Undo close tab: the only browser keyboard shortcut you need

Quickly reopen the tabs you closed by mistake with a keyboard shortcut.

How many times did you try to select a different tab in your browser, and you mistakenly clicked on the small [X] button that closes the tab without warning? I'm doing it at least a couple of times a day.

Fortunately, there's a keyboard shortcut that can help you re-open the last closed tab. That keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + T.

How does Ctrl + Shift + T work?

On all the browsers I've tested this (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave) Ctrl + Shift + T worked the same way.

Press once and the last closed tab will be reopened. Press again and the tab you closed before the last one will be reopened. 

You can keep pressing this shortcut and go back, reopen all closed tabs, including their history, to the moment you opened your browser. So, in a reopened tab you can go back and forward in history if you need to.

Each old tab will reopen in the browser window it belonged to. If that is not the active window at that time, it will be automatically selected and will become the active window. If you're using virtual desktops the operating system will automatically switch to the desktop where the new active browser window is located.

If you start closing tabs again, they will be added back at the first position in the list of closed tabs. They will be the first to re-open.

Ctrl + Shift + T works even in the instance where you close a browser window with multiple tabs. 

The takeaway is this: Ctrl + Shift + T works with both tabs and individual browser windows.

Mind you that browsers can remember previous sessions but will clear the list of closed tabs when you close all the browser windows.

Limitations: Ctrl + Shift + T will open a new tab with the address of the last closed tab. If you chose a tab where you filled in a form, entered some data, most likely you'll lose your work and have to start all over again. Some tabs will warn you with a small popup if there's unsaved data before closing, so you can't really close them by mistake, but if that's not the case be prepared to do the work again.

Reopening tabs will not work in Incognito mode

There is one situation when Ctrl + Shift + T will not work at all. That's when you’re browsing in Incognito mode. This allegedly private mode is built to "forget" your browsing history. In Incognito, the browser will not remember closed tabs and incognito windows.

If you're using Incognito on a regular basis Ctrl + Shift + T won't help you if you close tabs by mistake.

I'll end with one thing that may help you remember this useful shortcut. Ctrl + T is the shortcut to open a new tab. The Shift key is usually added to an existing shortcut to perform the opposite action. For example, if you're hitting Tab to get to the next element in a page, Shift + Tab will move you to the previous element.

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