Getting multiple '+' sings on taskbar on Google Chrome browser

[JustMee]

Hi there, I’m posting here to see if anyone has any insights into a problem I’m having with my Google Chrome browser.
I have already posted this problem on Google Chrome’s ‘Help Center’ and have gotten no useful response from them at all.
It seems as though they simply don’t want to deal with issue and have locked the post so noone can respond to it!
Here is my post:

I can open up chrome and use it fine, but after a while of opening/closing different tabs, it seems like chrome starts to get confused on the windows it has and it starts to collect up a lot of ‘+’ symbols along the taskbar. I can still use chrome fine, but they keep adding up slowly as I close more tabs. I can show example in attachment.

[IMG alt="thread-148438673-16759185916233829155" width="690px" height="58px"]https://storage.googleapis.com/support-forums-api/attachment/thread-148438673-16759185916233829155.png[/IMG]

Here is there response:
Thank you for reaching our community. I hope the chrome version you installed in your pc is wrong. So kindly right click the chrome icon and then troubleshoot it. Then you can automatically test the compability of the chrome and then you will be able to access chrome easily and frequently.
Here is my follow-up:
Hi there,
I’ve made sure my Chrome is up to date.
Here is the ver:
Chrome is up to date
Version 98.0.4758.82 (Official Build) (64-bit)

I will see if this still happens.

2/6/22: After making sure my chrome is on the current version, again, I still have the above stated problem with extra ‘+’ symbols collecting along the top of my task bar. It looks like Chrome is not properly shutting down old tabs when I am done using them. Although, I am not sure how to verify this. But the fact that multiple ‘+’ symbols (which seem to be indicative of old tabs) keep collecting along the task bar the more work I do in Chrome. Any other suggestions would be of great help. This problem seems to have started within the past month or so I’d say.

From there, no more response from them and they locked the post so noone can respond to it.

Has anyone else had any similiar issues?
I have not tried to delete cookies since there are cookies I don’t want to delete and don’t know how to tell which ones they are or how to weed them out?
Thanks, in advance,

[Bruce]

let’s assume your Chrome profile is corrupted or an extension is causing this.
let’s wipe all history of the current Chrome profile.

go to C:\Users{your login account}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome and delete the User Data folder.

now see what Chrome does.

[JustMee]

Hi there, thanks for the response.
Will this delete anything like history or cookies from sites that I need to hold onto, or will be reset any youtube saved/visited info?
Thanks, in advance,

[Bruce]

it will delete EVERYTHING.
the next time you use Chrome after the delete, it will be like your very first time.
all bookmarks, passwords, history, forms, etc will need to be re-established.
that should not be an ‘end of the world’ exercise - if it is, you should be backing up that folder.

but not now, is it sounds like it has gone pear-shaped and needs clearing out.

that’s my solution and admittedly, maybe a big hammer approach.

if you wait, maybe others will chime in with a more delicate solution.

[Malnutrition]

Open elevated command prompt, copy paste the following hit enter.

del /s /q “%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache*. *”

If that fails…

Download ResetBrowser To your desktop.
[ul]
[li]Now close all open browsers.[/li][li]Right click and run as administrator.[/li][li]Click on Reset Browser of your choice. – Allow completion.[/li][/ul]
This approach will clean all plugins, but will save passwords and bookmarks. At the same time update to the latest version of chrome.

[Bruce]

@JustMee - any update?

[Bruce]

last seen OP a week ago.
abandoned.

[Bruce]

re-opened as per OP request.

[JustMee]

Hi all, Thanks for all the suggestions.
I could not get rid of all of the cookies, since there are sites that I don’t want to lose the cookies for.

I tried deleting the cookies one at a time, yuck! and wanted to see if that had any effect on things.
Well, I got rid of a lot of them, waited several days and have not seen this issue repeat since. Interesting!
Seems like this is helping.
Thanks for all the input. I will add it to my tools.

[Bruce]

OK, we’ll leave this a few days and see how you go.

[Bruce]

any news?

[JustMee]

Hi there, So it’s been a week now and I still have not seen this issue repeat itself.
Before, it was happening every time I used the browser for any length of time.
I’ll say this is fixed and make note of all the help I got.
Thanks again guys.