How to Recover Deleted History on Google Chrome

Last Updated on April 17, 2023 by Jason Ben

I check my chrome history and draw a conclusion that I original browse up to 200 pages and 34 sites daily. Maybe you browse much more than I do. While some pages are opened unintentionally so if you haven’t added them to your bookmark, you will lose it in your mind very likely.

The Lucky thing is that Chrome has a feature called History where you can get the list of all pages that you have opened before unless you clear your browsing history. To open the History tab on Chrome is easy. Click over the three dots icon  on the top-right and a drop-down menu appears where you can find a History column, hover on it and click History on the right-open menu. Another easier way to open History is just simply pressing Ctrl + H.

On the Chrome History tab, you can search your history and by clicking more from this site behind each item, you can have a list of all visited pages with the same domain. What if you could not find your history? You may have deleted them, you may lose them due to re-installation, you may encounter with system failure can lead to impossibility of viewing your chrome browsing history. Don’t be panic, you still got a chance to recover those deleted histories.

Way 1 – Recover Deleted History on Google Chrome by viewing History on Other Devices

On the History tab, you will see Tabs from other devices, that is a supplementary feature with which you can view the histories of chrome browsing on other devices. If you are viewing on phone, then just find it by tapping on the three dots icon and tapping on Recent tabs, here you will have all your recent history on all your devices. Only you have signed in your Google account with Chrome on every device, can you enjoy this cross-device history feature. So, this is the first method of how to recover deleted history on Google Chrome by viewing them on other devices.

While there are two situations that you would be able to find the preview history:

1. Your wanted history hadn’t been synced to other devices before you deleted them.
2. Your deletion action has been synced to other devices which means the history has been deleted simultaneously.

Can’t find your history with this method? Then you can try to find history on Google My Activity where you will find that your activities are displayed in a more organized form.

Way 2 – Recover Deleted Chrome History by viewing Google Activity

Go to myactivity.google.com on your browser and log in with your Google account. Here all activities you generated with google products will be recorded, they are sorted by Search, Gmail, Android, Web browsing history and more. You can locate your history by category, date or devices. And you can even search your chrome browsing history, which may be a short cut for you.

Way 3 – Recover Deleted Chrome History by backup file from Google takeout

Google takeout is a service that lets you download your content in Google Account for backup or usage with external service. You can download all your content or only activities on Chrome instead. So, if you have a habit to back up Chrome data by downloading data from Google takeout regularly, then you can certainly recover your deleted Chrome history by viewing history in the downloaded backup file.

Way 4 – Recover Deleted Chrome History with Data Recovery Software

Chrome generates a file to store browsing history on Windows or macOS. The file name is “History” and it looks like this . Once you deleted or clear your history, the file is deleted and Chrome generate a new one when you start to view other pages afterward. Fortunately, all deleted files on Windows or macOS can be recovered with the right tool, here I will suggest you to try Data Recovery Software to recover chrome browsing history file.

To restore Google Chrome history file, you need to follow the steps as below carefully since the file is very tiny and fragile.

Step 1. Install Data Recovery on your Windows or Mac, please DO remember to install to the disk other than the one that stores the history file.

Step 2. Launch the program, Select Others as the file type to be scanned and the right drive that stores Chrome history file. Click Scan button and let the program do its job.

Step 3. When the analyzing process is finished, you will get thousands of files. To search the file by entering “history” in the search box is a more efficient way to locate it. Finally, put a tick in the box under the item that you want and click Recover.

Then, just make sure that the file is put back to the place that Chrome store history. As for your reference, chrome exploits the directories on Windows and macOS as below:

Windows: C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
macOS: /Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/

Restart your Chrome and press Ctrl + H to view your browsing history.

Related Article:

How to Recover Safari Bookmarks and Safari History on iPhone
How to Recover Deleted Safari Bookmark on Mac