I’ve lost hundreds of vital Chrome bookmarks – HELP!

[Deisel Weisel]

I’ve been experiencing all sorts of niggles with Chrome, since about a month ago, when Chrome automatically upgraded to v53/54. I found a thread on Googles Chrome help forum, where there were other users trying to resolve the same issues. I tried a few solutions mentioned in that help thread, but nothing worked, so the one remaining solution was to download v52 of Chrome and to hope there was some way of stopping it upgrading to v53/4.

 

Without thinking, I followed the procedure as worded by someone on that help thread, which read: ‘Uninstal Chrome v53/54 and download and install v52’. Now that should have been around the other way, and that uninstall has deleted all those bookmarks, before v52 had a chance to import them. Stupid mistake. There were about 500-1000 bookmarks in total.

 

I then thought maybe a system restore might be the solution. I’m using Windows 7, followed the instructions I found online, but there only appeared to be one restore point listed, which was the 21st of November. So I went with that, and my pc goes through the procedure, restarts, log-in, only to be told the restore has failed, and gives a fail code.

 

Is there another way to do this?

 

Hopefully someone can help, because I’m desperate to retrieve those bookmarks.

[metallithrax]

Didn't you ever sign in to chrome and sync your stuff?

[Deisel Weisel]

Just now, metallithrax said:

Didn't you ever sign in to chrome and sync your stuff?

 

No 

[+Warwagon MVC]

15 minutes ago, Deisel Weisel said:

 

No 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though it said the system restore failed, did you check to see if they were there? I've had system restore tell me it failed a bunch of times ,only to actually succeed.

 

An uninstall of chrome won't remove bookmarks unless you check the box to also remove the user data as well.

 

Take a look at C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

 

Look for a bookmark.bak file. 

 

if you've recently upgraded Windows, look to see if you have a windows .old directory on the root of C ... that should be a backup of all of your stuff including bookmarks.

 

Otherwise, try downloading recuvia and doing a deep scan on that folder location (or if that doesn't work try just doing a deep scan on the entire drive) .

 

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

 

then search the scan for a (what should be a large) file called bookmarks.

[Deisel Weisel]

21 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Even though it said the system restore failed, did you check to see if they were there? I've had system restore tell me it failed a bunch of times ,only to actually succeed.

Yes, I checked. The PC in question is at the office, but I’m now at home, otherwise I’d check again.

 

One curious thing: I set the homepage on the new install of Chrome v52 to google.co.uk and on the bottom half of that page are the 8 quick-link thumbs of my most visited sites. I wonder where it got those from?

Edited November 29, 2016 by Deisel Weisel

[Deisel Weisel]

31 minutes ago, warwagon said:

An uninstall of chrome won't remove bookmarks unless you check the box to also remove the user data as well.

 

Take a look at C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

 

Look for a bookmark.bak file. 

 

if you've recently upgraded Windows, look to see if you have a windows .old directory on the root of C ... that should be a backup of all of your stuff including bookmarks.

 

Otherwise, try downloading recuvia and doing a deep scan on that folder location (or if that doesn't work try just doing a deep scan on the entire drive) .

 

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

 

then search the scan for a (what should be a large) file called bookmarks.

That's super helpful warwagon. Thanks.  I'll be trying all this first thing tomorrow, when I return to the office, and I'll report back. 

[Deisel Weisel]

@+warwagon

 

I found my bookmarks, thanks to your help. I found the appropriate files in here:

14 hours ago, warwagon said:

Take a look at C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

It prompted me to download a file viewer. Tried the ‘Bookmarks BAK file’ and it had no bookmarks in there. Tried ‘Bookmarks file’ and there appeared to be a pretty comprehensive list.

 

I then went back and right clicked on both those file options and noticed ‘Restore previous versions’ options. ‘Bookmarks BAK file’ had one restore date from the 18th of Nov. ‘Bookmarks file’ had two options, from the 29th and 21st. 29th when viewed had no bookmarks, 21st had a big list, so I went with that, and it restored all bookmarks to Chrome. I’ve lost just a handful in that missing week, but that’s no real problem.

 

Thanks again 

[+Warwagon MVC]

3 hours ago, Deisel Weisel said:

@+warwagon

 

I found my bookmarks, thanks to your help. I found the appropriate files in here:

It prompted me to download a file viewer. Tried the ‘Bookmarks BAK file’ and it had no bookmarks in there. Tried ‘Bookmarks file’ and there appeared to be a pretty comprehensive list.

 

I then went back and right clicked on both those file options and noticed ‘Restore previous versions’ options. ‘Bookmarks BAK file’ had one restore date from the 18th of Nov. ‘Bookmarks file’ had two options, from the 29th and 21st. 29th when viewed had no bookmarks, 21st had a big list, so I went with that, and it restored all bookmarks to Chrome. I’ve lost just a handful in that missing week, but that’s no real problem.

 

Thanks again