Overview- In this article, you will see ways to reset google chrome on Windows 7,8,8.1 & 10 to fix the different issue with Google’s browser.
There is no argument that Google Chrome is the fastest browser available, browsing the internet and downloading stuff online is faster than other browsers.
It is very lightweight and does not take much time to start and also open web pages faster, but sometimes due to a lot of junk files, cache and cookies it gets slow and does not function properly.
Also, if there are certain incompatible programs installed into your Windows computer then it may not work properly, you may face slower browsing, longer load time, or it may not open at all.
When it acquired much junk, cache, and cookies it also takes time to start and loads web pages slower than before. If your Google Chrome is slow, or you are getting any error then you can try to fix it by resetting Google Chrome to its default settings.
If you reset Google Chrome then it may work as usual, since a reset reverts back the original settings.
But before you reset Chrome to its default settings you should check for incompatible programs, there are 3 programs mentioned on Google Chrome support page which may affect your google chrome.
These are –
- Spyware Doctor
- Comodo Firewall
- McAfee Enterprise
If you have any of these programs then uninstall them and check if your chrome is working properly.
How To Reset Google Chrome To Default Settings
There are few methods to completely reset google chrome to default settings, these techniques works on Windows 7, 8/8.1 and Windows 10.
If you are using mac OSx then Skip to Mac Part
A complete uninstall and re-install will also work but you would lose all the chrome data. If you logged in to chrome then you should not worry about losing chrome data.
A logged in user can always retrieve their Chrome data like history, saved passwords, autofill form data, etc to any other computer or fresh google chrome on the same computer.
1. Resetting Google Chrome From Settings
If you are able to open Google Chrome but it does not work properly or keeps crashing after a certain time then you can use this method to reset chrome.
This will restore all the settings to default and it will also reset your homepage, new tab pages, and search engine, disable your extensions and unpin all tabs. It will also clear other temporary and cached data, such as cookies, content and site data.
Your bookmarks saved passwords and history will not be deleted. If you are skeptic about losing your data then make sure to sync all the data on Google server.
Just log in to Chrome using your Gmail and it will sync everything on the server. After reset if anything goes wrong you can always get your data back.
Here is how you can reset chrome from settings-
Step 2. Now you will get a new window will pop up with the list of various links, here Click on Settings.
Or you can type in chrome://settings/ in the address bar and hit enter to open settings.
Step 3. Once you click on Settings it will open another tab with all the settings like People (Chrome users), Appearance, Auto-fill, search engine, and start-up pages.
Scroll down to the bottom and Click on Advanced.
Step 4. Once you open advanced settings at the bottom of the page you will find the Reset Browser settings option.
Now Click on Restore settings to their original defaults.
Step 5. A pop-up window will come up and ask for confirmation Click on Reset Settings to confirm the restoration process.
Once you Reset chrome you will get clean Google Chrome with default settings.
2. Reset Chrome by Deleting The User Profile
There is another way to Reset Google Chrome by deleting the Default user profile, by deleting this folder you can ensure that every junk will be deleted from chrome, follow these steps below-
Step 1. Go to Start and search for the run, open the run window and type %appdata% in the run box hit OK.
Step 2. You will get Roaming folder, now go to AppData folder
and Navigate to Local > Google > Chrome > User Data.
The Full Path is C:\Users\My Lappy\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data only change the user account name to your user account name.
here you will get Default folder. Backup this folder first and exit chrome from the right bottom corner and Task manager as-
Step 3. Now Delete this Default folder.
All of your chrome user data, bookmarks, history, cookies and cache will be cleared, and you will get fresh Google Chrome running on your computer.
Complete Uninstall
A complete uninstall of Google Chrome can fully reset it, if you are worried about your chrome data then you can always take a backup of Default folder and replace it back after a fresh installation.
Like I said before if you have synced your chrome data on Google server using your Gmail address then you don’t have to worry about losing your data. Even if you don’t backup the default folder.
Here’s How to Completely Uninstall Google’s Browser on Windows
1. Go to Progam and Features or Apps in Windows 10, find and double click to Uninstall it.
2. Navigate to C:\Users\<User_Name>\AppData\Local\Google\ and then delete the Chrome folder.
3. The Chrome application is located on C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Applications\chrome.exe but after uninstall you won’t find chrome.exe so just go to Google Folder and delete the Chrome Folder.
4. Now, you need to delete unused registry keys of Chrome.
Open registry editor and navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\chrome.exe\ and delete the found registry keys.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Google Chrome\
But if you are not tech savvy then I don’t recommend deleting registry entries manually.
Use Ccleaner to clean the unused registry keys. ( Better and safer)
If you don’t have time and experience to Completely uninstall a program manually then you can always use a third party uninstaller like Revo Uninstaller or iobit Advanced Uninstaller.
Download and install the Uninstaller and select Chrome.
And uninstall after selecting the “Automatically remove residual files”.
Chrome Reset on Mac OSx
Mac users can reset google chrome by going to Settings > Advanced and then Reset Settings option, similar to Windows computers.
There is no major difference in term of the user interface both on Mac and Windows, so just follow the instructions given in the first method.
