Does Google Chrome keep losing your browser settings? And do you have to set it up every time? And do you also have a problem you have to download all your apps, utilities, and other extensions again and again because they have already disappeared? Fortunately, there are simple solutions that you can apply yourself using the step-by-step plan below.
If your settings and add-ons in your Chrome browser keep disappearing
It is extremely irritating if you have to re-register all your settings and add-ons in your Google Chrome browser every time, only to find that they have been lost again.
The settings of the Google Chrome you keep losing are essential options such as:
- display the ‘Home’ button
- always show the bookmarks bar
- Send a do-not-track request with your browsing traffic
Examples of add-ons that Google Chrome may not remember include your
- apps (including those fun games)
- news or weather forecast apps such as NOS video or Weerplaza
- utilities such as calculators or dictionaries
- other extensions such as Xs4all Online Safety (a browser plugin from F-Secure Online Safety) or the Google Publisher Toolbar (the latter contains information about your Adsense ads)
Reinstalling Google Chrome does not help
The first thing you’re probably inclined to do when software isn’t working properly is to uninstall it, then download it again and go for the settings you want.
Unfortunately, that solution does not work in case your Google Chrome web browser loses part of its settings and all extensions after a few days or every time it is restarted.
Three possible solutions
There are several causes and therefore solutions for this problem:
- allow data to be set locally
- login or Google Chrome
- change the permissions on your C drive
Allow local data to be set
- Go to the square icon with the three horizontal lines at the top right.
- Scroll down and choose ‘Settings’
- Move your cursor all the way down and click on the ‘Advanced settings’ link
- Under the “Privacy” heading, click “Clear browsing data”
- Click on ‘Content settings’ and under Cookies make sure that ‘Allow local data to be set (recommended). ‘
- If you checked “Only keep local data until you close your browser” this could be the cause of your problem.
Login to Google Chrome
Is your problem not solved yet? Another approach that might fix the issue is to opt for “sign in to Chrome”. Don’t, however
never if you are using a public or otherwise untrusted computer.
The official purpose of logging into Chrome is for your bookmarks, tabs, history, and other browser preferences to be saved and synced to your Google account. That way you can always load these settings when you use Chrome on other computers and devices.
How to log in to Chrome:
- Go back to the square icon with the three horizontal lines at the top right.
- Scroll down and choose ‘Sign in to Chrome’.
- In ‘Settings’ you can choose what you want to sync. Perhaps you want Chrome to remember your settings properly from now on, but nothing is synchronized, for example, because you have insufficient confidence in its security.
Changing the permissions on your C drive
If for some reason you’d rather not sign in to Google Chrome, you have another option.
- Go to the Users folder on your C drive.
- Right-click and choose: ‘User properties’.
- Click on the ‘Security’ tab.
- Click “Advanced” at the bottom right.
- Click “Change Permissions.”
- Check: ‘Include inheritable permissions from the parent object’.
- Also check: ‘Replace all permissions on child objects with inheritable permissions from this object’.
- Press the ‘Apply’ button.
You will now get a Windows Security screen: ‘This will replace explicitly specified permissions on all child objects of this object with inheritable permissions from Users. Do you want to continue?’
Choose ‘for ‘Yes’.
If you close and reopen Chrome, all your extensions should be visible again.
