BUG history is NOT deleted when restarting after update
In my options, I have "Clear history when Firefox closes" set (about:preferences#privacy tab). This normally works fine...
except...
if the reason for closing Firefox is to do an update via Help | About Firefox. This has been a problem at least going back to Firefox 57. I specifically reproduced this a few minutes ago for 66.0 --> 66.0.1 , Windows.
Reproduce as follows: Visit a few sites Ensure that about:preferences#privacy | Clear history when Firefox closes is checked Update using Help | About Firefox, then click the "Restart Now" button After the update is applied and Firefox restarts, look at History | Recently Closed Tabs; you will see those sites from the last session. Similarly, you will see cookies
General comment: I can think of few times it isn't MORE essential to clear out history or cookies (if that's the user's choice) than when applying an update. After all, many updates are required by of security vulnerabilities, many from unknowing/hijacked sites!
I suspect that the problem here is the order in which things are getting done for an update, or that the update routine just ignores normal shutdown/restart protocols entirely and does its own thing independent of user settings. If the latter is the case and it "really needs to be" that way (I doubt it — that's a common refrain I've been hearing for decades with complex programs and I have not once come across an instance in which it was more than a convenience for the programmers), there should at minimum be a flag or warning that "When Firefox was restarted, it did not do a normal shutdown. If your settings require certain actions on shutdown (like clearing history or cookies), that may not have occurred."
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If I understand correctly, the issue is that when you restart Firefox after downloading the update, your history is still there when Firefox restarts?
That's not a bug. That's the way it's supposed to work.
The key is that you are restarting Firefox, not closing it. Firefox assumes that you are only restarting because you want the update to be applied and that you will want to restore your session afterwards. Therefore, it doesn't delete the things that it would under a normal close situation.
This is not a solution. It is an explanation that a private meaning has been applied to a common situation without a flag for the user.
If that's "the way it's supposed to work," then the user needs to be informed that it was not a normal shutdown, that normal shutdown routines were not followed (and there are probably a lot of others that many users — especially those in, say, an organizational environment in which the IT folks have customized things to protect privacy — may be encountering).
Bottom line: If you do something — anything — that isn't normal behavior, flag it to the user. Especially, but not only, when theres a potential privacy or security issue caused by that not-normal behavior. (And don't call the "it acts differently when updating" behavior "normal," either.)
I consider this bug open despite the explanation for the alternate suggested fix — the flag or other warning that shutdown routines were not run.
Firefox automatically saves the current session in case of a crash or if the user wants to go back to the prior session.
Restarting Firefox is not closing, so the prior session is loaded. What you can do is; Instead of restarting the browser, just close it. After a bit, you can open the browser again.