Chrome lost all my tabs

[jeff275]

When I upgraded my M8 GPE to Lollipop yesterday I thought it had lost all my tabs. I figured out that they were showing up with the recent applications. That was problematic for me (like every recent thing I had open showing up before my tabs) so I turned off the merge tabs and apps setting in Chrome. Well then instead of keeping all my tabs it lost them (I had over 100 open - yeah, I know...). Is there any way to get these back? Does Chrome save a backup session anywhere? If I go into Chrome on my desktop it tells me there are no tabs from other devices (and yes I am signed in). I'd really like to get these tabs back. Going through the history isn't really going to work plus I don't have three weeks of spare time to do that and try to guess at everything that was open or just something I looked at and then was done with. Any ideas?

 

[N4Newbie]

Tap the menu bar at top-right and then tap Recent Tabs. Does it list anything there?

 

[gone down south]

What workflow do you have that leaves you with 100 open tabs that you need to reopen?

 

[jeff275]

Nope.

 

[jeff275]

I see that if I go to https://www.google.com/settings/chrome/sync it says I have 77 tabs open. I'm not sure where the number 77 comes from and unfortunately I still can't see the addresses of these tabs anywhere.

 

[eben01]

Not exactly a bug but irritating nonetheless, Lollipop treats Chrome tabs as separate app instances rather than the traditional in-app switching option you're probably more familiar with. If you can't get used to switching Chrome tabs through the recent apps multitasking button, then go to Chrome > Settings > Merge tabs and apps > Off. You'll now have the traditional in-Chrome tab switching.

 

[VanBCguy]

Bump to an old thread. Just lost all my 100+ Chrome tabs off my phone (no reason known). As above, they don't show on my PC.
Help?

 

[Will_T]

Yes it has done this for years and there seems to be nothing you can do. Happened to me again just a couple of days ago. I keep about 15 tabs open that I go to frequently. Every once and a while when I start Chrome, they are gone and only my home page tab is there. Not a big deal for me as I just open the pages again as I need them, but I can see how it could be a pain for some people. Just a bug in Chrome I guess.

 

[bbk49]

This has happened to me several times, all since I upgraded to Lollipop. However, I've discovered that (at least sometimes) my tabs come back after awhile. And sometimes when my tabs "disappear" I don't encounter just my home screen but actually tabs I had looked at months ago. Maybe it's a bug in some sort of new multi-window function in Chrome (as opposed to just multiple tabs in one window), or I'm just switching between windows and don't know it? Whatever the reason it's incredibly aggravating

 

[1 Bad Jesus Mofo]

"Slap me once shame on....shame on me?...no..shame on them!..and if i slap..." Ahhh never mind!! WHEN WILL I LEARN??!! At this point I blame myself ! Time and again on Android Chrome (& Beta) i leave pertinent tabs open instead of bookmarking..every..single...one..of them like i should. Even given the fact i often need upwards of 30 tabs open at once for quick data access or when editing bookmarks...i should have definitely hit Bookmark on all 50+ of them on my mobile and then for each choose which FOLDER: Mobile.Desktop or Other. Then i should NAME EACH BOOKMARK and...(sigh). HOW is that easier than simply doing the mobile equivalent of a Right Click to: "BOOKMARK ALL TABS"...and done!?! I posted on another forum (which is long lost now as it was an OPEN TAB) how: "If only The Great and Powerful GOOG could just throw what assuredly amounts to a 'switch' and place a BOOKMARK MANAGER within Android like they have on PC. Considering they are working on Driverless Vehicles and something called a "T-1000" in the near future why not grant the plebs this simple fix and all troubles of disappearing tabs would VANISH over night."" Alas my prayer was answered with "where i can access the MERGE TABS TOGGLE" on the Android App where i replied that i, like the looming majority, rarely use a PC these days and that feature is...with all due respect...CUMBERSOME (title to a killer 90's song btw). Three days later i received a reply: "Directing me to the TOGGLE on the APP" (sigh). FF has it..as do other browsers but alas i use Chrome cuz..well...duhhh! But i digress...again oh GOOG GOD i pray thee to grant us this gift ((AGAIN: BookMark Manager for Android Chrome)) and forgive me for taking your name in vain this afternoon when my 51 open tabs disappeared...again...causing me to lose...easily over an hour...of irreplaceable time..causing the "Bill Bixby Green Eyes" to appear...and...(breath breath).

 

[axetroll]

Ok, this is very old, but the problem just happened to me right now after updating Chrome.

Since this topic appears on the first page of google I want to help anyone that may have the same problem.

You must have root.

