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Chrome Preferences Mac



Chrome will automatically add links to webpages you’ve visited most often as tiles. The only way you can customize the default New Tab page is by deleting tiles from the page. To do this, move your mouse over the tile you want to delete and click the “X” button that becomes available in the upper-right corner of the tile. Go to the top bar, then go over by the Apple logo. Next it it, it should say ‘Chrome’. Click on it, and a drop-down menu should open up. Then click preferences and it will open up the preferences.

Google Chrome is the king of web browsers but if you’re here it’s probably because the king has gone a bit insane. Is Chrome running slow, crashing, freezing, or not even loading? Are web pages not loading anymore? Is your browser experience getting slower every day?

If you’re experiencing any of those Chrome problems, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to show you how to troubleshoot and resolve common Chrome problems that make you feel like Google hates Macs.

Some fixes will be easier than others but none require advanced knowledge.

If you’re ready to fix Chrome, let’s begin!

Is it your Mac or Chrome that is slow?

Chrome isn’t an independent entity, it’s a part of a whole Mac system. So before you deal with Chrome, make sure the problem isn’t in your macOS. A quick example — the outdated system caches causing your Chrome plugins to crash. Or is your Mac gasping for free space?

Preferences

A clever path is to give your macOS a good cleanup, first. We like CleanMyMac X app for this purpose as it finds and cleans all redundant & conflicting files across all your folders. So, take 2 minutes to tidy up your Mac with CleanMyMac X, and let’s move further.


CleanMyMac is available for a free download here — this app is notarized by Apple, so no worries.

Common Chrome problems on Mac (and their fixes)

Mac battery draining fast

Chrome is known for its fast performance, which it gets by using your Mac’s CPU more than other browsers. But more CPU usage means more battery drain. If you use your laptop on the go, this can become a huge issue. What good is performance if your battery is completely drained and you can’t turn on your Mac?

If Mac battery life is important to you, then there’s a simple trick that should be a big help. Often there is a tab or an extension that is hogging your resources and burning through your battery life by itself.

Follow these steps to find the offending site or extension:

  1. Open Chrome and choose Window in the top menu.
  2. Click on Task Manager.
  3. In Task Manager, click the Memory Footprint column to sort them.

Now you can determine what sites and extensions use up the most memory in Chrome. You can still visit one of these sites but maybe don’t leave it open in a tab anymore. Also, remember that even sites that aren’t memory hogs can still be a battery drain if you have a lot of tabs open.

Close resource-hungry and unnecessary tabs and the time you get from a battery charge should start to improve.

Chrome is running slow

Does Chrome on your Mac feel like browsing through a swamp? If browser responsiveness is slowing, it’s time to drain the swamp.

Why is Google Chrome so slow? We mentioned earlier that Chrome is resource-heavy, especially on your CPU. Chrome is fast when your Mac has the resources available, but when they are limited, and Chrome is demanding more than your Mac can give – swamp time.

The tip from the previous section will help a lot, but if you’re still experiencing slowness, there are other fixes you can turn to.

Let’s start by focusing on the cache. Chrome loves storing lots of your web browsing data. At first, it can help speed things along, but soon Chrome’s pockets are being weighed down by cache, particularly if your Mac is low on space or memory.

To manually delete your Chrome cache on Mac:

  1. Open Chrome and choose Chrome in the top menu.
  2. Select Clear Browsing Data.
  3. Check the history, cache, cookies, and other types of browser data that you want to delete.
  4. Click 'Clear data.'

Again, there’s another method for clearing out your cache, cookies, browser history, autofill form data, and a whole lot more. You can use the free version of CleanMyMac X. There’s surely no easier way to manage not just the cache that’s slowing down Chrome, but also your privacy and security — if these things are important to you (they should be).

To delete Chrome cache and other browsing data with CleanMyMac X:

  1. Download the free edition of CleanMyMac X and launch the app.
  2. Go to the Privacy tab and select Chrome.
  3. Select what you want to clean.


Or you can even use CleanMyMac X’s System Junk cleanup tool that not only removes Chrome cache files but also gets rid of “temporary” files that clog up your system. So, hopefully, your browser will get a bit snappier.

Сhrome using significant energy on Mac

“Chrome using significant energy” may be a sign of general memory overload on your computer. Try opening your Activity Monitor and check off a few memory consumers.

