How to Recover Deleted Favorites in Microsoft Edge

Quick Tips

• To recover a recently deleted favorite, you can undo it. Go to Microsoft Edge → Favorites → three-dot icon → Open favorites page → Ctrl + Z to undo.
• Microsoft Edge also offers a neat Favorites Recovery Feature. Go to Favorites → three-dot icon → Restore deleted favorites → select websites → Restore.
• If these methods don’t work, you can also restore an older version of the Favorites folder or an old bookmark backup.

Method 1. Use Undo to Recover Recently Deleted

Interestingly, recovering a recently deleted favorites folder/link in Edge is as simple as hitting undo. So, if you’ve un-favorited a webpage recently or accidentally deleted a favorited folder, here’s what to do.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Edge > click the Favorites icon at the top bar.

Note: You can also use a keyboard shortcut to open the Favorites menu, press Ctrl + Shift + O.

Step 2: Click the three-dot icon > select Open favorites page.

Step 3: Type Ctrl+Z to undo.

Notably, it doesn’t have to be super instant, either. We tried the hack after surfing the web for some time and could still recover the deleted favorites. Moreover, we could undo a few more times and recover older deleted favorites, not just the most recent ones.

There’s more. If you are organizing your Microsoft Edge favorites and accidentally delete a few bookmarks, you can recover them by clicking the Undo button that pops up.

Method 2. Use the Favorites Recovery Feature

Microsoft understands the importance of favorites, thus, it also sympathizes when your Edge favorites disappear. So, it incorporates a built-in tool to recover your favorites list, dubbed as favorites recovery feature.

However, there are two conditions here:

• Your favorites should be synced with your Microsoft account.
• You can only restore favorites deleted within the past 28 days. In other words, Microsoft only saves the deleted favorites for 28 days after the date of deletion.

Step 1: Open Microsoft Edge → Favorites icon from the top bar.

Step 2: Tap the Restore deleted icon. Or click the three-dot icon and select Restore deleted favorites.

Step 3: Select the deleted favorite folder or website to recover it.

Step 4: Next, click Restore.

You’ll instantly find the recovered favorites folder back in the Favorites Bar. What’s more? You can also restore all deleted favorites or bookmarks in Edge, press Ctrl + A to select all deleted favorites → click Restore.

Method 3. Restore the Older Version of the Favorites Folder

There is a slim chance that you might not recover deleted favorites in Edge with the favorites recovery feature. Especially if you’re favorites disappeared in Edge after updating to a newer version of Edge.

Thankfully, there is a handy way to restore it on Windows; here’s how.

Step 1: Open File Explorer and go to This PC. Here, navigate to C:\Users\UserName.

Step 2: Find the Favorites folder from the list.

Step 3: Right-click the folder and click Show more options. Select Restore the previous version.

Step 4: In the window, select the previous version (if available) and click Apply.

Once done, restart Edge and check if your Favorites are back. Hopefully, they are. Now, you can export the favorites, update Edge again, and import the favorites to ensure nothing is missing.

Note: Don’t worry about duplicate favorites. Edge has a neat tool to deal with that as well. Open Edge → Favorite → three-dot icon → select Remove Duplicate Favorites → Remove to confirm.

Method 4. Manually Restore Old Bookmark Backup

Note: This is a slightly technical method that might cause Edge to glitch later. If you have to reinstall the browser, ensure your Microsoft account sync is on.

Before we proceed, ensure that you’ve enabled hidden files. To do so, open File Explorer → View (from the top bar) → Show → Hidden items.

Step 1: Open File Explorer → This PC → C Drive. Go to Users and the Your Username.

Step 2: Next, click AppData → Local → Microsoft → Edge.

Step 3: Select User Data → Default. Scroll down to find the file named Bookmarks and Bookmarks.msbak.

Step 4: Here,

• Rename the file named Bookmarks as something else, say Bookmarks old.
• Rename the file named Bookmarks.msbak as Bookmarks → click Yes to confirm the action.

Step 5: Now close Microsoft Edge and restart it again.

Hopefully, the bookmarks or favorites from your backup are reinstated, and you’ve recovered the missing favorites.