The solution is simple and follows the same concept from google desktop for PC. Chrome for some reason crash and your tabs go to a second file in its data folder, accessible only with root. We need to force Chrome to use this backup file. Follow what I did:

1. Backup actual chrome (apk+data) in case you need your history as second option of recovery.
2. You'll use the program ADB now. It can be over usb or wifi adb (search at playstore for this second). Connect to your phone:

   adb shell

3. You need to be root to list the files inside each app, so type:

   su

   and accept grant root permission on your screen (if asks)
4. Go to folder:

   cd /data/data/com.android.chrome/app_tabs/0

5. Here you'll find two files (or more). List them:

   ls -la

6. You may see something as

   -rw------- u0_a90   u0_a90       9576 2016-09-21 00:36 tab7697
   -rw------- u0_a90   u0_a90       9557 2016-09-20 21:22 tab_state-1
   -rw------- u0_a90   u0_a90         32 2016-09-21 00:37 tab_state0

7. First, I backup the most recent tabs:
   

   cp tab7697 tab-bkp-crash
   cp tab_state-1 tab_bkp-last

8. From now on, you must close all background apps to make sure Chrome is not running. Click the alternate apps key on your mobile and click on the X close recent apps (this may vary, but same idea).
9. You can check the contents of the file using:

   cat tab_state0

10. I tried to copy tab7697 (by the date I assume the file that crashed) over tab_state0 and started Chrome, but it crashed and it recreated tab_state0 with no tabs again (small size).
11. Then I repeated the step to close background apps again and tried to copy the tabs backup (just before update) tab_state-1 over tab_state0:

    cp tab_state-1 tab_state0

12. Tried to open chrome, it started to load all my 84 tabs, took some time, but it crashed again. I restarted Chrome and it kept reloading the 84 tabs and this time finished all of them (same ones that I left before starting the update from play store).
13. It will open the tabs in inverse order, but everything will be there.

Hope this helps, since I didn't find any tutorial like this over all these years and Chrome still may crash after a simple update from store.

 

[PilotPirx]

Since this topic appears on the first page of google I want to help anyone that may have the same problem.

Thank you sooooo much!

You, Sir, are a life saver. Followed your steps and recovered all 64 of my fresh-lost tabs. I can't thank you enough! <3 <3

 

[amozu16]

Would it be possible to do all of this without rooting?

 

[Ana_Ferreira]

Please, please...can someone help me? I'm having the same issue. I'm from Portugal. Recently, I don't know what happened ( I suspect a Chrome update) but I lost dozens of tabs I had opened. I never had a problem with it. Even when the phone shuts down and reiniciate, I never, never lost the tabs. And because Chrome app doesn't have a "save all the tabs at once" option, I was procrastinating and never save them. Now it seems I've lost them all. Can someone help this girl please?

 

[hardiholpus]

That doesn´t work for me. Is there anything else I can do?

 

[Fix Meh]

This has happened to me several times, all since I upgraded to Lollipop. However, I've discovered that (at least sometimes) my tabs come back after awhile. And sometimes when my tabs "disappear" I don't encounter just my home screen but actually tabs I had looked at months ago. Maybe it's a bug in some sort of new multi-window function in Chrome (as opposed to just multiple tabs in one window), or I'm just switching between windows and don't know it? Whatever the reason it's incredibly aggravating

I have that problem too

 

[Fahadzs22]

Sir? How did u get can u please please help me lol

 

[ichoosejoy20]

how did you find your tabs?? can you tell me how please

 

[Dragonstorylover]

Can u make a video how to do it it happened to my tablet I have root? Please msg today

Ok, this is very old, but the problem just happened to me right now after updating Chrome.

Since this topic appears on the first page of google I want to help anyone that may have the same problem.

You must have root.

The solution is simple and follows the same concept from google desktop for PC. Chrome for some reason crash and your tabs go to a second file in its data folder, accessible only with root. We need to force Chrome to use this backup file. Follow what I did:

1. Backup actual chrome (apk+data) in case you need your history as second option of recovery.
2. You'll use the program ADB now. It can be over usb or wifi adb (search at playstore for this second). Connect to your phone:

   adb shell

3. You need to be root to list the files inside each app, so type:

   su

   and accept grant root permission on your screen (if asks)
4. Go to folder:

   cd /data/data/com.android.chrome/app_tabs/0

5. Here you'll find two files (or more). List them:

   ls -la

6. You may see something as

   -rw------- u0_a90   u0_a90       9576 2016-09-21 00:36 tab7697
   -rw------- u0_a90   u0_a90       9557 2016-09-20 21:22 tab_state-1
   -rw------- u0_a90   u0_a90         32 2016-09-21 00:37 tab_state0

7. First, I backup the most recent tabs:
   

   cp tab7697 tab-bkp-crash
   cp tab_state-1 tab_bkp-last

8. From now on, you must close all background apps to make sure Chrome is not running. Click the alternate apps key on your mobile and click on the X close recent apps (this may vary, but same idea).
9. You can check the contents of the file using:

   cat tab_state0

10. I tried to copy tab7697 (by the date I assume the file that crashed) over tab_state0 and started Chrome, but it crashed and it recreated tab_state0 with no tabs again (small size).
11. Then I repeated the step to close background apps again and tried to copy the tabs backup (just before update) tab_state-1 over tab_state0:

    cp tab_state-1 tab_state0

12. Tried to open chrome, it started to load all my 84 tabs, took some time, but it crashed again. I restarted Chrome and it kept reloading the 84 tabs and this time finished all of them (same ones that I left before starting the update from play store).
13. It will open the tabs in inverse order, but everything will be there.

Hope this helps, since I didn't find any tutorial like this over all these years and Chrome still may crash after a simple update from store.

 

[Dragonstorylover]

Thank you sooooo much!

You, Sir, are a life saver. Followed your steps and recovered all 64 of my fresh-lost tabs. I can't thank you enough! <3 <3

How do u do it i!m very unaware where u do it at and where u DL adb?