  1. Open the Launchpad and type in Activity Monitor in the search bar.
  2. Now, sort by Energy and use the [x] button to quit a process.

Disable background synchronization

There’s another setting that may help you out. Sadly, it’s buried too deep in Chrome’s Preferences but according to many users, it should greatly reduce energy consumption by Chrome.

  1. Open Chrome and go to Settings (the 3-dot icon on in the top right corner).
  2. Select Privacy and security > Site Settings.
  3. Scroll down and click “Background sync.”
  4. Use the slider to disable the background sync.

What does it do? It stops the websites from communicating with your Mac (even after you’ve left that site). Why was it enabled by default is a different question.

Chrome keeps freezing

Your browser is not just slow as a snail but keeps freezing? A spinning circle appears for a while? This is ordinary trouble with web browsers after continued use. And it may relate to the problem with the browser cache.

We've already told you how to remove the Chrome cache, so just go to the previous section and choose the way that works best for you: manual or easy one. Hopefully, this will help you to get rid of the spinning beach ball and fix the freezing issue.

Other ideas to try:

  • Close all tabs
  • Restore settings (Settings > Advanced > Reset settings)
  • Log out from all your Google accounts and log in back again.
  • Try browsing in an incognito window and see if that helps.
  • Reinstall Chrome from scratch

Some services, like Dropbox, Alfred, and notably, Google Drive are constantly self-updating in the background. As in the previous step, you can use Activity Monitor and force-quit these processes.

Google Chrome is not responding

However, if your browser is not responding at all and you can't open the menu to clear the cache, browsing history, or delete extensions, try to force quit Chrome and then launch it again.

There are a few possible ways to force quit Google Chrome. Here is our comprehensive guide 'How to force quit Mac applications' that offers five different ways to deal with unresponsive apps. Pick your favorite one.

There are is a number of background plugins operating invisibly on every Mac. They could be various helpers, updaters, and everything else that supports the main application. For example, Chrome itself has an updater app that constantly communicates with the server. So, once again, go to your Activity Monitor and scan through your open processes. Try quitting anything Google-related there.

Another idea to try is to free up your RAM (random access memory) in the Terminal. This should unfreeze your Chrome, at least temporarily.

  1. Open your Terminal app (you can find it via the Launchpad search).
  2. Now, paste in sudo purge into the Terminal window.
  3. Hit Enter

See if Chrome is feeling better now.

Google Chrome keeps crashing

Chrome freezing is one thing but crashing? That’s a much bigger issue as it’s a sign that something is broken. But what do we do with things that are broken around here? We fix them!

Probably the most common cause of crashes is a byproduct of one of Chrome’s strengths – its constant stream of exciting extensions. They make our browser experience more enjoyable and productive, but occasionally one of these extensions will be corrupted or introduce a bug that causes Chrome to crash.

Here’s what you should do to find a problematic Chrome extension.

  1. Update your browser

    2. Make sure Chrome is updated to the latest version. A new update could very well include the fix that will stop Chrome crashing.

  2. Run a Safety check

    3. The latest version of Google Chrome has a feature called Safety check. Go to Chrome Settings and select “Safety check” from the menu on the left. Press “Check now.” The browser will run a quick check to determine whether Google Chrome is up-to-date and protected from threats.

  3. Turn off browser extensions

    4. If that didn’t work or everything was already up-to-date, you can manually turn off your extensions and turn them back on, one at a time. This way, if the crashing goes away until a certain extension is turned back on – that’s when you’ve probably found the problem.

To manually disable and remove Chrome extensions:

  • Open Chrome and go to Window > Extensions.
  • Disable a few extensions or click Remove to completely delete them.
  • Relaunch Chrome.


Spend some time using Chrome without extensions and then slowly turn each one back on until your crashing returns. When you think you have the culprit, simply click the Trash can next to that extension in Settings > Extensions.

An even easier way to manage your extensions is with CleanMyMac X. You get more control over all your extensions, even those from other browsers, and disabling and removing them is as easy as can be.

To disable Chrome extensions the simple way:

  • Click on the Extensions tab in CleanMyMac.
  • Click on Chrome Extensions and disable as you like.

