Find broken bookmarks
in Chrome

Chrome has no built-in way to find dead bookmarks. You can check them by hand (open a folder’s bookmarks and see which pages fail), or use a tool that visits each address for you. LB TAB Layers has two link checks: one in Clean mode that scans all your Chrome bookmarks, and Check Broken Links in the dashboard, which scans your saved groups, separates confirmed broken (404 / 410) links from ones it could not check, and moves the ones you choose to a trash folder instead of deleting them.

Bookmarks age. Sites move, articles get taken down, small services shut down. After a few years, a good share of an old bookmark collection may lead nowhere, and you only find out when you need one of them. This guide shows how to find those dead links in Chrome, by hand and automatically, and how to clean them up without throwing away bookmarks that still work.

Does Chrome have a broken link checker?

No. Chrome’s bookmark manager (Ctrl+Shift+O, or ⌘+Option+B on a Mac) lets you search, sort, move and delete bookmarks, but it never checks whether the pages still exist. There is no setting or flag for it either. To find dead bookmarks you either check them yourself or use a tool that does it for you.

Manual ways to find dead bookmarks

These work without installing anything. They are fine for a few dozen bookmarks and tiring for a few thousand.

1. Open a folder at a time. In the bookmark manager, right-click a folder and choose Open all (the exact wording depends on your Chrome version). Go through the tabs and delete the bookmarks whose pages show “404”, “Page not found” or a browser error. Do a small folder at a time; Chrome asks before opening a large number of tabs.
2. Look for obviously old ones first. Search the bookmark manager for services you know have closed, or for old domains your company no longer uses. Removing those first makes the rest quicker.
3. Export and use a link checker. In the bookmark manager, ⋮ → Export bookmarks saves an HTML file with every address. You can feed that file to a link-checking tool. Be aware that this hands your whole bookmark list to that tool, so pick one you trust, ideally one that runs on your own computer.

Whichever way you choose, don’t delete on a single failure. A site can be down for an hour, block an unusual request, or need you to sign in. A page that fails today may open fine tomorrow.

Check broken links automatically with LB TAB Layers

LB TAB Layers is a side panel for Chrome (open it with Alt+T) that keeps your tabs in groups saved as Chrome bookmarks. It has two link checks. Both ask each site directly from your browser; nothing goes through our servers.

Clean mode: scan every bookmark

1. In the panel, click Clean in the mode bar at the top.
2. Click Check broken links. A progress bar shows how many bookmarks have been checked. You can stop it at any time.
3. When it finishes, you see the number of broken links and a list with the error for each (for example “404 Not Found”).
4. Remove them one by one with the × button, or all at once with Delete all.

Deleting here removes the bookmarks from Chrome for good, so look through the list before you click Delete all. If you are signed in to Chrome, the deletion also reaches your other computers.

Dashboard: confirmed vs. could not check

1. Open the dashboard (DB in the mode bar) and click Check Broken Links.
2. The results come in two lists: Confirmed broken (404 / 410), and Unknown (timeout / server error).
3. Tick the confirmed ones you want to remove (or select them all) and move them to the trash. You are asked to confirm first.

The trash is a folder inside your LB TAB Layers bookmarks. Anything moved there stays for 30 days, so if you change your mind, drag it back out in the bookmark manager. Links in the “unknown” list have no checkbox on purpose: open them yourself and decide.

How the check decides, and its limits

For each address, the extension first sends a light request that asks only for the page’s status. If the site does not accept that kind of request, it loads the page normally instead. Then:

• 404 (not found) or 410 (gone): counted as broken. This is the only result treated as confirmed.
• The page loads, or redirects somewhere: counted as fine.
• 401 or 403 (sign-in needed or access refused): counted as fine, because the page exists and is just protected. Many sites answer this way to automated checks.
• Timeout, network error, server error (5xx) or any other code: “could not check”. The dashboard lists these as Unknown; Clean mode leaves them out of its list.

That design avoids deleting good bookmarks, but it means some dead ones slip through:

• Some sites block automated checks or answer them differently than a browser tab. Those end up as “could not check”, or are counted as fine.
• A domain that no longer exists shows up as a network error, so it lands in “could not check”, not in confirmed.
• “Soft” 404s are missed. Some sites show a “page not found” message but report success, or redirect every old address to their home page. The check sees a working page.
• Internal addresses such as chrome:// pages and local files are skipped.

So treat the result as a shortlist, not a verdict: remove the confirmed ones, and open the “could not check” ones yourself when you have a minute. Once the dead links are gone, sorting what is left gets much easier; see how to organize your Chrome bookmarks, and the dashboard guide for more about the dashboard.

Chrome’s official help

• Create, find and edit bookmarks in Chrome — Google Chrome Help
• Import Chrome bookmarks & settings — Google Chrome Help

Frequently asked questions

Q. Can Chrome find broken bookmarks on its own?

No. Chrome’s bookmark manager can search, sort and delete bookmarks, but it does not check whether pages still exist. You need to check by hand or use an extension or a link-checking tool.

Q. Why are some links listed as “unknown” instead of broken?

The site did not give a clear answer: it timed out, returned a server error, refused the automated request, or the domain could not be reached. These may be temporary, so they are never removed automatically. Open them yourself to decide.

Q. Can I undo after removing broken links?

From the dashboard, yes: the bookmarks go to a trash folder in your bookmarks and stay there for 30 days, so you can drag them back. Deleting from Clean mode removes them from Chrome right away and cannot be undone.

Q. Is the broken link check free?

The check in Clean mode is free. The dashboard check is part of PRO, and every PRO feature is free during the first 90 days after you install.

▶ See it in action

Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)