How to restore tabs in Microsoft Edge after a restart or crash

Edge is built on the same engine as Chrome, and most of the same recovery routes work. Start at the top; the first methods only work until Edge is closed again.

1. Use the "Restore pages" prompt

After a crash or a forced shutdown, Edge usually shows a small box saying it closed unexpectedly, with a Restore button. If you see it, press it before doing anything else. It disappears when you start browsing.

2. Reopen closed tabs and windows from the keyboard

Press Ctrl+Shift+T (Cmd+Shift+T on a Mac). Right after a restart, the first press normally brings back the whole previous window. Repeat it for earlier windows.

3. Open History and look under "Recently closed"

Press Ctrl+H, or open the three-dot menu and choose History. The Recently closed tab lists closed tabs and whole windows (shown with their number of tabs). Click an entry to restore it.

4. Check tabs from other devices

If you are signed in and sync is on, the same History panel has a Tabs from other devices tab. Tabs that were open on this or another device at the last sync are listed there.

5. Search your history

Open edge://history/all and search by site or word. You can filter by date to see what was open just before the restart.

6. Restore the session files

Edge keeps the open windows in a Sessions folder inside your profile, in files whose names begin with Session_ and Tabs_.

Open edge://version and read "Profile path" to be sure which folder is yours.

1. Close Edge completely and copy the whole Sessions folder somewhere safe.
2. If Windows File History, "Previous versions" or Time Machine has a copy of that folder from before the problem, restore it.
3. Without a backup: if the folder contains an older pair of Session_ and Tabs_ files next to the newest pair, move the newest pair out so that Edge falls back to the older one.
4. Start Edge and press Ctrl+Shift+T.

This does not always work, because the file format is internal and changes between versions. With your copy of the folder you can always undo it.

Make Edge reopen your tabs every time

Open edge://settings/startHomeNTP (Settings → Start, home, and new tab page) and, under "When Edge starts", choose Open tabs from the previous session.

Two more things that help: close Edge from its menu rather than window by window, and add important sets of tabs to a Collection or a favourites folder.