# Why are my website links doing a disappearing act? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915 "2018-09-06T22:40:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/1 "2018-09-06T22:40:44Z")
Using Chrome on a PC with Google search engine. The links for the websites I use the most have always stayed where I put them unless I do a cleaning of cookies, etc. Then they come back as I visit my most-used sites. Today, I clicked on a link in one of the Dope threads and suddenly all my icons on the home page were gone. I did a deletion of cookies and other crap, just in case, then went through the whole thing of going to the websites, etc. They didn’t come back, so I rebooted the computer. Then they were there, but when I clicked for a new page, they were gone. Shut down the browser and re-open, and they’re back. Try to open a new page: gone. Right now they’re gone. Any clues? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/2 "2018-09-07T14:01:24Z")
One-time bumpity. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/3 "2018-09-07T14:18:35Z")
I have no idea but my links have vanished as well. I have most of them bookmarked but the big icons are far more handy so I’d like to have them back too if somebody knows how. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/4 "2018-09-07T14:33:40Z")
I use Chrome and all of my thumbnails went bye-bye too today. No idea why. Googling, indicates that it’s happened before to people, but the fixes they mention—altering zoom, reloading, messing with cookies—haven’t brought them back. Kind of a pain, and I too would like a solution if anyone has one. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/5 "2018-09-07T15:45:52Z")
It is nice to know that others are suffering with me. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/6 "2018-09-07T16:20:58Z")
Two more reports here (me and someone else) - perhaps a patch will be coming? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/7 "2018-09-07T20:25:34Z")
Warning: I went to the Google forum and followed the directions of some fucking technician and lost all my saved passwords and formatting, so be very careful about what you do to remedy the problem. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/8 "2018-09-07T20:28:21Z")
I’m guessing you are all running build 68? Updating to build 69 (the latest build) restored my frequently visited thumbnails. Warning: some rather intense UI redesigns in 69. Things will look different. The address bar is rounded at the end, the new tab button is a circle, the tabs themselves have rounded corners and the frequently visited thumbnails are circles. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/9 "2018-09-07T20:31:01Z")
More joy: it also erased all my bookmarks. Fucking motherfuckers. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/10 "2018-09-07T20:44:32Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I’m guessing you are all running build 68? Updating to build 69 (the latest build) restored my frequently visited thumbnails. > > Warning: some rather intense UI redesigns in 69. Things will look different. The address bar is rounded at the end, the new tab button is a circle, the tabs themselves have rounded corners and the frequently visited thumbnails are circles. I had to go to the “help” section on the menu, as there is no update button showing. As soon as I clicked on “help”, Chrome started updating. Now the icons are all back, but not the passwords or bookmarks. I’ll take what I can get. For others who are having the problem, try doing what I did. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/11 "2018-09-07T20:59:02Z")
Happened to me. Fixed it and Iam technologically not sophisticaed. from [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/9dofeg/missing_the_homepage_most_visited_thumbnails/): > [@](#): > > Found a way to fix the issue on at least v60-67 of chrome. change the flag #use-google-local-ntp to enabled and it should work like it did before. versions of chrome without this flag are out of luck > · > 7 hours ago > And in case anyone wonders how to change the flag, type ‘chrome://flags’ in the URL bar. > > Fucking annoying bug and should have been easy enough to notice before rolling it out. I was about ready to just leave the internet forever. I still have the same version of Chrome I had before, at least for now. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/12 "2018-09-07T21:03:30Z")
This just happened to me earlier today: Google homepage ( set as “newtab” theme page ) missing the 8 bookmarked tile/thumbnails. Answer to was harder to find than i thought, given the widespread nature of this issue. This worked for me: Found from another forum 1. Open a new tab 2. in the URL bar type: chrome://flags/ 3. CTRL-F and type: Enable using the Google local NTP 4. Set this feature to: ‘Enabled’ 5. Relaunch ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/13 "2018-09-07T21:45:39Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > I use Chrome and all of my thumbnails went bye-bye too today. No idea why. Googling, indicates that it’s happened before to people, but the fixes they mention—altering zoom, reloading, messing with cookies—haven’t brought them back. > > Kind of a pain, and I too would like a solution if anyone has one. The problem seems to be a combination of Chrome and Google. I’m the one freak in the universe who uses Chrome but sets [Bing.com](http://Bing.com) as the default search engine (I need those juicy Microsoft Points)-- my “most used links” still show up perfectly fine. So that’s one potential fix. You could also just enable the Bookmarks Bar and put your commonly-visited sites there. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/14 "2018-09-07T23:12:50Z")
Mine are back now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-my-website-links-doing-a-disappearing-act/820915/15 "2018-09-07T23:22:45Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > This just happened to me earlier today: Google homepage ( set as “newtab” theme page ) missing the 8 bookmarked tile/thumbnails. Answer to was harder to find than i thought, given the widespread nature of this issue. > > This worked for me: Found from another forum > > 1. Open a new tab > 2. in the URL bar type: chrome://flags/ > 3. CTRL-F and type: Enable using the Google local NTP > 4. Set this feature to: ‘Enabled’ > 5. Relaunch This works! A thousand thank yous to you. I don’t know how to repay you, but perhaps sometime I can help you with something. Thanks again.