Chrome won’t open

Here’s the list of hacks you can try if you want to repair Chrome. When Chrome won’t open, the easiest is to restart your Mac. But that could be a bit disruptive. So here you are, some alternatives:

  • Press and hold Command + Q — this will quit Chrome.
  • Press Option + Command + Esc — opens a Force Quit pane.
  • Uninstall Chrome and download it again.

If that doesn’t help, there’s a possibility that the problem is Google folder permissions.

Web pages not loading in Chrome

“Aw snap!”

This is Chrome’s custom message for when a web page fails to load. If you get this cheeky little message or any other loading error, chances are you’re going to fail to see the funny side.

The reasons for Chrome not loading pages can be wide-ranging and hard to pinpoint, but we’ve collected a checklist of fixes for you to work through.

  • Check your internet connection.
  • Update Chrome.
  • Restart your Mac.
  • Remove Chrome extensions (for steps see 'Google Chrome keeps crashing' section).
  • Disable or relaunch hardware acceleration

Hardware acceleration is supposed to speed up your Chrome at the cost of your Mac's hardware resources. But quite often this feature crashes things.
Hardware acceleration is found here:
Chrome > Settings > Advanced > System

If you’re still unable to load web pages, a reset or reinstall of Chrome may be needed. We cover that very fix in the next section.

Chrome update failed

Chrome won’t update? Some users have experienced the frustration of Chrome refusing to update on a Mac. The first step would just be patience, but if days have passed and you’re still not getting anywhere, a reset or reinstall of Chrome may be in order.

To reset Chrome manually:

  • Launch Chrome and go to Preferences
  • Scroll to the bottom and click on Advanced Settings.
  • Scroll to the bottom and click on Reset Settings.
  • Read the pop-up and Reset.
  • Relaunch Chrome and try to update.

Note: Resetting Chrome will not remove your bookmarks, history, and saved passwords. A manual reset can be a bit scary, but as a workaround, you can use CleanMyMac X to reset Chrome without losing any data.

Reset Chrome with CleanMyMac X's free tool:

  • Open CleanMyMac X
  • Go to Uninstaller tab and find Google Chrome in the list
  • Click Application Reset in the dropdown menu next to the Chrome icon.

If the browser is still not updating, download the latest installation file from the web and reinstall Chrome.

More tips to troubleshoot Chrome

Your Chrome browser should now be running great, but wait; there’s more! To improve your future browsing experience we’re sharing some of our favorite Chrome settings. Try these out and fall in love with Chrome even more.

Enable Prefetch

Want your web pages to load even faster? Go to Settings > Privacy and security. Here, select 'Cookies and other site data.' Toggle on 'Preload pages for faster browsing and searching.' This enables 'page prefetch' and makes Google Chrome load pages faster. Now the system will store the page and automatically load it the next time you visit the website.

Use shortcuts in Chrome browser

You’d be amazed at how much faster you can surf the web and get things done by learning just a few key shortcuts.

For example:

Command + t = new tab
Command + h = hide Chrome
Command + r = reload web page

Find the full list of commands at the official Google Chrome Support page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my Chrome keep freezing?

Usually, this is caused be caused by outdated browser caches. Open Chrome’s Preferences to delete recent browser data.

Why does Chrome use so much memory?

Chrome is in a constant back and forth with Google’s servers to process your data. You can help it by optimizing memory usage on your Mac. Use the Mac tune-up app, CleanMyMac X, to free up RAM and you disable heavy memory consumers.

How can I speed up my browsing experience?

As a first step, try removing all the unnecessary extensions in Chrome. Also, try to not use more than 2 memory-heavy services, like DropBox or Google Drive at a time.

That’s it. Hopefully, these fixes have made your web surfing better than it’s ever been. It just goes to show that even drastic problems like Chrome crashing can be solved with a little know-how and helpful apps like CleanMyMac X.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: December 18, 2019

If you would want to switch from your Google Chrome browser to another web browser then keeping your bookmarks is a great idea. That is why we are going to show you here on how you can export bookmarks from Chrome on Mac. So if you would want to know how you can do it, just go ahead and read this article.

