21
10
I'm trying to find a page I looked at months ago but it looks like it's disappeared off the face of the planet. I thought I would have better luck looking through my Google Chrome browsing history, but I can't see history past September. Can I force Google Chrome to display history further into the past? Can I retrieve the history manually from a directory? Is the history data gone?
user701510
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 373
13
No, Chrome only stores the browsing history for the last 90 days.
Your History page shows the websites you've visited on Chrome in the last 90 days. It doesn’t store pages from secure websites, pages you've visited in Incognito mode, or pages you've already deleted from your browsing history.
user1686
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 283 655
5
I guess there should be a plugin for chrome that stores separately your history, so you will always preserve everything. The extension History Trends Unlimited is related:
Google Chrome - How to extend history?
You can view your search history by web:
Smeterlink
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 394
2
Chrome stores URLs in your history for 90 days. (https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95589)
To extend this, you can install the extension History Trends Unlimited (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/history-trends-unlimited/pnmchffiealhkdloeffcdnbgdnedheme)
This will use the Chrome API to pull your browsing history as you go and put it into a separate database controlled by the extension. After you install the extension, open it by clicking on the button installed in your toolbar. You can also configure it to create automatic backups in your Downloads directory.
From How long does Chrome keep history for? • r/chrome (https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/54bqso/how_long_does_chrome_keep_history_for/)
Jason Harrison
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 123
1
I developed a Chrome extension U History (available on chrome web store) to save your history to you Google Drive in months. It will automatically save once you authorized (If you want to make sure the history are saved you can do manually). Moreover you can read your saved history. If you run into any problems or find any bugs pls feel free to contact me.
Pike96
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 21
Please do not post the same answer to multiple questions. If the same information really answers both questions, then one question (usually the newer one) should be closed as a duplicate of the other. You can indicate this by voting to close it as a duplicate or, if you don't have enough reputation for that, raise a flag to indicate that it's a duplicate. Otherwise tailor your answer to this question and don't just paste the same answer in multiple places.
– DavidPostill – 2018-01-06T07:10:00.4271
Actually there is an "Archived History" file which contains the old (probably the whole, but not sure about that) history of browsing. It can be viewed with an SQL database viewer. Also, it only contains visits. http://www.forensicswiki.org/wiki/Google_Chrome#History
Oleksii
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 11
1I can't see Archived History file. Did they remove it with recent updates? – Genom – 2015-07-06T11:53:42.247
3Archived History file is gone. – Pacerier – 2015-10-12T06:36:00.487
More or less, yes. I suspect that what happened was that because the User Data folder was growing out of control, they changed it so that instead of retaining all of the history indefinitely, they remove the History* files which store the contents of all of the pages you visited, and use the Archived History page to store just the visits and times. You can indeed see the raw visits with SQLite or something (I exported mine to a text file).
0
I was able to go back two years. Windows 7, Make sure google chrome is closed.
I first went to C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\
You must put your which is different for everyone. Then right click on the folder "Chrome" then in the drop down menu select restore previous version, wait for it to search and then scroll down to the oldest version, or select a time you are interested in. Then click restore, windows pops up "are you sure" then "restore.
Don't open google chrome because it will wipe out what you just changed. Then download and run http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/chromehistoryview.zip
Run the program, click "edit" Select all, then "file" Save selected items.
name the file to save and as htm or html (experiment). Click "save".
Now go to the location or folder where you just saved the above and look for the name of the file you saved. Double click to open ( i opened in firefox)
It shows a list of you old history links and you can click on any link to open.
There were lots of restore points in my computer, it had a new one for every week, I counted 54 restore points. I restored the oldest one and it had links from 2013 October and it is July 2015 now.
Jeff Guarino
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 1
2"restore previous version" only works if you have System Protection turned on. – DavidPostill – 2015-07-06T07:08:05.400
-1
Yes the history will have gone by now, the only way to get it would be restoring from a backup if you have one from back then?
iTom
Posted 2011-12-04T12:00:05.763
Reputation: 545
1We expect more out of answers than a link to a website considering explaining what you linked to in your own words – Ramhound – 2014-08-27T21:04:50.110