How to Search Chrome History by Date

Chrome has the useful feature of saving the addresses of sites that you’ve visited. But if you rarely clear your history, the list will quickly become unmanageable. If you’re trying to find a certain webpage but can only recall the date you visited it, categorizing your history can be useful.

In this article, we’ll show you how to search your Chrome history by date, along with some other useful Chrome tips that might be handy.

How to Search Chrome History by Date on a PC

Searching Google Chrome history on the PC is considerably easier than on other platforms as the browser was designed for it. To find a particular website that you visited on a certain date, do the following:

1. Open Google Chrome on your PC.
   
2. Log onto your Google Account. Remember that your Chrome browsing history is saved only if you’re logged onto a Google Account and have Chrome Sync turned on. If you don’t log in when you browse you won’t have a history to search.
   
3. On your address bar, type in “myactivity.google.com” (without the quotation marks), then press enter.
   
4. On the home page, click on “Web & App Activity.”
   
5. On the Activity controls page, scroll down and click on “Manage All Web & App Activity.”
   
6. Under “Search your activity,” click on “Filter by date & Product.”
   
7. You will now be shown a window listing the websites you have accessed on Chrome along with a date filter that you can set for after and before a particular date. Toggle on Chrome, Search, Image Search, and Video Search to show all the results of your searches. Enter the date to narrow down the period or leave it blank to see all the results.
   
8. Click on “Apply.”
   
9. You will now be shown a list of all the terms you’ve searched for, and all the websites you’ve visited along with the date and time you accessed them.
   
10. Clicking on “Details” on each result will show you particular information about it.
    
11. Clicking on a link will open the webpage in a new window. Clicking on the three dots icon will allow you to delete the search or webpage history.
    
12. Scroll back up and click on “Filter by Date & Product” again to enter new search filters.

How to Search Chrome History by Date on an iPhone

Although there’s a Google app on the iPhone store, it’s easier to access your Chrome history via the My Activity page when using the iPhone. The specific steps to do so are as follows:

1. Log onto your Google account.
   
2. Open the My Activity Page on your iPhone’s browser.
   
3. Scroll down to “Web & App Activity.”
   
4. Scroll down and tap on “Manage All Web & App Activity”.
   
5. Tap on “Filter by date & product.”
   
6. As with the search on the PC above, enter the dates to filter out results and toggle Chrome, Search, Image Search, and Video Search to see the websites you’ve visited.
   
7. Tap on “Apply.”
   
8. Scroll up and down to see the search results. Tapping on “Filter by Date & Product” on top will allow you to enter new filters.
   

How to Search Chrome History by Date on an Android

Android devices have a dedicated Google app that can be used instead of opening a browser to search Google history. The steps to do this are as follows:

1. Before you begin, make sure that you’re currently signed into your Google account.
2. On your Android device, swipe up to open the App menu.
   
3. Search and tap on “Settings.”
   
4. Scroll up and tap on Google.
   
5. Tap on “Manage Your Google Account.”
   
6. Tap on “Privacy & Personalization.”
   
7. Scroll down until you find the “History Settings” tab. Tap on “Web & App Activity.”
   
8. Scroll down to the bottom, and then tap on “Manage All Web & App Activity.”
   
9. Scroll down and tap on “Filter by Date & Product.”
   
10. You can now enter particular filters to narrow down your search results. Toggle on Chrome, Image Search, Search, and Video Search to show all the websites that you’ve searched for. Add a “before” and “after” date to narrow down a period of activity, or leave them blank to show all results.
    
11. Tap on “Apply.”
    
12. Scroll down to see the individual results. You can tap on “Filter by date & product” on the top again to enter new search filters.
    

Third-Party Extensions

Chrome is known to have useful extensions that users can install to enhance the utility of the browser. Chrome history extensions make it easier to access your activity, rather than having to go through all the links required when using Google’s My Activity page.

Chrome extensions can be installed onto the Chrome browser by simply navigating to their webpage and clicking on “Add to Chrome.” Each installed extension can be accessed by clicking on the Extension icon in the upper right corner of the Chrome window. The Extension icon is shaped like a puzzle piece.

To remove an extension, click on the extension icon then navigate to the particular one you want to remove. Click on the three dots to the right of the extension, then choose “Remove from Chrome” from the popup menu. Toggling the pin icon makes the extension easier to access as it’s shown at the top of the Chrome menu.

Here are a few of the most popular extensions available:

History Manager

The History Manager Extension makes the activity page a lot more useful – it’ll be easier to narrow down your search. History Manager allows users to include specific terms for each date. This way, you can limit the results, which can come in handy if you’re looking for results over a longer period.

History Search

The default Google History Search only displays the names of the web pages that you’ve recently visited. History Search expands that by allowing users to search for terms within each webpage. This is handy if you don’t remember the particular page or the date that you accessed it, but do recall a particular topic within that page. When searching through a lot of results, being able to search within them makes it easier to find the web pages related to what you’re looking for.

History Trends Unlimited

By default, Google will delete any terms you’ve searched for after 90 days. The History Trends Unlimited extension allows you to keep logs of your search history for a longer period. This is handy if you often revisit web pages even months after you first found them, like when writing a term paper or thesis.

The downside is that if you ever delete this extension, all of your logs go as well, so you have to keep it installed to retain functionality.

Better History

Better History enhances the functionality of the historical search by increasing the number of filters, streamlining the interface, and adding more management controls. This extension also gives users the ability to save preferred search settings for repeated use.

Narrowing Terms

Trying to recall a previously visited website is a lot easier if you can narrow the terms considerably. Knowing how to search Chrome history by date limits the results you have to go through, making it easier to find what you’re looking for.

Do you know of other ways to search Chrome history by date? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.