16

Whenever I start Chrome, I get presented with a Google Logo, search bar and a grid of recent sites that I visited. This picture isn't from my phone, but you should get the idea:

enter image description here

One day I accidentally deleted one of those sites by tapping and holding the box and selecting "remove". Now I have absolutely no idea how to get it back on the front page.

Even though I visit the site several times a day, it flat out refuses to re-appear on this page and I cannot find any option or setting within Chrome to put it there.

Does anyone know how I can get a previously deleted site to re-appear on this page?

Improve this question
4
  • What worked for me was going to whatever site a few times directly from the bar in chrome (and not through search) and it re-appeared pretty quick. It's a bit unpredictable though. Give it a try and let me know if it works.
    – RossC
    Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 14:01
  • 1
    That is, unfortunately, the way I'm accessing the page right now. I've been doing this for about a week and it's still not showing any signs of coming back!
    – Richard
    Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 14:02
  • Ah! Yeah I figured it would be unpredictable. I'll have a poke around and see. I have chrome synched on a few devices but this particular screen does its own thing it seems. I just tired it in the new chrome, deleted everything from that screen and went to this page, and now it's on my list. Strange.
    – RossC
    Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 14:03
  • I recommend the Dolphin browser, where you can add links to the speed dial menu and also move them around
    – Itamar
    Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 5:03

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

The entry that you boxed in the screenshot is a thumbnail and the entries that show up there are the most visited websites by you. For Chrome, they are collectively referred to as Top Sites.

There is a file in SQLITE format named Top Sites under the Chrome's data directory. Its location is /data/data/com.android.chrome/app_chrome/Default/.

You can't access this file without root access, neither you can backup the Chrome for it using ADB because backup is disallowed by Chrome.

If you've access to that file, simply force-stop Chrome for Android, pull the file into PC and open it in an SQLITE browser, like DB Browser for SQLITE.

Take backup of Chrome before proceeding to further steps.

The entries are saved in the table thumbnails. They are very easy to understand and edit, so no demo is required here.

I added the current page as a first entry, pushed the file back into its location, launched Chrome, and there it is:

(Click image to enlarge; hover to know details)

IMG: Tile not present as of now IMG: Tile showed up after my edit

It's inconsequential thing to me since I don't use that feature at all, I don't even use Chrome actually! But I suppose the concept must be introduced to know what causes the sites to show up there, and how to bring or delete them. In that regard, this answer should should've been of good service.

Cheers!

Improve this answer
-1

Oh it happens a lot of time, and is not somthing you should be worried about.

Chrome displays those pages based on the amount of activity you do on that page (as far as I understand it). So just keep using it until it reappears. Also bookmark it. It will help too.

And one more thing, less active pages are pushed downwards, replaced by more active once. And older once get pushed out of the grid till you can't see it, but however that does not mean they are deleted. If you delete the latest once, the old once reappear un the same order.

So maybe your page is still in the grid, but pushed out. Try deleting a few later once, and see if you get it back.

But the only sollution to this problem is to be more active on that page that the others. More active, the better.

And an unconventional alternate would be writting a program to do this work for you.

Hope this helps

Improve this answer
3
  • 8
    9 months later and it's still not re-appeared despite being not only the most popular page I visit, but one I visit 2-3 times a day. As a result, I'm not convinced that "be more active on that page" is a solution.
    – Richard
    Commented Jul 12, 2015 at 16:57
  • 1
    Once you delete something from here, it blocks it from reappearing.
    – Oli
    Commented Dec 6, 2016 at 9:06
  • Richard is correct. It won't appear again not even after clearing the app's data. It will only appear if you first open the desired site, then remove all sites from the list: after that, the last active tab will be (the only site) added.
    – andreszs
    Commented Jul 2, 2017 at 22:32

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .