Google Chrome: Force Restore Previous Session from Command Line
Posted by Rob Rogers in Google
Did you accidentally close your browser and it wasn’t set to restore the pages that were open last? Instead of being frustrated, simply use a command line switch for Chrome and restore the previous session. I do this enough that I went ahead and made a Restore Session shortcut on my desktop that sits next to my regular Google Chrome shortcut.
To do this from a command prompt, use one of the following:
Vista:
C:\Users\
XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\
where username is the username whose profile contains the Google Chrome installation.
To create a shortcut:
1. Copy the shortcut for Google Chrome and paste it on the desktop.
2. Rename the shortcut to Restore Last Session.
3. Right-click the new icon and select Properties.
4. In the Target textbox, go to the end of the path and after chrome.exe, insert a space and input the following:
--restore-last-session
5. Click OK.
Now you have a way to restore the last session, regardless of the way you have configured Google Chrome to startup.
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November 21, 2008 at 6:04 am, sss said:
it doesnt work buddy.. properties would not allowe the change and addition… is it a scam or what+
January 03, 2009 at 1:16 am, nick said:
or you can use FF
August 16, 2009 at 3:28 pm, sue said:
nope, doesn’t work. guess i should have read the comments first, eh?
September 07, 2009 at 8:58 am, Mr Anderson said:
works fine, thanks for the tip !
November 02, 2009 at 6:36 pm, Hector Leach Clay said:
Wats a command prompt?
December 03, 2009 at 1:19 pm, Shotty said:
The command prompt brings up a text based user interface similar to DOS. It has very little use for most computer users, but for geeks it’s a useful tool. See http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial76.html for more information.
December 03, 2009 at 12:53 pm, Shotty said:
For the shourtcut you should add ‘-restore-last-session’ at the end of the , just one dash at the beginning(without the quotes)
From the command prompt enter C:UsersYourUserNameHereAppDataLocalGoogleChromeApplicationchrome.exe -restore-last-session, replacing YourUserNameHere with(obviously) your username.
December 03, 2009 at 12:57 pm, Shotty said:
First sentence should read “For the shourtcut you should add ‘-restore-last-session’ at the end of the target text box, just one dash at the beginning(without the quotes)”
Should have proofread :/
January 05, 2010 at 3:58 pm, Name said:
“I do this enough that I went ahead and made a Restore Session shortcut on my desktop that sits next to my regular Google Chrome shortcut.”
Uh… If you do it “enough,” then why don’t you just configure Chrome to restore your session upon startup by default?
And to the person who said “use FF,” FF is garbage. It’s bloated, slow and clunky.
May 26, 2010 at 1:41 pm, Didn't worked for me said:
I tried man, but it did not work. I don’t have the application data folder, or I have it but in another adress. thank you
May 26, 2010 at 1:41 pm, Didn't worked for me said:
I tried man, but it did not work. I don’t have the application data folder, or I have it but in another adress. thank you
June 28, 2010 at 11:38 am, Tam said:
Great it just did restore my _current_ session …..
November 19, 2010 at 12:36 pm, Hotboxsnowcave said:
Nice – works a treat. Thanks.
January 22, 2011 at 6:03 pm, Rod said:
Worked fine here. That’s exactly what I was looking for, thanks.
March 12, 2011 at 11:42 am, Aaaaa said:
it didn’t work buddy in windows 7 !
September 07, 2011 at 6:37 am, Tim said:
With current version of Chrome, if you always want your last session restored, this can be achieved by simply going into Options and at the top of the Basics panel select “Reopen the pages that were opened last”
January 29, 2012 at 9:26 pm, human mathematics said:
To everybody leaving comments like “Look in recently closed tabs” or “Set your default to open pages that were open on the last session” or “Ctrl + Shift + T”:
that DOES NOT WORK every single time. If the system crashes it’s possible that none of the pre-set methods will work. This kind of advice is just insulting, like asking if you’ve restarted your computer. Yes: I’ve already tried that; I’m not stupid.
March 18, 2012 at 8:35 am, Samir said:
I accidentally closed my Google Chrome window with about 12 tabs open. To restore the session, I tried the method described above and it didn’t work for me. I tried using both one and two dashes (-) in the command. That didn’t help. Maybe because I had already started a new Google Chrome window, which perhaps resulted in that the command was only restoring an empty (default) session.
March 18, 2012 at 8:36 am, Samir said:
Then I read what “human mathematics” wrote about the command for restoring previously closed tabs, the ctrl+shift+t command. This helped! I started pressing the command once, and it restored one tab, then twice, it restored another tab, and then third time it not only restored one more tab but a whole bunch of tabs in a separate Google Chrome window. Hence, this key combo not only restores previously closed tabs within the session and window you are in currently, but it also restores tabs from previous sessions.
Thank you “human mathematics”!
June 21, 2012 at 9:40 pm, Christopher said:
Yes! ctrl+shift+t works! Keep pressing it as it goes back through the previously closed tabs/windows!
Thank you Samir and thank you “human mathematics”!
June 21, 2012 at 9:44 pm, Christopher said:
Yes! Ctrl+Shift+T works!! Keep pressing it until what you lost loads up as it goes through all the previously open tabs/windows!
Thank you “human mathematics”!
April 03, 2012 at 7:27 am, Kostas said:
It works !!!!!!!!!
April 19, 2012 at 12:20 pm, roman said:
yes, use opera, the chrome became too buggy
May 15, 2012 at 2:48 pm, AM 2 PM_Programmer said:
cool works like a charm
whose the …hole sayin its not workin … works fne in xp,vista, an win 7 not chekd in lnux & mac though ….. u need to at least whats cmd or else u r not capable of reading this article
May 24, 2012 at 5:56 am, N said:
C:\Users\[YOU PUT YOUR USER HERE like MR___'S COMPUTER]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe –restore-last-session
then it should let you change it xD
July 04, 2012 at 6:14 am, Thea said:
Great! Thanks for the tip! It worked after I noticed the space after exe!
July 17, 2012 at 8:46 pm, minhal shah said:
How To Get Rid Restore Option Please Help Me!!!!!!!!!!!
August 19, 2012 at 7:38 am, suck said:
This sucks really bad job on this redo it for us please i gonna kill my sell
September 09, 2012 at 8:00 am, krys293 said:
if you accidentally closed your chrome browser, all you need to do is open it up again, right click on the tabs bar and select “reopen closed tab”, it will open all the tabs you had previously
September 15, 2012 at 9:24 pm, Mark said:
Using W7 & Chrome 21.0.1180.89, this solution works well, even though not as automated as with Firefox:
1. Settings -> On startup -> Continue where I left off.
2. With several Chrome windows open, each with a few tabs, right-click Close all windows.
3. Reopen Chrome – only one window will be restored.
4. Open a new Chrome window (not tab). Bottom right click Recently closed. There’s a list not only with closed pages but also ‘XX tabs’. I start from top and click eg. ’12 tabs’. That previous window with 12 tabs is now restored.
Start over from 4 and click next ‘XX tabs’ under Recently closed, eg. ’8 tabs’. Etc…
October 29, 2012 at 6:47 pm, mitch said:
worked perfectly for me with XP. THANK YOU!!!
March 30, 2013 at 4:38 am, mc said:
can it be done on mac?