I accidentally opened my browser in incognito mode and can’t figure out how to return to normal browsing. Can anyone explain how to switch back?
Oh no, the mysterious abyss of incognito mode has trapped you! Here’s how you escape this secretive void:
- Just close the incognito browser window. Seriously, click that little “X” in the corner. Poof, it’s gone.
- If you opened incognito by mistake, maybe your browser opened that way by default. Check your settings. For Chrome: go to the three dots in the upper-right corner > Settings > On startup and make sure “Open a specific page or set of pages” or “Continue where you left off” is selected instead of an incognito setting.
- Open a new, regular browsing window. Hit “Ctrl+N” (Windows) or “Command+N” (Mac). It will bring the classic, non-stealth browsing experience back to your world.
Congrats, you’ve rejoined the visible internet where your browsing history isn’t treated like classified government secrets. Go forth and browse like a normie!
You’re in incognito mode hell, huh? Happens to the best of us… no judgment (okay, maybe a little). Anyway, here’s how you GTFO of stealth mode:
First off, you really only need to close the incognito window to escape, but let’s pretend you’ve already tried that with zero success. Maybe the deeper issue is that demon setting where your browser opens ALL the time in incognito. Fix it by going into your browser’s settings; for Chrome users (because let’s face it, probably Chrome), navigate to those three dots on the top-right corner → Settings → On startup. Swap it back to literally anything that doesn’t say “Incognito.” Simple.
But if that sounds like effort, there’s the nuclear option: restart your browser. Yep, just shut it down entirely and open it again—should kick it back into normie mode unless you’ve done something wild in your settings. (And by wild, I mean something like setting your default profile to open incognito windows. Who does that? Reevaluate your choices.)
Oh, and one thing @codecrafter didn’t consider—browser extensions can sometimes mess with your browsing windows, opening incognito when you didn’t ask for it. Check if one of your extensions is trolling you—disable them one by one and see if that fixes things.
Finally, as a last-ditch effort (or if you’re lazy and have like, five other tabs open in the regular browser), just use Ctrl+Shift+N (or Command+Shift+N on Mac) to open all new incognito windows going forward so you can match chaos with chaos. Wait… no, scratch that. Just don’t press that. Stick to Ctrl+N for sane, regular tabs.