Using your file browser, open that folder and take a screen shot. Taking a Screen shot; Windows > Start > search box > Snip. Select Snipping Tool.

Save the picture(s) to your desktop. Now look at the Reply box below. Press the button under it that says Browse. Now select the screen shot(s) from the desktop and load them one at a time.

Separate Issue; Your System Details shows;

Installed Plug-ins

Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape 11.0.10 Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape "9.5.5"
Having more than one version of a program may cause issues. You must remove the older programs. Then get the current full installer.

Note: Edge on Win10 does not use ActiveX version but its own Flash.

Flash: Grab the uninstaller from here: Uninstall Flash Player | Windows Uninstall Flash Player | Mac

Then reinstall the latest version.

Flash Player Version 19.0.0.226
https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html Note: Windows users should download the ‘’’active_x’’’ for “Internet Explorer,” and the ‘’’plugin’’’ for “Plugin-based browsers” (like Firefox).

Adobe still offers Flash 18.0.0.255 as its extended support release further down

Shockwave Director: Shockwave Standalone Installer / Uninstaller{web link} Shockwave Director Version 12.2.1.171 http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/

Adobe PDF Plug-In For Firefox and Netscape: Adobe Reader Version 2015.009.20069 Note: McAfee Security is offered in the download.

I already deleted the contents of the folder and letting it rebuild. Why is it difficult to go to the default profile\storage\default and see what you have and what is putting it there? It is not a cookie, or DOM. Some other tracking something that has me more than curious.

I have two adobe's because I have reader and acrobat pro on my computer. No issues. Nor question asked. This is what happens when you have both and it is very common.

Why in the world would I be concerned about Edge and Windows 10? I am Win 7 64bit. And ALL of my plugins are up to date except for adobe reader and I will hold off doing ANYTHING Adobe CC for as long as anything keeps working.

Everything works just fine and I am a power user. So I appreciate the unsolicited advice, but much more interested in these new .metadata files.

Now if you really must have a screenshot, here you go. There were several dozen more that I deleted this morning. These seemed they might have value. The others were for web sites I have never heard of, hence the question:

I asked for the screen shot to see what is in the folder. Off hand, it could be external cache files. I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.

Bob,

profile\storage\default folder... isn't new in Firefox 42. I have 3 domains folders in that "default" folder, the oldest dated 5/24/2015 - when Firefox 38 was the newest version. Your screenshot doesn't show any other folders at the same path level as the "default" folder; I have "permanent" [3 folders inside] and "temporary" [empty - no files inside] folders along with that "default" folder. Beyond that I have no idea what type of metadata is stored in the "storage" folder and sub-folders.

That folder is used for storing data locally (DOM storage). It is for instance used to store the snippets that you see on the about:home page (persistent\moz-safe-about+home)

You can see by the names what each of the folders is about.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/DOM/Storage

FredMcD said

I asked for the screen shot to see what is in the folder. Off hand, it could be external cache files. I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.

Thanks. I would expect anyone with FF42 has the folder. I had not seen it before. And as I mentioned, lots fo little folders named with websites I do not recall at all. These two are likely legit, but also odd they just started storing something here. So some privacy/security something changed and if I need to change a setting or preference, would like to know.

the-edmeister said

Bob, profile\storage\default folder... isn't new in Firefox 42. I have 3 domains folders in that "default" folder, the oldest dated 5/24/2015 - when Firefox 38 was the newest version. Your screenshot doesn't show any other folders at the same path level as the "default" folder; I have "permanent" [3 folders inside] and "temporary" [empty - no files inside] folders along with that "default" folder. Beyond that I have no idea what type of metadata is stored in the "storage" folder and sub-folders.

Thank Ed. I do have the permanent and temporary. Only interested in this one. And I can tell you it changes in 42. It may have been there previously, but it changed for me two days ago when I noticed in my backups a bunch of new .metadata files.

cor-el said

That folder is used for storing data locally (DOM storage). It is for instance used to store the snippets that you see on the about:home page (persistent\moz-safe-about+home) You can see by the names what each of the folders is about.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/DOM/Storage

Thanks corel, but nothing in that article mentioned either Storage\defaulkt nor .metadata. And I thought DOM is stored elsewhere. Additonally., I have offline files both turned off and to be cleared when closing FF. So these persist and I do not think that is what they are.

~Bob

Do not confuse offline storage and local storage (DOM storage and IndexedDB). Local storage is used as an extension to cookies to allow websites to stored more and specific data locally without the need to send this data with every request to the server like is done with cookies.

• http://diveintohtml5.info/storage.html

There is also IndexedDB to store persistent data locally.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/IndexedDB

Thanks. That is new information for me. So, do we (I) have any control over what is allowed to store more than a cookie? Where would that be?

I'll check your links. Thanks, Cor-el.

The permissions for storing data locally are shared among all possible forms of storage, so if you allow cookies then also other forms of storage are enabled.

This website uses localStorage to store the fold (collapse) settings for items in the sidebar menu. It wouldn't make sense to store such data in a cookie and send it with every request as this data is only of importance to you and not to the server. You can type localStorage in the command line in the Web Console (Firefox menu button or Tools > Web Developer) to see this data.