How to Backup & Restore Google Chrome Extensions Manually

There are so many ways you can lose your data on the hard disk – malware infections, hard disk failure, data theft, data corruption, fire, physical damage and so on. And after all these incidents of accidental data loss, you have to reinstall not only Windows but also all of the software on your computer. As a Google Chrome user, if you reinstall it, then you have to install all the extensions all over again. For these reasons, you should keep a backup of your Chrome extensions, so that in the event of such mishaps you can restore Chrome extensions easily from the backup.

Here is how you can backup your Chrome browser extensions manually:

  1. Type Win+R to open the Run dialog. In the Run dialog, type %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default in the Run dialog and press Enter.Chrome Extension Backup
  2. This would open the Chrome folder that includes all of your Chrome settings including the bookmarks, extensions and other data. You have to find a sub-folder named Extensions in this folder.
  3. This folder contains all the extensions that you have installed in Chrome. Copy the Extensions folder and to paste it to some safe place on your hard disk or better yet to a portable USB disk.Chrome Extension Backup
  4. That’s it. Now whenever you have to restore the extensions, all you have to do is close all the Chrome windows and then copy the contents of the backup Extensions folder to the Extensions folder that you found in the step 2 above.

It should be noted that some of the older extensions might not work with newer versions of Chrome browser. So you should not try to restore extensions that you backed up more than a year ago. This is why it is a good idea to keep a monthly backup of the extensions so that you always have latest versions of the extensions in your backup.

If you do not want to manually backup Chrome extensions then you can use the free FavBackup tool which allows you to backup all the settings and data for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and Opera.

7 comments

  1. I followed the steps as per post, but I’m unable to restore my extension. Please help me on this

  2. Thank you, it worked for me I appreciate your work.

    I was having an extension which was of older version and I wanted that version on my laptop (because it works more better than updated one) so this method works for me.

    Thanks.

  3. Copy the whole User Data folder instead.
    You may Clear the browsing history first then close Chrome.
    Go to Step 1 except until User Data. Copy and Paste it *somewhere* then delete the new User Data folder when you recreated a profile or reinstalled Chrome and paste the saved User Data folder.

  4. This doesn’t work anymore.

    I dragged my extensions folder back several times and Chrome just deletes them all when you open Chrome that has none.

    It makes reinstalling your operating system a pain.
    Always kept a portable apps version of Chrome so OS reinstall would never mess up my Chrome folder and data (portable apps profile is kept in the Data folder of the ChromePortable folder; not in the %appdata%…. area.

    With Chrome 61, now all my extensions are gone. At least the bookmarks survive and once I reinstall Tabs Outliner, it remembers a complete tabs database.

  5. This won’t transfer configurations. databases, IndexedDB, Local Storage, Sync Extension Settings and other folders may be required to be backed up too.

  6. Can I simply Copy Extension Folder and paste in other computer at the same directory..??
    Will it work??

    I want to backup Chrome extension from my office laptop and want to install same extension in my home pc without using internet connection..

    Will it work…?

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