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Is there a way to permanently disable the Google Chrome session restore (see screenshot)?

It appears at almost every system start. Not everytime, which makes it difficult to reproduce. Also, I could not notice any relation to whether there was a previous crash or not.

enter image description here

EDIT 1:

Version in use: Google Chrome 68.0.3440.75

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1
  • Checking the report box might help for future versions ;)
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 25, 2018 at 19:14

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
6

Chrome has a special flag to disable session restore window. But be aware options in chrome://flags are experimental and you may lose browser data or compromise your security or privacy.

Follow these steps:

  • Open Chrome.
  • Type chrome://flags/#infinite-session-restore in address bar (Crtl+L).
  • Click on the right drop-down menu and change the 'Default' value to 'Disable'. Then restart Chrome to apply that setting.

So what does this do? That option says -- "Reduces the number of tabs being loaded simultaneously during session restore, to improve responsiveness of the foreground tab". After disabling and restating Chrome, it relaunches chrome.exe with --disable-features=InfiniteSessionRestore option.

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  • 23
    This option has been removed in chrome 74.0.3729.157
    – woens
    Commented May 21, 2019 at 11:11
  • 10
    If this option has been removed is there any other alternative, @Biswapriyo?
    – akxer
    Commented May 21, 2019 at 21:04
  • 2
    Try running with --disable-session-crashed-bubble
    – jfrumar
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 22:11
  • @jfrumar I don't run chrome myself. TOSCA does. So passing options is not as helpful as a flag.
    – Martin
    Commented Mar 25, 2022 at 12:56
  • 3
    --hide-crash-restore-bubble might be usefull
    – Alex Kosh
    Commented Aug 21, 2023 at 3:09
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Edit the file located at C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Right click "Preference" file and click edit. ctrl+f to find the following values, and change the value to:

"exit_type": "none",

"exited_cleanly":true,

Save the file, and change the attribute to "read only" so chrome can't change it back.

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  • 5
    Running perl -pi -e 's/exit_type\":\"Crashed/exit_type\":\"none/' ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences does the trick for me on Ubuntu. Executing this whenever your graphical environment starts gets rid of the Chrome warning for good, without having to change the file to readonly. (Someone could make this an answer, I am lacking the rep …)
    – panepeter
    Commented May 8, 2019 at 7:46
  • 1
    Thanks this seems to work more than one year later.
    – Snak3d0c
    Commented Jun 20, 2019 at 7:34
  • @panepeter would this then disable the Restore functionality? What I want is for Chrome to restart on its own to where I was. What I don't want it is to ask me if I want to restore - why did I think it crashed in the first place? It doesn't do that in Windows/Mac.
    – Zlatko
    Commented Sep 8, 2019 at 13:05
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    @Zlatko sorry I'm never using the restore functionality, I expect my chrome to start with a blank tab and no annoying warning, and this solution does that exactly. Why not give it a try and see if it works for your setup? Nothing to lose here …
    – panepeter
    Commented Sep 8, 2019 at 13:48
  • Well I frequently do have several tabs open where I want them and starting blank would alter my workflow. I'll see how I can adjust, thanks for the help.
    – Zlatko
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 14:04
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After @Biswarpriyo s Answer don't work anymore (the flag got removed), it is possible to start Chrome (tried it with 86.0.4240) with the --disable-session-crashed-bubble parameter.

For Linux: Just add it after the command in terminal. For example: chrome --disable-session-crashed-bubble

For Windows: You have to create a shortcut to chrome.exe (usually located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\ ) and add it to the target like described here

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  • I don't run chrome myself. TOSCA does. So passing options is not as helpful as a flag. If I start Chome myself I could just close the box but in test automation this is not an option.
    – Martin
    Commented Mar 25, 2022 at 12:58
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See my answer on how I resolved this for the Chromium on a raspberry pi.

https://superuser.com/a/1643107/690627

Basically

su
(note: super-user remain in current user path, now using relative to local path)
chattr  +i  .config/chromium/Default/Preferences
chattr  +i  .config/chromium/'Local State'
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  • Came here for this answer! Works perfectly on my Pi's
    – Jeff
    Commented Jul 9, 2021 at 12:58
  • 1
    Didn't work for me on latest rasbian os as of today
    – Kaigo
    Commented Jul 20, 2022 at 15:19
0

In 2024/05 Linux Version 125.0.6422.141 (Official Build) (64-bit)...

neither chrome://flags/#infinite-session-restore nor (flatpak version) --disable-session-crashed-bubble seems to work.

I finally created a session autostart invoked script to clear up the Preferences file manually each time.

# Clear annoying Chrome "Restore Pages" nag.
sed -i 's/\"exit_type\":\"Crashed\"/\"exit_type\":\"Normal\"/g' \
    "/home/myuser/.var/app/com.google.Chrome/config/google-chrome/Default/Preferences"
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