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Q. Please help! I accidentally closed an important tab I had open in Chrome and now I can’t find the website again. I admit it, I keep way too many tabs open and I was trying to click on a tab but instead, I clicked on the X and closed it.
Not only am I struggling to find the website, I’m worried that I will do this again with another important tab. I know I shouldn’t keep so many tabs open but that’s a hard habit to break.
Can you let me know how I can reopen tabs that I accidentally closed? Thanks for your help!
A. I’m happy to help. You’re not alone, no many how tabs you keep open in your browser, you can easily close a tab accidentally. Maybe the website you’re trying to open again is easy to find, you might even have it bookmarked. Or maybe it’s elusive and you just can’t seem to find it.
Either way, you can easily reopen closed tabs in Chrome. And that’s true whether you recently closed a tab or whether you closed it a while ago.
How to Reopen a Closed Tab
There are three easy ways to open a closed tab in Chrome. You can check out all three and see which one works best for you.
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One way works best if you’re trying to reopen only the most recently closed tab. The other two work best if you’re trying to reopen tabs you closed earlier.
Right-Click an Empty Space in the Tab Bar
To easily open the last tab you closed, right-click on the empty space on your Chrome tab bar. The empty space is nestled between the plus sign + and the down arrow ∨.
A drop-down menu will appear. Click Reopen Closed Tab.
Your most recently closed tab will reopen in the place where it was open before you closed it.
Note that this method only works to open your most recently closed tab.
Tip => If you have a lot of open tabs and can’t find a tab, click the down arrow on the right side of the Chrome tab bar to show a list of your open tab. Use Search to search for an open tab.
Use a Keyboard Shortcut
If you need to reopen tabs frequently, you can use a keyboard shortcut to reopen your most recently closed tab.
For Windows, press Ctrl+Shift+T simultaneously.
For Mac, press Cmd+Shift+T simultaneously.
The tab you most recently closed will instantly open in the place where you had it opened.
You can keep using this keyboard shortcut to open multiple tabs. This is helpful when you realize that the tab you accidentally closed isn’t the most recently closed tab.
Use Chrome History
To reopen a closed tab, you can use the History section of the Chrome menu. This method works best for tabs you closed in the past. In History, you can see a list of the tabs you’ve closed, in the order in which you closed them.
To open Chrome History, click the three dots at the right side of your bookmark bar, then place your cursor over History in the drop-down menu.
A History menu will appear with a list of your recently closed tabs. Click the tab you want to reopen.
Your Thoughts
Have you ever accidentally closed a tab? Have you struggled to find a website from a recently closed tab? Which of these methods for opening closed tabs work best for you?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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*Computer User image (edited) courtesy of Shutterstock via PicMonkey Pro
I already knew the shortcuts to open the closed tab. Is there any way to reopen closed tabs in incognito mode?
Great question. Incognito mode is, by definition, where Chrome doesn’t track your browsing history. From Google, “If you don’t want Google Chrome to remember your activity, you can browse the web privately in Incognito mode.”
So the methods for reopening closed tabs mentioned in this article do not work if you are using incognito mode in Chrome. You could use a third-party extension to reopen closed tabs in Chrome incognito mode, but then you are sharing your browsing history with that third-party.
Hi Carolyn
I really don’t know about that. Today I learn a necessary technic. It’s beneficial for me.
Thank you!
Hi Sadhan, I’m so glad that this article was helpful for you. When you accidentally close a tab, you can easily panic, if the tab was important to you. With these three methods of reopening closed tabs you can easily retrieve them and not worry about trying to find them again.