Chrome tab groups disappeared? How to get them back

Updated October 27, 2026

You open Chrome and your tab groups are gone. You're not alone: 19 people said they have the same question on one Chrome Help thread alone (Group Tabs are gone). Here's what to try, in the order most likely to work.

While you look, don't reset Chrome, sign out of Chrome, or clear your browsing data. A reset puts your startup pages and pinned tabs back to the defaults (Google's reset help). Signing out removes your account's info from this computer (Google's sync help). Clearing browsing data deletes the History you may need (Google's History help).

1. Look in your saved tab groups

Check here first. Google's own words: "A closed group isn't deleted and is saved in the bookmarks bar or in the menu. You can open a closed group again." (Google's tab help)

Open the ⋮ menu at the top right and choose Tab groups. Click a group to open it.
Or, on the bookmarks bar, select the grid icon, then the group's name. Press Ctrl+Shift+B (Mac: ⌘+Shift+B) if the bookmarks bar is hidden.
Don't see either? Open ⋮, then Settings, then Appearance. Turn on Show saved tab groups and Show tab groups in bookmarks bar.

2. Press Ctrl+Shift+T

Press Ctrl+Shift+T (Mac: ⌘+Shift+T). Keep pressing it. Each press reopens the next tab or window you closed, in the order you closed them, so a whole window can come back at once. That's in Google's shortcut list and Google's tab help.

3. Check "Recently closed" in History

Open the ⋮ menu at the top right and point to History. Under it, Chrome lists what you closed recently. A closed window shows as one line like 12 tabs, and a closed tab group shows as its name and a count, like Thesis - 9 tabs. Click one to bring the whole thing back. On a Mac you can also use the History menu at the top of the screen, which has a Recently Closed section.

4. Make sure you're in the right profile

Click your profile picture at the top right of Chrome. If more than one profile is listed, open each one and look. Each profile keeps its own history, bookmarks and settings, so the "missing" tabs may be sitting in the profile Chrome didn't open (Google's profiles help). To pick a profile every time Chrome starts, open the same menu, choose Manage Chrome profiles and check Show on startup.

5. Check your other devices (and don't delete anything there)

When you're signed in and sync History and tabs, Chrome saves changes to tab groups and syncs them to your other devices (Google's tab help). Open Chrome on your other computer and look under ⋮, then Tab groups. You can also check Tabs from other devices in History (Google's sync help).

Careful: deleting or ungrouping a group removes it on every device signed in to the same Google Account (Google's tab help). If you find your groups on another device, don't tidy them up. Save each window with Ctrl+Shift+D (Mac: ⌘+Shift+D), which puts all its open tabs into a new bookmarks folder (Google's shortcut list).

6. Rebuild from History

Press Ctrl+H (Mac: ⌘+Y) to open History. It lists the pages you visited in the last 90 days, not counting Incognito windows (Google's History help). Search for a site or a word you remember, or look through the day it happened. In the By group tab, Chrome groups pages by topic, and More, then Open all in new tab group, reopens a whole group of pages at once.

History keeps the pages, not which group they were in. It's slower than getting the group back, but the pages are usually there.

7. Last resort: copy the Sessions folder

Chrome keeps its record of your open windows in a folder named Sessions inside your Chrome profile. The files in it are named Session_ and Tabs_ followed by a long number. Chrome replaces them as it runs, so the old ones don't last: every restart and every hour of browsing makes it less likely your old tabs are still in there. Copying the folder keeps whatever is left.

Quit Chrome completely. On Windows, open the ⋮ menu and choose Exit. On a Mac, choose Chrome, then Quit Google Chrome (or press ⌘+Q).
Open the folder:
- Windows: press Windows+R, paste %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Sessions and press Enter.
- Mac: in Finder, choose Go, then Go to Folder, and paste ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Sessions.
Copy the whole Sessions folder to your desktop or a USB drive. If you see a Sessions_Encrypted folder next to it (newer Chrome versions write one), copy that too.

If you use more than one Chrome profile, yours may be in Profile 1, Profile 2 and so on instead of Default. To check, type chrome://version in the address bar and look at Profile Path. Those locations come from Chromium's user data documentation.

Be honest with yourself about the odds. Google doesn't document a way to restore tabs from these files. If the files you find are from today, your old session has most likely been overwritten already. If they're older, keep your copy safe and work only on copies. A computer repair shop can try loading an older pair for you.

Questions

Does Chrome keep a backup of my tab groups?

Only two kinds: saved groups (step 1), which sync to your Google Account if you sync History and tabs, and Chrome's short-term record of your last session. There's no long-term archive of closed groups.

I clicked Ungroup by mistake. Can I undo it?

The tabs stay open when you ungroup, but the group itself is deleted on this device and your other devices (Google's tab help). Make a new group from the same tabs: right-click a tab, then Add tab to group.

So it never happens again

Chrome's own copies of your groups depend on sync being on and on its short-term session record surviving. That's why we made Never Lose Tabs, a Chrome extension that keeps its own copies of your tabs:

Restore points, automatically. As you browse, it saves every window, tab, tab group and pinned tab. There's nothing to click and nothing to remember.
An hourly backup file you hold. Every hour you browse, it writes a backup file to Downloads/NeverLoseTabs. It's outside Chrome, so it survives a reinstall of Chrome or of the extension, and you can copy it to a new computer.
A Restore button after a crash. If Chrome comes back with a big part of your tabs missing, the icon shows a red !. Click it, then Restore, and every window comes back, with your tab groups' names and colors.
Free protection, forever. Everything is unlocked for 14 days. After that, auto-save, crash recovery, backup files and restore stay free. Pro (folders, tags, notes and more) is a one-time $5, not a subscription.

It can't bring back tabs lost before you install it. It protects you from today on. It runs on Chrome on your computer, not on phones.

Add to Chrome: free How it works

We make Never Lose Tabs. Chrome is a trademark of Google LLC. Never Lose Tabs is made by Coding Friend LLC and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.