How-to guide
How to Restart Chrome Without Losing Your Tabs
How-to
How to Restart Chrome Without Losing Your Tabs
On this page
- The short answer
- What happens to your tabs when Chrome restarts?
- How do you turn on "Continue where you left off" in Chrome?
- What does chrome://restart do?
- Which restart method actually keeps your tabs?
- Should you save your session with an extension before restarting?
- What do you do if your tabs don't come back after restarting?
- Startup page, homepage, and New Tab page: what's the difference?
- Does this work the same way on a Chromebook or phone?
- Quick checklist before you restart Chrome
- Frequently asked
The short answer
Turn on Chrome's Continue where you left off setting, then use chrome://restart instead of closing the window — it relaunches Chrome and reopens every tab. Session Buddy or OneTab add a backup by saving your open tabs to a list first, so nothing disappears if the restart goes wrong.
What happens to your tabs when Chrome restarts?
Whether Chrome keeps your tabs after a restart depends on one setting: what you told it to do under On startup. If Chrome is set to open the New Tab page, every tab closes and you start clean. If it's set to Continue where you left off, Chrome saves your open tabs and reopens them the next time it launches, according to Google's Chrome help page.
This matters because "restart" isn't one action. Closing Chrome and reopening it, using the built-in chrome://restart command, and restarting your whole computer all rely on the same startup setting — but they don't always feel the same in practice, especially if Chrome updated in the background or a tab crashed.
Startup page vs homepage
Your startup page is what loads when Chrome first opens. Your homepage is what loads when you click Home next to the address bar. Chrome treats them separately, so changing one doesn't touch the other.
How do you turn on "Continue where you left off" in Chrome?
Open Chrome's settings and switch the startup option to Continue where you left off. This is the setting that makes any restart — planned or accidental — reopen your tabs automatically.
- On your computer, open Chrome.
- At the top right, select More, then Settings.
- On the left, select On startup.
- Choose Continue where you left off.
Do this before you restart, not after
If Chrome is currently set to open a specific page or the New Tab page, switching to Continue where you left off only protects tabs you open from now on — it won't recover tabs you already closed. Check it before you need it.
What does chrome://restart do?
Typing chrome://restart into the address bar and pressing Enter closes every Chrome window and relaunches the browser immediately, without the extra confirmation dialog you sometimes see when quitting normally. It's a fast way to apply an update or clear a stuck extension without shutting down your whole computer.
chrome://restartWith Continue where you left off turned on, chrome://restart reopens the same tabs you had before, the same way quitting and reopening Chrome by hand does. It doesn't skip or bypass that setting — it just automates the close-and-reopen step.
It closes everything at once
chrome://restart doesn't pause to ask which windows to keep open. If you're mid-download or filling out a long form in a tab, finish or save that first.
Which restart method actually keeps your tabs?
All three common ways to restart Chrome rely on the same startup setting, but they differ in speed and in what else they touch.
| Method | Keeps tabs if Continue where you left off is on | Best for |
|---|---|---|
chrome://restart | Yes, reopens the same tabs | Applying an update or freeing memory without touching the rest of your computer |
| Quit Chrome and reopen it | Yes, reopens the same tabs | A normal restart when the browser feels sluggish |
| Restart your whole computer | Yes, as long as Chrome had time to save session data before shutdown | Windows or Chrome OS updates that require a full reboot |
| Force-quit Chrome (crash or Task Manager) | Depends — a session saved just before the crash may not have finished writing to disk | Situations you can't control, like a frozen tab or crash |
Force-quits are the risky case
A clean restart almost always keeps your tabs. A crash or force-quit is the scenario worth protecting against separately, since Chrome may not finish saving your session first.
Should you save your session with an extension before restarting?
Built-in session restore is enough for a routine restart. An extension is worth adding when you want a backup you control, or when you're closing dozens of tabs and want them as a readable list instead of live tabs draining memory. For broader tab organization, see Find Extensions' tab manager hub.
Extensions worth adding for tab and session safety
-
Session BuddyFree
Productivity
Saves your open tabs and windows to a local list you can restore by name, so you have a backup that doesn't depend on Chrome's built-in session restore working correctly.
-
OneTabFree
Productivity
Collapses every open tab into a single link list before you restart, cutting memory use and giving you a list you can restore all at once or one link at a time.
-
Read LaterFree
Productivity
Good for tabs you're not actively working in — save the link and close the tab instead of keeping it open through every restart.
-
Developer Tools
Lets you inspect and back up cookies for specific sites, which matters if you've turned on Chrome's setting to delete site data on close and don't want to be signed out after every restart.
-
Split ScreenFree
Productivity
Once your tabs are back, arrange the ones you need side by side in tiled windows instead of scrolling through a single restored session.
OneTab has alternatives worth comparing
If OneTab's tab-list approach appeals to you, see OneTab alternatives for other ways to collapse and restore tab lists.
What do you do if your tabs don't come back after restarting?
Check the startup setting first. If it's set to Open a specific page or set of pages or the New Tab page, Chrome never intended to restore your old tabs — it opened what you configured on purpose.
