good. Chrome doesn’t keep a record of them.
- Cleared history: if your browsing history has been cleared, the list of closed tabs is cleared too.
Stop it happening next time
You can set Chrome to always reopen your tabs when it starts: