Back up your bookmarks automatically

Sync is not a backup. Delete a folder by mistake and sync deletes it on every computer you own. A backup is a dated copy you can go back to, and getting one made on a schedule takes either a scheduled task or an extension.

What Chrome keeps on its own

If you deleted something in the bookmark manager a moment ago, Ctrl+Z there brings it back. Beyond that, Chrome keeps one older copy of your bookmarks, a file called Bookmarks.bak next to Bookmarks in your profile folder. It is replaced as Chrome runs, so it only helps if you notice the loss quickly.

A scheduled copy on Windows

Save these four lines as backup-bookmarks.ps1. Each run copies Chrome's Bookmarks file into Documents with the date in its name:

$src = "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks"
$dst = "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Bookmark backups"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $dst | Out-Null
Copy-Item $src (Join-Path $dst ("Bookmarks-" + (Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd") + ".json"))

Then open Task Scheduler, choose Create Basic Task, pick Weekly, and for the action start powershell.exe with the arguments -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\path\to\backup-bookmarks.ps1".

On a Mac the copy is one line, which you can put in a small shell script for launchd or cron to run:

cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Bookmarks ~/Documents/Bookmarks-$(date +%F).json

These copies are in Chrome's own format, which Import bookmarks does not read. To restore one, close Chrome and copy it over the Bookmarks file in your profile folder.

With Export Bookmarks and History (Pro)

Scheduled backups are a Pro feature of my bookmarks extension. They save a file into a folder inside Downloads, in a format you can open or import again.

Click the extension's icon, then the gear icon to open its settings.
Under Scheduled bookmark backup, tick Enable scheduled backups and pick Daily or Weekly and the hour.
Choose HTML if you want a file any browser can import, CSV or XLSX for a spreadsheet, or JSON. The default folder is Bookmark Backups inside Downloads.
Click Back up now. The line under the button shows the file it wrote and when the next one is due.

The Scheduled bookmark backup settings: weekly at 9:00 AM, HTML format, Bookmark Backups folder, with the last backup and next run shown — Weekly at 9:00, as HTML. The status line comes from a real Back up now run on a test profile with 4,812 bookmarks.

Backups run while the browser is open. If the computer was off at the scheduled time, the missed one runs the next time the browser starts. They cover bookmarks only, not history.

Updated 14 October 2026.