Free Bookmark Backup Reader: Restore Bookmarks in Chrome, Edge and Firefox

How to Restore Deleted Bookmarks in Chrome

Whether you need to restore deleted bookmarks Chrome still has in Bookmarks.bak, or recover deleted bookmarks Chrome removed during a sync, this is the safe route: you never overwrite Chrome’s own files, and you only bring back what’s actually missing. It works the same way in Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi, because they all store bookmarks in the same Chromium format.

1. Try Undo first

   If you deleted the bookmark a moment ago, open the bookmark manager (Ctrl+Shift+O, or Cmd+Shift+O on a Mac) and press Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z. Chrome also shows an Undo button right after a delete there. If that brings it back, you’re done.

2. Turn off sync for now

   If you use Chrome sync, pause it before you do anything else, so your other devices don’t push the deletion back while you work. You’ll turn it on again at the end.

3. Copy the two bookmark files

   Open chrome://version, note the Profile Path, and open that folder. Copy Bookmarks and Bookmarks.bak to your desktop. Working on copies means nothing you do here can damage the originals.

4. Open both copies in the tool above

   Drop both files into the box. The tool works out which one is older and lists every bookmark and folder that’s in the older file but missing from the newer one.

5. Export only the missing bookmarks

   Choose “Missing from newer file”, check the list, and download it as bookmarks.html. The file keeps the original folder structure under a folder called Recovered bookmarks.

6. Import the file back into Chrome

   In the bookmark manager, open the ⋮ menu at the top right and choose Import bookmarks, then pick the downloaded file. Move the recovered folders where you want them, then turn sync back on.

How Do I Restore Chrome Bookmarks From Bookmarks.bak by Hand?

The classic fix is to swap the backup in for the current file. It works, but it replaces every bookmark with the backup’s version, so anything you added since the backup was written is lost. Comparing the two files first (with the tool above) tells you whether that trade is worth it.

• Quit Chrome completely. On Windows, check the system tray; on a Mac, use Chrome, then Quit Chrome. Chrome rewrites Bookmarks while it’s running.
• In the profile folder, rename Bookmarks to Bookmarks.old. Keep it: it’s your way back.
• Make a copy of Bookmarks.bak and rename the copy to Bookmarks (no extension). On Windows, turn on File name extensions in File Explorer’s View menu so you don’t end up with Bookmarks.bak.txt or similar.
• With sync paused, start Chrome and check the bookmarks. If they look right, turn sync back on.

Don’t start and close Chrome several times before you copy Bookmarks.bak. Chrome writes a fresh backup early in each session, so a restart after the deletion can overwrite the backup with the already-damaged bookmarks.

Where Is the Chrome Bookmarks File Location?

Chrome keeps bookmarks in a file called Bookmarks, with no extension, inside your profile folder. The backup, Bookmarks.bak, sits next to it. The first profile is in a folder called Default; extra profiles are called Profile 1, Profile 2 and so on. The fastest way to find the right one is to type chrome://version (or edge://version, brave://version, vivaldi://about, opera://about) and read the Profile Path line.

On a Mac, ~/Library is hidden. In Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G and paste the path. On Windows, paste the path into File Explorer’s address bar; %LOCALAPPDATA% expands by itself.

What Is Bookmarks.bak, and Is It a Real Chrome Bookmarks Backup?

Bookmarks.bak is a single copy of your Bookmarks file that Chrome makes once per session. In Chromium’s source code, the backup is written just before the first save after the browser starts: the first time you add, move, rename or delete a bookmark, Chrome copies the old file to Bookmarks.bak, then writes the new one. Later changes in the same session don’t touch the backup.

That timing is why Bookmarks.bak can save you, and why it’s fragile. If you deleted a folder this morning and Chrome has been open since, the backup probably still holds the folder. If you restarted Chrome and changed any bookmark afterwards, the backup was replaced with the post-deletion state and the folder is gone from both files.

There’s only ever one backup, no history, and no dates. It isn’t a full Chrome bookmarks backup in the sense most people mean. For that, export your bookmarks to an HTML file from time to time, or keep a copy of the profile folder in your regular computer backup.

Newer versions of Chrome add a wrinkle. If you’re signed in to Chrome without sync turned on, bookmarks saved to your Google Account live in a separate file called AccountBookmarks, and Chromium’s code skips the backup for that file by design. Only the Bookmarks file on this device gets a .bak.

Both files are plain JSON. Each bookmark has a name, a url, a type (url or folder) and a date_added value counted in microseconds since 1 January 1601, the Windows file-time epoch. The tool converts those dates so you can see when each bookmark was created.

How to Restore Firefox Bookmarks From a Backup

Firefox bookmarks backup works better than Chrome’s. Firefox saves dated copies of your bookmarks in a folder called bookmarkbackups inside your profile and keeps the last 15 by default (the browser.bookmarks.max_backups setting). Each file is named like bookmarks-2026-09-20_1204_ab12….jsonlz4: the date, the number of bookmarks, and a hash.

To restore one inside Firefox, open the Library with Ctrl+Shift+O (Cmd+Shift+O on a Mac), click Import and Backup, then Restore, and pick a date. Firefox asks for confirmation because a restore replaces all of your current bookmarks with the backup, including anything added since.