Deleting User Profile in Mac OSx
Similar to Windows you can try deleting the user profile on macOSx which can totally reset the Google Chrome without reinstall.
Here’s how to do it-
Go to /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/ find and delete Default folder.
Or press Shift + Command + G while you are on finder and type there /<Username> Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/
The Library folder inside user account stays hidden by default, make sure to unhide these folders by pressing Command + Shift + .
After deleting Default folder relaunch the Google Chrome and you will get a fresh Google Chrome.
Completely Uninstall Google Chrome on Mac OSx
Even after a hard reset if the chrome won’t open then you can try to completely uninstall it from your mac device.
- First, close the Google Chrome and remove all background process from the utility manager.
- Go to applications and move chrome to trash. (Right click on Chrome application and move to trash.)
- Navigate to /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Google and delete entire chrome folder.
- Go to /Users/<username>/Library/ find and delete Google folder.
Or you can use a free tool Ccleaner for mac to uninstall chrome and delete all the residual files.
Now open Safari and install Chrome from the official site.
After a new install login to chrome using your Gmail account to sync all of your Chrome data back to the computer.
Quick Tip- If Chrome is slowing down your computer then you must be running low on RAM, find the perfect RAM
for your PC/Laptop and upgrade the system memory.
Also Read
A tech enthusiast who loves to explore new technologies and mess with software & hardware just to see what could go wrong and then try to fix it.
Mine had similar problem on Windows 10. Abruptly started showing error ‘Aw, snap…..’. I followed all suggestions from various places but nothing worked. Finally, I went to Chrome.exe, , right click and choose ‘Troubleshoot compatibility” after testing, I opted for the 1st option, tested the settings and voila…….my chrome browser was alive again!!! i saved the settings ‘the result was that it will work with Windows 8’. Someone else could try and see if it works for them as well
It is so much frustrating …… i cant access to my online classes
What do i do it does not work. If gpoogle does not open, how can I access to the preferences??
All the information shown is usually accurate, but in my case it is useless. WTF do you do when the screen will not open to show the top right where all the controls are? All other apps are opening and operating fine, but Chrome is not. How do I fix that? I’ve tried to uninstall and reinstall, but no change.
HELP I CAN NOT FOLLOW ANY OF YOUR DIRECTIONS BECAUSE GOOGLE CHROME WONT OPEN UP AND I NEED TO GET INTO IT TO FINISH MY PROJECT. HELP PLEASE?? I CAN’T GET E-MAILS OR ANYTHING.
I did the first suggestion above, but it has been taking HOURS. It is just spinning and spinning since 10 am and it’s now 3:00 pm. Is this normal?
how do you do this ?
when the issue is CHROME WONT OPEN ?
DUHHHH
just uninstall & reinstall
waste of time this
IF YOU COULD OPEN THE DAMN THING WHY WOULD YOU NEED THIS ?
Exactly!! Thank God there are others out there that have a brain..
There’s tons of other reason to reset Google Chrome like if it is running slow, acting weird, throwing errors etc.
I can’t find a folder named Default in the user data folder.
I’m having an issue with my google chrome and (by extension) youtube.
It says that my certificate is invalided but I haven’t found any way to fix that (I searched online and offline but nothing works).
It seems to be an offline issue though because Opera can’t access them either.
Check the system date and time.
hi,
I have an issue while using the google chrome as below message.
not secure in red color
hi. i have installed chrome on my Pc but after typinn any site or address it shows ‘Unntitled’ and cannot open it. Pls help anyone.
Thanks for sharing the information, It was really helpful . To Reset the Browser, you need to follow the steps:
1. Go to the Google chrome settings.
2. Click on Advanced settings on the very bottom.
3. Another drop-down page would appear, and then on the very bottom of that page, there is Reset settings option .Click on Reset button and browser would reset.
Thanks for the input.
Meaningless if you cannot access controls in upper right of screen.
This was the first suggestion above.
HOW ? YOU CANT OPEN THE DAMN THING !!!!!!
THATS THE POINT!!! NO ONE CAN OPEN IT
I tried this but it does not work. The problem is that I cannot close out of Chrome (the second part of Step 2) because it won’t even open at all. I have tried deleting Chrome and re-installing it. With no luck.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
it worked. thanks!!
It doesn’t work just like all the other workarounds. It is confusing about telling us to rename our account name. I assume you just wanted the default folder deleted. The Full Path is C:\Users\My Lappy\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data only change user account name to your computer username. So I renamed Userdata to my username and deleted default, nope, then I changed it back, deleted the default, nope, put everything back the way it is because that did nothing. Advanced System Care, a program I have used daily for years is what corrupted my Chrome into an 0xc000007b error, I tried to restore… Read more »
This did not work, it says there is no Internet connection
I’ve been searching for weeks for a solution for this! Chrome would open as I could see it on the taskbar but it would not display on the screen desktop. Thank you!
how to change user account name to your computer username?
Never mind, I got it.
Following these steps, is it then possible to import the old bookmarks?
How do I backup the default folder?
Just Rename the Default folder.