Part 1. Introduction

Google Chrome Preferences

Bookmarks are one of the features that each browser have. These bookmarks are the ones that serve as a mark for a certain specific web page. By having them bookmarks exported to another web browser, then you will be able to still have access on those web pages that you have before on your Google Chrome browser.
Adding and opening bookmarks on Google Chrome is actually not a complicated thing to do. Before you export bookmarks from Google Chrome on Mac, let's quickly browse the steps of how to add and open a bookmark. Here is how you can do it.
Adding A Bookmark On Google Chrome

  1. Go ahead and launch the Google Chrome browser on your Mac.
  2. After that, go ahead and click on “More” located at the upper-right corner of your screen. This can also be seen as the three dot icon.
  3. Then go ahead and choose “Bookmarks” and then click on “Import Bookmarks and Settings”.
  4. And then go ahead and choose the program that you would want to be as your bookmark.
  5. After that, go ahead and click on the “Import” button.
  6. Then simply click “Done” once that you are finished.

Open A Bookmark on Google Chrome

Opening a bookmark on your Google Chrome browser is also a very easy job. All you have to do is to follow these steps.

  1. Open Google Chrome on your PC.
  2. And then, go ahead and click on the More button or the three dot icon located at the upper-right corner of your screen.
  3. Then go ahead and choose “Bookmarks”.
  4. And if you already had a saved bookmark in your Google Chrome, then just go ahead and click on the folder that is named “Other Bookmarks”.

That is how easy you can actually add and open a bookmark on your Google Chrome. Now, let us go ahead and know more on how you can export bookmarks in Google Chrome on Mac.

Part 2: Export Bookmarks From Google Chrome

Exporting your bookmarks from Google Chrome is very easy. All you have to do is to follow the guide that we are going to show you below.

  1. Go ahead and launch the Google Chrome browser on your Mac.
  2. After that, go ahead and click on the three-dot icon located at the top-right corner of your screen. Then you will be able to see a drop-down menu that will appear on your screen.
  3. And then, go ahead and click on “Bookmark”. Doing this will prompt a pop-up menu on your screen.
  4. After that, go ahead and click on the “Bookmark Manager”. Clicking on this will open another tab on your Google Chrome browser.
  5. Then, go ahead and open the Bookmarks menu. All you have to do here is to click on the three-dot icon found at the upper-right corner of your screen. Then a drop-down menu will be shown on your screen.
  6. Next is that you go ahead and click on the “Export Bookmarks” option from the drop-down menu. Doing this will open Finder on your Mac.
  7. Then after that, all you have to do is to enter the name that you want.
  8. Then go ahead and choose the location. You can choose any locations from the left side panel of your screen.
  9. Once that you are done, go ahead and click on the “Save” button at the bottom of your screen.

Part 3: Export Bookmarks To Another Web Browser

Google Chrome can actually let you export the bookmarks that you have to any other browsers. That is why we are going to show you here a step by step method on how you can actually do this. Since that you have already had the knowledge on how you can export your bookmarks on your Mac, then the process that we are going to show you below will be a piece of cake.

Option #1: Exporting Google Chrome Bookmarks to Safari

Chrome
  1. Go ahead and launch the Safari browser on your Mac.
  2. Then after that, go ahead and click on the “File” option.
  3. Then go ahead and choose “Import From” option.
  4. Then, choose the “Bookmarks HTML File” option.
  5. After that, go ahead and then select the previous bookmark HTML file that you have on your Mac and then click on the “Import” button.
  6. Then, the Safari browser will then automatically import all the bookmarks from the HTML file that was made by your Google Chrome.

After doing all the steps, then you will now be able to access your Google Chrome bookmarks on your Safari web browser.

Option #2: Export Google Chrome Bookmarks to Mozilla Firefox

Here are the steps that you can follow for you to save all the bookmarks that you have on your Google Chrome to Firefox browser.

  1. Go ahead and launch the Mozilla Firefox on your Mac.
  2. Then go ahead and access the bookmarks. You can do this by clicking on the bookmark icon. This will then show you all of the bookmarks from the bottom of your screen.
  3. After that, go ahead and click on the “Import Bookmarks from HTML” option from the drop-down menu.
  4. Then go ahead and look for the exported Google Chrome bookmark files that you have for you to import them. All you have to make sure here is that the files are in HTML format. You can also click on the HTML file for you to open it.

