How to Backup 'Chrome Bookmarks' Manually from AppData

Why Do This Manually

Chrome can sync bookmarks through a Google account, and it has a built-in export-to-HTML option in the Bookmark Manager — for most people, that's enough. But there are cases where a manual copy of the raw bookmarks file is worth having: you're about to reset or reinstall a broken Chrome profile and want a guaranteed local backup before touching anything, you don't want bookmarks tied to a Google account sync, or you're troubleshooting a corrupted profile and need the actual underlying data rather than relying on Chrome's own export feature to still work. Chrome stores bookmarks as a plain JSON file directly on disk, and it's easy to grab it yourself.

Locating the Bookmarks File

Chrome profile data lives inside AppData, which is hidden by default. The bookmarks file for your default profile is at:

C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks

The fastest way there: press Windows key + R, type the path below, and press Enter:

%localappdata%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Note there's no file extension on Bookmarks — it's a JSON file that Chrome deliberately doesn't name .json. If File Explorer isn't showing it, make sure hidden items are enabled (View > Show > Hidden items in Windows 11, or the "Hidden items" checkbox under the View ribbon in Windows 10).

Backing Up the File

1. Close Chrome completely first — including any background processes. Chrome keeps the file locked while running, and copying it mid-write can occasionally grab an inconsistent snapshot. Check Task Manager for lingering chrome.exe processes if you use "Continue running background apps."
2. Navigate to the Default folder (or the relevant Profile N folder) as shown above.
3. Copy the Bookmarks file (and optionally the Bookmarks.bak file sitting next to it — Chrome keeps its own automatic previous-version backup there) to a safe location outside the Chrome profile folder, like a dedicated backups folder or cloud storage.
4. Rename your copy to something like Bookmarks_backup_2026-08-18.json so it's identifiable later and easier to open in a text editor if needed.

What's Inside the File

It's readable JSON if you open it in a text editor, structured as a tree matching your bookmark bar/folder layout, with each entry storing a name, URL, and creation timestamp:

{
   "checksum": "a1b2c3d4e5f6...",
   "roots": {
      "bookmark_bar": {
         "children": [
            {
               "date_added": "13350000000000000",
               "id": "1",
               "name": "Example Site",
               "type": "url",
               "url": "https://example.com/"
            }
         ],
         "name": "Bookmark bar"
      }
   }
}

You generally won't need to hand-edit this file — it's shown here mainly so you know what you're looking at if you ever need to inspect or manually merge entries.

Restoring From the Backup

1. Close Chrome completely.
2. Navigate back to the same ...\User Data\Default folder.
3. Rename or move aside the current (broken/reset) Bookmarks file, just in case.
4. Copy your saved backup file into that folder and rename it back to exactly Bookmarks (no extension).
5. Relaunch Chrome — your bookmarks should reappear exactly as they were when you backed them up.

A Simpler Alternative for Most People

If you just want an easy, human-readable backup and don't need the raw file specifically, Chrome's built-in exporter is faster: open the Bookmark Manager (Ctrl+Shift+O), click the three-dot menu, and choose Export bookmarks to save an HTML file that any browser can re-import. The manual AppData method above is the better choice specifically when you need a byte-for-byte backup before a risky operation, or when troubleshooting a profile that's too broken for Chrome's own UI to cooperate.