How to Restore Tabs in Chrome After Closing, a Crash or a Restart

To restore tabs in Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+T on Windows or Command+Shift+T on a Mac. Chrome reopens what you closed last, in reverse order, including a whole window of tabs if you closed a window. Press it again and it keeps going back.

That covers most accidents. When it does not, because Chrome crashed, the computer restarted, or you opened a new window and closed it last, there are still four more places to look. This guide goes through them in order of how likely they are to work.

The short answer#

• Press Ctrl+Shift+T or Command+Shift+T right away, more than once if needed.
• Check History, then Recently closed for whole windows.
• Turn on Continue where you left off so restarts bring tabs back.
• Look in your synced devices and History if the session itself is gone.

What we measured on a Mac#

Tested on a MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) with 16 GB of RAM, macOS 26.3, Chrome 155, October 21, 2026. We opened nine sites in a fresh profile, quit Chrome normally, launched it again and counted the tabs. We did it twice, once per startup setting.

With the default setting, your tabs are not lost: they are still in History, and Cmd+Shift+T (Ctrl+Shift+T on Windows) reopens the last window. But turning on Continue where you left off once means you never have to go looking.

1. The reopen shortcut#

Google's shortcut list describes Ctrl+Shift+T (Command+Shift+T on a Mac) as "Reopen previously closed tabs in the order they were closed."

• Closed one tab? It comes back.
• Closed a window? The whole window comes back.
• Closed a tab group? Its tabs come back.
• Pressing it repeatedly walks back through what you closed.

You can also right-click an empty spot in the tab strip and choose Reopen closed tab or Reopen closed window.

2. History, Recently closed#

1. Open History: Ctrl+H on Windows or Command+Y on a Mac, or the three-dot menu, then History.
2. In the menu version, look under Recently closed. Entries like "5 tabs" are whole windows; click one to reopen all of them.
3. On the full History page, search for a word from a page title or browse by day to find individual pages.

This is the best route after a crash, when the shortcut may not reach back far enough.

3. Continue where you left off#

If you want Chrome to reopen your tabs every time it starts:

1. Go to Settings, then On startup.
2. Choose Continue where you left off.

With this on, a restart or update brings your tabs back automatically. It only remembers the last session, though. If you close your main window, then open a new window and quit from that one, Chrome considers the new window your last session.

4. Tabs from other devices#

If you are signed in with sync on, open History and look at Tabs from other devices. Tabs you had open on your laptop, phone or another computer show up there. This does not restore a lost session on the same computer, but it often finds the one page you needed.

Restore tabs after a crash#

1. Reopen Chrome. After an unexpected shutdown, Chrome usually shows a message offering to Restore the pages.
2. If you missed it, press Ctrl+Shift+T or Command+Shift+T.
3. Still missing? Go to History, then Recently closed, and look for the window with many tabs.
4. Before browsing a lot in the new session, try these first. The more you open and close, the further back the old session gets pushed.

If Chrome keeps crashing or freezing, fix that next: see Chrome freezing and Chrome not responding.

Restore tabs after a restart or update#

If Chrome was set to Continue where you left off, tabs come back on their own. If not:

• Press Ctrl+Shift+T / Command+Shift+T right after opening Chrome.
• Check History, then Recently closed.
• Then set On startup to Continue where you left off for next time.

Why tabs disappear when you did not close them#

• Chrome crashed or was force quit. See above.
• Another window was closed last. Session restore reopens only the last window set.
• Signed out of a profile, or opened a different profile. Each profile has its own tabs. Check the profile picture at the top right.
• A cleanup tool or extension cleared session data. Some "privacy cleaners" wipe it on close.
• Memory Saver put them to sleep. They are still there; sleeping tabs look faded or have a ring around their icon and reload when clicked.

Never lose a tab set again#

Session restore is a safety net, not storage. For tabs you care about:

• Save every open tab with Ctrl+Shift+D (Command+Shift+D), which bookmarks them into a new folder. See how to save all tabs in Chrome.
• Put project tabs in a group and close the group when you are done. Closed groups stay saved. See Chrome tab groups.
• Use a session manager. Cleaner has a Tab Manager side panel that saves a group of tabs as a session (one free, unlimited in Pro for a one-time $19.99), and Pro also sleeps idle tabs so you can keep fewer of them live.

The bottom line#

Press Ctrl+Shift+T or Command+Shift+T first, then check History, then Recently closed. Turn on Continue where you left off so restarts bring your tabs back. And for anything you will want next week, save the tabs as bookmarks or a tab group rather than trusting the session to survive.