If Chrome says “Something went wrong when opening your profile”, or Chrome only misbehaves in your own profile, the fix is to move to a fresh profile and let your synced data come back. If the message ends with “Please sign out then sign in again”, try that first: Chrome recovered the profile but may have lost some data, and signing back in lets sync restore it. Otherwise, work in this order so you don’t lose anything:
- Confirm it’s the profile. Select your Profile picture at the top right > Open Guest profile. If Chrome works normally in Guest mode, the problem is in your profile, not in Chrome itself.
- Make sure your data is saved somewhere else. If you’re signed in to Chrome with sync on, your bookmarks and passwords are in your Google Account already. If not, export your bookmarks and passwords first (see below).
- Create a new profile. Select Profile > Add Chrome profile, and sign in with the same Google Account. Your synced bookmarks, passwords and settings download into the new profile.
- Use the new profile for a day. If everything works, delete the old one: Profile > Manage Chrome profiles, select the old profile, then More > Delete. Deleting a profile erases its bookmarks, history and passwords from this computer, so only do it once you’ve checked the new profile has what you need.
Steps 3 and 4 come from Google’s Manage Chrome with multiple profiles. The quoted error messages are Chrome’s own wording.
Save your bookmarks and passwords first
- Turn on sync: sign in to Chrome with your Google Account so your data is saved to it. See Sign in to Chrome.
- Export bookmarks: select More > Bookmarks and lists > Bookmark manager, then at the top select More > Export bookmarks. You get an HTML file. In the new profile, import it with More > Bookmarks and lists > Import bookmarks and settings. Google’s steps are in Import Chrome bookmarks & settings.
- Export passwords: select More > Passwords and autofill > Google Password Manager > Settings, go to “Export passwords” and select Download file. Import it in the new profile from the same Settings page. Google warns that anyone who uses the computer can open that file, so delete it when you’re done. Source: Import or export passwords and passkeys.
If Chrome won’t open at all
If Chrome crashes before you can switch profiles, Google’s advice in Fix Chrome if it crashes or won’t open is:
- Make sure Chrome isn’t already running in the background. On Windows, press Ctrl + Alt + Delete, open Task Manager, select Google Chrome and choose End task. On a Mac, press ⌘ + Option + Esc and force quit Chrome.
- Restart your computer and try again.
- If it still fails, uninstall Chrome and tick the box to delete browsing data, then reinstall it. Google says a problem with your Chrome profile can cause crashes, and this clears the profile. When you sign in again, your synced data comes back. See how to uninstall Chrome and the download for Windows or Mac.
Not syncing? Deleting browsing data during uninstall removes your bookmarks and passwords from the computer. Before you do it, close Chrome and copy your Chrome data folder somewhere safe, so you still have the files:
- Windows:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data - Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome - Linux:
~/.config/google-chrome
These are the default locations listed in the Chromium project’s user data directory documentation. Each profile is a subfolder inside it; the first one is usually called Default.
If the new profile has the same problem
Then the profile wasn’t the cause. Work through the full Chrome troubleshooting sequence, which covers extensions, a settings reset, unwanted programs and graphics acceleration.
On a phone or tablet
Phones don’t let you open Chrome’s profile files. Sign in to Chrome so your data is synced first. On an iPhone or iPad, you can then delete the Chrome app, reinstall it from the App Store and sign in again. On most Android phones Chrome comes with the phone and can’t be removed, so update it from the Play Store instead.