Separate two symptoms before touching anything: a single tab showing the 'Aw, Snap' error screen, or the whole of Chrome disappearing without warning. A crashed tab is usually a memory shortage or an extension conflict (Solutions 1 and 2). The whole browser closing points to a corrupted profile, hardware acceleration or a security program interfering (Solutions 5, 6 and 7). The test that saves the most time is creating a new Chrome profile (Solution 6): if everything works there, the problem is in your profile, not in the browser or the computer.
What causes this problem
- Memory exhausted by too many tabs open at once, which kills the active tab with the error screen.
- An outdated or conflicting extension, especially ad blockers, translators, coupon tools and video downloaders.
- A corrupted Chrome profile, with damaged internal files after a forced shutdown or an interrupted sync.
- Hardware acceleration conflicting with an old or unstable graphics driver, causing silent closures.
- Antivirus and security programs interfering with the browser's memory protection.
- An unwanted program installed alongside other software, injecting code into pages and taking tabs down.
- Note the exact symptom: one tab showing the error screen, the whole of Chrome disappearing, or the browser freezing and then recovering. Each leads to different fixes.
- Check whether it happens on every site or only some. If it is one specific site, it is nearly always an extension or the site itself, not Chrome.
- Test another browser already on the computer. If that one crashes too, the problem is the system and not Chrome.
- Turn on sync or write down your important bookmarks before you start. Some fixes involve resetting settings.
- Restart the computer once before anything else. Stuck memory and pending updates cause this symptom and clear with a reboot.
Solutions, in the order to try them
1Free up memory and find out what is eating it
The 'Aw, Snap' screen almost always means Chrome could not get enough memory to render that tab and shut it down to save the rest. The browser has its own task manager showing how much each tab and extension consumes, and it usually hands you the culprit straight away. Many tabs plus a few heavy extensions is the classic combination.
- With Chrome open, press Shift and Esc together to open the browser's task manager.
- Sort by the memory column and see which tabs and extensions are at the top.
- Select the heavy item and click End process to close it without taking the browser down.
- Close the tabs you are not using, and also close other heavy programs running on the computer.
- If the error screen always appears on the same site, reload the page while holding Ctrl and clicking reload, to bypass the cache.
- If the problem goes away when you close tabs and returns as they pile up, it is a memory shortage and not a Chrome fault.
2Disable extensions and re-enable them one at a time
Extensions are the most common cause of crashes after memory. They run inside every page and an outdated one can take the whole tab down. The quick route is to test in an incognito window, where extensions are off by default: if the problem disappears there, you already know where it lives.
- Open an incognito window from the three-dot menu in the top right corner and use the problem site for a few minutes.
- If it does not crash in incognito, an extension is the culprit.
- Back in the normal window, open the three-dot menu, go to Extensions and switch them all off at once.
- Test. If it stabilises, re-enable one extension at a time and use the browser for a few minutes between each.
- When you find the offender, remove it and look for an alternative maintained by the official developer.
- Be suspicious of extensions you do not remember installing: they usually arrive bundled with other programs.
3Update Chrome and restart it properly
Chrome downloads updates on its own, but only applies them when it is fully closed. Anyone who leaves the browser open for weeks keeps running an old version with bugs that are already fixed, and the most common symptom of that is exactly the unexpected closure. Closing the window does not always end the program.
- Open the three-dot menu and look for the Help section, where the About Google Chrome option lives.
- If an update is available it starts applying by itself; click the relaunch button when it appears.
- Close every browser window and check that no Chrome icon is left near the clock.
- On Windows, open Task Manager and end any Chrome process still running.
- Open the browser again and test. If the problem started right after an update, tell the support team of the site that crashes.
4Clear the cache and cookies
The cache stores pieces of sites to speed up loading, and a corrupted file there makes a tab crash on the same address every time. Clearing it fixes those cases and is safe. Remember that deleting cookies signs you out of sites, so have your passwords handy.
- In the three-dot menu, find the option to clear browsing data, inside the privacy settings.
- Choose All time as the time range.
- Tick cached images and files, and also cookies and other site data.
- Leave saved passwords unticked if you do not want to lose them.
- Confirm, close the browser completely and open it again.
- If the crash happened on one site only, test that site first.
5Turn off hardware acceleration
Hardware acceleration hands part of the page-rendering work to the graphics card. When the graphics driver is old or unstable, that takes the whole of Chrome down with no message at all, which is exactly the symptom for anyone who sees the browser vanish. Turning acceleration off makes scrolling and video a little heavier, but it confirms straight away whether this is the cause.
- Open Chrome Settings from the three-dot menu.
- Find the System section, usually near the end of the side list.
- Switch off the option that uses hardware acceleration when available.
- Click Relaunch when the browser offers it and use Chrome normally for a while.
- If the problem stopped, the graphics driver is the culprit: update it from the card or laptop maker's site and then turn acceleration back on.
- If nothing changed, turn acceleration back on so you do not lose performance.
6Test with a new Chrome profile
This is the decisive test and it is worth doing before any reinstall. The profile stores bookmarks, passwords, extensions and settings in files that can become corrupted, and a damaged profile takes the browser down in ways that are hard to explain. A new profile starts clean without touching yours. If Chrome is stable in it, the problem was the old profile and not the program.
- Click your profile icon, to the right of the address bar.
- Choose the option to add a profile and continue without signing in, to create a genuinely clean profile.
- Use that new profile for a while, visiting the same sites that were crashing.
- If it stays stable, move over to it: turn on sync with your account to bring bookmarks and passwords back.
- Reinstall only the extensions you genuinely use, one at a time.
- If the new profile crashes too, the profile is not the problem - move on to Solutions 7 and 8.
7Look for unwanted programs and test the antivirus
Programs that install themselves alongside other software inject code into pages and are a classic cause of unexplained crashes. Antivirus and protection programs can also conflict with Chrome's own security system. The goal here is to find out whether something outside the browser is interfering.
- Open the system's list of installed programs and sort by install date. Uninstall anything you do not recognise and did not install deliberately.
- Go back to the Chrome extensions page and remove any item that appeared on its own.
- Run a full scan with the antivirus already on the computer.
- Temporarily switch off the antivirus real-time protection and use Chrome for a few minutes. If the crashes stop, it is a conflict: turn it back on and add Chrome to the program's exception list.
- Do not leave the antivirus disabled after the test, and do not install several antivirus programs at once.
8Reset the settings and, as a last step, reinstall
A reset returns Chrome to its factory state without deleting bookmarks and passwords: it disables extensions, clears cookies and restores the homepage and search engine. It is the step before reinstalling, which only makes sense once everything else has failed and the new profile crashes too.
- In Chrome Settings, find the reset settings section and choose to restore the original defaults.
- Confirm and restart the browser. Your passwords and bookmarks are still there; extensions come back disabled.
- If it still crashes, turn on sync with your account to make sure bookmarks and passwords are saved in the cloud.
- Uninstall Chrome from the system's programs panel, ticking the option to delete browsing data as well.
- Download the installer only from Google's official site and install it again.
- If the problem survives all of that, the cause is in the system: test another browser and check the computer's RAM.
Applies to
| System | Status |
|---|---|
| Chrome on Windows 11 and 10 | Confirmed |
| Chrome on macOS | Confirmed |
| Chrome on Android | There are no extensions or hardware acceleration to adjust; use the cache clearing and check free space on the device |
Menu names can change slightly between versions. If a step above does not match what you see on screen, the official support page from the manufacturer has the most current wording for your version.
Frequently asked questions
Last checked: Oct 1, 2026 · We review this guide whenever the manufacturer changes the process.