Member Avatar for Siberian

I did a mistake and deleted the only user in my Chromium based browser, all my bookmarks up to recent bookmarks, gone, saved sessions, gone. There is no way to recover either, just a warning to anyone.

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Good summary of the problem from and a useful prompt from — deleting a Chromium “user” typically deletes that profile folder, and bookmarks/sessions are just files in the profile. The fastest, least-risk checks are listed below (do them before anything that writes to the disk).

First, stop using Chromium (close it and end background processes). Check the Recycle Bin and the local profile path for leftover files. Typical Windows paths to inspect are:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Chromium\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Chromium\User Data\Default\Bookmarks.bak
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks

If you find Bookmarks.bak, copy it out and rename it to Bookmarks (keep originals backed up) and then restart Chromium. If you have a system/image backup (as suggested), mount the image and browse to the same path inside the mounted image — you can extract just the User Data\Default folder without restoring the whole image. Also try Windows “Previous Versions” (right‑click the User Data or Default folder → Properties → Previous Versions) if Shadow Copies were enabled.

If the profile folder was permanently deleted and not present in any backup, stop writing to the drive and run file-recovery software from a separate USB drive (examples: Recuva, PhotoRec, or other recovery tools). Scan for files named Bookmarks, Bookmarks.bak, and session files like Current Session / Last Session or Current Tabs / Last Tabs. Recover found files to a different drive, then copy them into a new profile folder and start Chromium to test.

Prevention: enable a sync service (Chrome with a Google account if you want server-side sync), export bookmarks regularly (Bookmarks → Export), or schedule image backups of your user profile. If you recover files, make a local export (HTML) immediately so a future mistake won’t lose recent additions.

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Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

You could restore it from your most recent backup. You do do backups, right?

Member Avatar for Siberian

I tried recovery from a backup I had from January, I added a few bookmarks since then, but not alot. The backup from a system backup did not work !

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

What kind of backup? If it was an image backup like Macrium Reflect or Acronis you should be able to recover the entire profile folder without having to restore the entire image.

Member Avatar for Siberian

I assume Googles profile folder, correct ? Any other suggestions how can I recover any bookmarks added from the January backup until today ?

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

No suggestions on that I'm afraid. That's why I generally export my bookmarks weekly.

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