That’s where this tool helps. The Restore menu shows only dates, not contents. Drop two backups from the bookmarkbackups folder into the tool to see what’s in each, and what changed between them. If you want only the missing bookmarks, export them as bookmarks.html and use Import and Backup, then Import Bookmarks from HTML, which adds rather than replaces.

What is jsonlz4? It’s JSON compressed with LZ4 and wrapped in Mozilla’s own header, the text mozLz40 followed by the uncompressed size. Text editors show it as gibberish, and standard lz4 command-line tools won’t open it because of that header. The tool decompresses it in your browser.

Why Did My Bookmarks Disappear After I Restored Them?

Usually because of sync. Chrome sync keeps a copy of your bookmarks on Google’s servers and treats a deletion like any other change: it sends it to every signed-in device. If you restore an old file while sync is running, Chrome may treat the server copy as the truth and delete your restored bookmarks again, or merge the two in ways you didn’t expect.

Pause sync before you restore anything, whether that means Undo, swapping in Bookmarks.bak or importing an HTML file. When the bookmarks look right locally, turn sync back on. If the deletion keeps coming back, Google’s help page says you can remove the synced copy at chrome.google.com/sync with Delete data, then turn sync on again from the computer that has the good bookmarks so it becomes the new copy.

Other common causes: a profile reset or a new profile (your bookmarks are still in the old profile folder), signing out of Chrome and choosing to remove data from the device, cleanup software that deletes browser data, and sharing one Google account across several people.

Deleting synced data is a drastic step. Export bookmarks.html from every computer you care about first, so you have a copy no matter what the server does.

How to Recover Deleted Bookmarks in Edge, Safari, Opera and Other Browsers

Every browser handles this differently, and the built-in safety nets have shrunk over time. Edge used to have a Restore deleted favorites button that kept deleted items for 28 days; Microsoft staff confirmed on Microsoft Q&A that it was removed in Edge 128.

How to Restore Safari Bookmarks

If Safari syncs with iCloud, Apple keeps archived versions of your bookmarks. Go to icloud.com/recovery, sign in, choose Restore Bookmarks, and click Restore next to a version from before the deletion. Apple’s guide notes that your current bookmarks are archived first, so you can change your mind, and that you shouldn’t edit bookmarks until the restore finishes.

Without iCloud, the bookmarks live in ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist. If you use Time Machine, quit Safari, open that folder in Finder, enter Time Machine, and restore Bookmarks.plist from before the deletion. That replaces all your Safari bookmarks. To read a copy of the file without replacing anything, use the Safari Bookmarks Exporter. This tool doesn’t read .plist files.

What the Comparison Shows: Real Examples

• A folder deleted by accident. Bookmarks.bak has “Work / Clients” with 42 bookmarks; the current file doesn’t. The diff lists the folder under missing folders and the 42 bookmarks under missing bookmarks, and exports them back into the same folder path.
• A sync that wiped a machine. Your laptop still has an old Bookmarks.bak from before sync ran. Compare it with the current file to see exactly what sync removed, instead of guessing from memory.
• Moved, not deleted. You think bookmarks vanished, but the diff shows zero missing and several moved. They’re still there, in a different folder. Search the newer file to find them.
• Picking a Firefox backup. You have 15 dated backups and don’t know which one has the missing folder. Open the newest and an older one, check the missing count, and move back in time until the folder appears.
• Cleaning up before importing. Search the older file, export just the matches as bookmarks.html, and import only what you want back.

Ways to Recover Deleted Bookmarks Compared

How the Tool Works and What Happens to Your Files

Everything runs in this page, on your computer. When you drop a file, your browser reads its bytes into memory; nothing is uploaded, stored on a server or logged. You can load the page, turn off your network connection, and the tool keeps working.

Chromium files are read as JSON. Firefox .jsonlz4 files are decompressed with a small LZ4 decoder, then read as JSON. Exported bookmarks.html files are parsed as the Netscape bookmark format that every browser exports. Firefox “smart” bookmarks (place: queries such as Most Visited) and separators are skipped, and so are Firefox tags, whose entries only repeat real bookmarks.

The comparison matches bookmarks by exact URL. A bookmark counts as missing if its URL appears nowhere in the newer file, and as moved if the URL exists but in a different folder. Folder paths are compared by name, so renaming a folder shows up as the old name missing.

Exports use the Netscape bookmark file format with nested folders and the original date added, so Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Vivaldi can all import them. CSV has one row per bookmark with its folder path, and JSON is a readable tree for scripts.

Limits and Troubleshooting

• “This file looks like JSON but is incomplete or damaged”: Chrome was probably writing the file when it was copied, or the disk is failing. Try Bookmarks.bak, or copy the file again with the browser closed.
• “This is a Safari Bookmarks.plist file”: use the Safari Bookmarks Exporter, which reads binary plists.
• “This is a database”: you picked places.sqlite. Firefox’s readable backups are in the bookmarkbackups folder next to it.
• Zero missing, but you’re sure something’s gone: the backup was already overwritten. Check older copies from Time Machine, File History or your cloud drive, or another computer that hasn’t synced yet (disconnect it from the network first).
• The tool can’t write into the browser’s files or reach Google, Microsoft or Apple servers. You bring the files; it gives you a file to import.

Can’t see Bookmarks.bak at all? Some browsers only create it after the first bookmark change in a session, and a brand-new profile may not have one yet.