- Open
chrome://settings/onStartupand confirm Continue where you left off is selected. - Check whether you were signed out — tabs only sync across devices if you're signed into your Google account with sync turned on.
- Look for a second Chrome window or profile — restored tabs sometimes land in a different window than the one you expect.
- If your homepage or startup page changed without you setting it, treat it as a warning sign: Google describes this as a possible sign of unwanted software and recommends resetting your browser settings.
Site-data settings can look like lost tabs
If you've turned on Delete data sites have saved on your device when you close all windows, sites you were logged into may reopen but ask you to sign in again. That's a site-data setting working as intended, not a lost session.
Startup page, homepage, and New Tab page: what's the difference?
These three terms get used interchangeably, but Chrome treats them as three separate settings.
- Startup page
- What loads when you first launch Chrome. Controlled by the On startup setting in Chrome Settings.
- Homepage
- What loads when you click the Home button next to the address bar. Off by default and separate from your startup page.
- New Tab page
- What loads when you open a new tab with
Ctrl+Shift+Treopening a closed one, or a plain new tab. Can also be set as your startup page, but doesn't have to be.
Does this work the same way on a Chromebook or phone?
Not entirely. On a Chromebook managed by a school or workplace, your network administrator controls the startup and homepage settings, according to Google, so you may not be able to change On startup yourself. If you're troubleshooting a school or work Chromebook more broadly, see how to powerwash a Chromebook — a full reset is a far more drastic step than a restart.
On Android and iPhone, Chrome doesn't have a chrome://restart command or the same On startup settings; closing and reopening the app relies on tab sync instead. See Chrome extensions on Android and iPhone for what mobile Chrome does and doesn't support.
Quick checklist before you restart Chrome
- Set On startup to Continue where you left off once, so every future restart is covered.
- Use
chrome://restartfor routine restarts instead of force-quitting Chrome. - If you're closing a large number of tabs, save them to a list with an extension like Session Buddy or OneTab first.
- After restarting, check
chrome://settings/onStartupif tabs are missing, before assuming they're gone for good.
Related reading
If it's tabs disappearing rather than a full restart that brought you here, see how to reopen closed tabs in Chrome. If a hijacked homepage was the real problem, resetting Chrome's settings undoes unwanted changes without a full restart.
Extensions mentioned in this guide
- Session BuddySaves and restores browser sessions, tabs, and bookmarks locally
- OneTabCollapse all tabs into one list.
- Read LaterStore links to read later and keep your open tabs organized
- Advanced Cookie ManagerManage, search, and bulk-edit cookies across all your open tabs
- Split ScreenSplit tabs into real windows, tile them, and save layouts for multi-monitor setups.
Frequently asked
What's the quickest way to restart your Chrome without losing tabs?
Turn on Continue where you left off under Chrome Settings > On startup, then close and reopen Chrome, or use chrome://restart. With that setting on, your tabs reopen automatically.
How do you restart Chrome browser on Windows?
Close every Chrome window, or type chrome://restart in the address bar, and reopen the Chrome icon. Windows doesn't have its own restart command — Chrome's own startup setting decides whether tabs come back.
How do you restart the Chrome browser on a Mac?
Quit Chrome with Cmd+Q, or use chrome://restart, then reopen it from the dock or Applications folder. The same On startup setting applies on macOS as on Windows.
What is chrome://restart used for?
It's a built-in command that closes and relaunches Chrome immediately, often used after an extension update or when the browser feels sluggish, without shutting down the rest of your computer.
Does restarting Chrome delete your browsing history?
No. Restarting only affects open tabs and windows, based on your On startup setting. Browsing history is separate and stays until you clear it manually.
Why did my tabs disappear after I restarted Chrome?
Check chrome://settings/onStartup — if it's set to the New Tab page or a specific page instead of Continue where you left off, Chrome opens what you configured rather than your previous tabs.
How do you restart a single Chrome extension without restarting the whole browser?
Go to chrome://extensions, toggle the extension off and back on, or click its reload icon with developer mode turned on. This reloads one extension without closing any tabs.
Can an extension save my tabs before I restart Chrome?
Yes. Extensions like Session Buddy and OneTab save your open tabs to a list you can restore later, as a backup separate from Chrome's built-in session restore.
Does chrome://restart save open tabs automatically?
It relies on the same Continue where you left off setting as any other restart. Turn that setting on first — chrome://restart itself doesn't have a separate save option.
Why does Chrome sign me out of sites every time I restart?
This usually means Delete data sites have saved on your device when you close all windows is turned on, under Privacy and security > Site settings. Turning it off keeps you signed in across restarts.
Is restarting Chrome the same as resetting Chrome?
No. Restarting just closes and reopens the browser. Resetting Chrome settings clears your startup pages, homepage, and other customizations back to default — see how to reset Chrome settings.
Can you restart Chrome on a school or work Chromebook the same way?
The restart itself works the same, but on a managed Chromebook your network administrator may control the startup page setting, so you might not be able to change what reopens.