Option #3: Export Google Chrome Bookmarks to Microsoft Edge

  1. First of is that you need to launch the Microsoft Edge browser on your Mac.
  2. And then, go ahead and click on the hub icon which is located at the upper-right of your screen. This is the one that has the three horizontal line icon.
  3. After that, go ahead and click on the star icon from the hub window that appeared on your screen for you to be able to see all your favorites.
  4. Then after that, go ahead and click on the word “Settings” from the favorite window that appeared on your screen. This is located at the upper-right corner of the window.
  5. Then the Settings menu will then be opened up on your screen. All you have to do here is to scroll down for you to be able to see the Google Chrome option. Once that you see it, go ahead and tick on it to have a checkmark beside it.
  6. Lastly, go ahead and click on the “Import” button. Then all of your Google Chrome bookmarks will then be seen on your Microsoft Edge browser.

So that is how easy you can export all the Google Chrome bookmarks that you have on your Mac. This looks easy, right? This way, you will be able to access your bookmarks from any browser that you have on your Mac.

Part 4: Two Other Settings for Google Chrome

Aside from the fact that you can export the bookmarks that you have on Google Chrome, there are still some other Settings that can become handy to you. And with that, we are going to show you those two other settings for Google Chrome.

Setting #1: Importing Bookmarks to Google Chrome

Importing your bookmarks to your Google Chrome is quite similar to exporting them from your Google Chrome. All you have to do is to do the same steps in exporting your bookmarks from your Google Chrome. The only difference is that you have to choose the “Import” option rather than choosing the “Export” option. For you to have a better understanding of this, here are the steps that you can follow.

  1. Go ahead and launch Google Chrome on your Mac.
  2. Then after that, click on the “Bookmarks” option.
  3. Next is that you have to choose the “Bookmarks Manager” option from the drop-down menu on your screen.
  4. Then from the Bookmarks Manager page, go ahead and click on the “Organize” button. This will then show you another drop-down menu.
  5. From the drop-down menu that appeared on your screen, go ahead and click on the “Import Bookmarks from HTML file” option.
  6. Then lastly, go ahead and browse your Documents folder for you to look for the bookmarks files and have them imported to your Google Chrome browser.

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Setting #2: How to Enable Sync in Google Chrome

The syncing feature of Google Chrome is one the most convenient feature it has. Once that you have this on your Google Chrome browser, then your passwords, themes, browsing history, your Google Chrome settings and a lot more will also go with the bookmarks when you try to use other devices. All you have to do is to log in the same Google Account to that particular device.

For you to enable sync in Google Chrome, here is what you will be needing to do. All you have to do is to log in to your Google account on your Google Chrome browser. Then all the things that you have synced using that particular account will automatically load up to the device that you are using.

From here, you will also be able to manage the things that you would want to sync. All you have to do is the following.

  1. Go ahead and launch Google Chrome on your Mac.
  2. Then after that, simply click on Settings and then choose Advanced Sync Settings.
  3. Then another window will appear on your screen. From that window, go ahead and click on the “Sync everything” then a drop-down menu will appear on your screen.
  4. From the drop-down window, go ahead and choose what you want to sync. Then from there, you will be able to have some choices on what you would want to sync into your Google Chrome using your Google account.

Chrome Mac Download

Part 5: Conclusion

So there you have it! Exporting bookmarks from Google Chrome on your Mac is not as difficult as it sounds. It is actually a very easy task that you can do on your own. All you have to do is to follow the steps that we have provided above and you will be on the right track.

Now, as far as your browser is the concern, there is also another way for you to b able to have a better experience when you are using any browsers that you have on your Mac. And this by clearing out all the searches, downloads, your browsing histories, your caches, and as well as your cookies. This way, your browser will be able to function better.

And for you to be able to do this, you will be needing a powerful tool for it. And the one that is highly recommended by most Mac users is the FoneDog PowerMyMac application. This is actually one of the best Mac application there is today because it can surely help you in removing all the unnecessary files that you have on your browsers such as your browsing history, cookies, caches, downloads, and more.

The PowerMyMac is one of the easiest and most efficient programs that you can use for you to clean up your browser. It will only take you a few clicks and you will be surprised how this program really works. No extra effort and time will be exerted upon doing this. That is how powerful the PowerMyMac is.

>Tricks >Export Bookmarks from Google Chrome on Mac – A Quick and Easy Guide
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