Ask HN: I lost years of bookmarks because of Chrome's new design | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I lost years of bookmarks because of Chrome's new design

6 pointslatenightcoding6 comments

I was on a vacation and didn't realize Google added an "auto-login" feature to chrome, I work with sensitive data so naturally I tried to logout and accidentally deleted the person #1 on my browser, and just like that with no warnings I lost 7+ years of bookmarks.

Chrome used to create a bookmarks.bak file, I can't find it anymore. I had very important bookmarks there, what should I do. I have been searching for answers all morning and they all point to previous versions of chrome.

EDIT: I was able to recover my bookmarks because google synced (without my consent) all my browsing history and bookmarks yesterday at 3:20pm aparently, I don't know how to feel right now.

I'm glad you rescued your bookmarks. Make sure to always backup everything which is important for you. And thankfully Google is very backup-friendly: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

Switch to Chromium then?

http://chromium.woolyss.com/download/en/#windows

similarly, I lost 60 opened tabs on my iphone chrome.

When I don't have time for a long read, I keep the tab open, so they are like my temporary bookmarks. The new chrome iphone app introduced a new "close all tabs" button at the bottom left corner. I mistakenly pressed it.

At a certain point, bookmarks are just better. I also think at 60 open tabs, I'm not convinced the content was that interesting if you're never getting around to reading it.

Regardless, I have been mostly Firefox for a couple of years, with a little Safari thrown in, and I've been happy.

> I don't know how to feel right now.

Switch to Safari or Firefox.

You could feel grateful that Google saved your ass, embarrassed that it needed saving, and annoyed that Google caused the hazard it saved you from. Not creating a local backup file is probably their way of making you more dependent on them. I've accidentally lost bookmarks due to Firefox upgrades but only through my own most grievous fault (long story). Hoping not to sound like a jerk, I propose taking personal responsibility for backups and security of important and sensitive data as a way forward.

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