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"Clear Now" button disappears if I check OR uncheck any item

  • 8 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Hello, Firefox 58.0.2 In the privacy caregory, if I want to delete just my cache or cookies or history, etc, I can't make any choices. If I check OR uncheck just one item [cookies, cache, history, site preferences, etc, ANY item] the 'clear now' and 'cancel' buttons both disappear, making it impossible to clear anything at all. If I check or uncheck what I just did, the buttons stay gone. I have to close out of F/F and come back in. I just don't always want to dump every item I'm offered. Any ideas? Many thanks {;-) Mike

Hello, Firefox 58.0.2 In the privacy caregory, if I want to delete just my cache or cookies or history, etc, I can't make any choices. If I check OR uncheck just one item [cookies, cache, history, site preferences, etc, ANY item] the 'clear now' and 'cancel' buttons both disappear, making it impossible to clear anything at all. If I check or uncheck what I just did, the buttons stay gone. I have to close out of F/F and come back in. I just don't always want to dump every item I'm offered. Any ideas? Many thanks {;-) Mike

Chosen solution

Such settings are saved as part of the Site Preferences, so as long as you do not clear the Site Preferences then you are fine.

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All Replies (8)

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Hi Mike, do you mean the "Clear Recent History" dialog you can pop up by using Ctrl+Shift+Delete?

If you mean something on the Options page, could you tell me how to find it?

Clear Recent History has a little Details button you can use to show and hide the individual checkboxes. Does it help to click that button a few times to force Firefox to resize the dialog?

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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions ("3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.

  • switch to the DEFAULT theme: "3-bar" menu button or Tools -> Add-ons -> Appearance
  • do NOT click the "Refresh Firefox" button on the Safe Mode start window
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Hi jscher2000, Just click on: Tools, options, privacy & security, & "clear your recent history". When it opens you'll see 7 choices. The first 5 will already be check marked, the bottom 2 are not [at least on mine anyway]. If you click on ANY one of those 7 items in that list, for any reason, the spacing between those 7 items widens, pushing the last item down to the bottom of the box. The "clear now" and "cancel" buttons will now be pushed down and out of sight. I find absolutely no way to correct this. Thank you, Mike

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Hi Mike, I customized my history settings, so I didn't see the link there. (Attached screenshot compares the two views.)

When I try your setting and open that dialog, the item heights don't change when I click. I'm not sure why we have a difference. If you change the zoom level, does that help? You can hold Ctrl and tap + or - (or + then -) to jog the zoom level.

If the problems continues, try using the other older version of the dialog, either:

  • Ctrl+Shift+Delete
  • "Library" toolbar button > History > Clear Recent History
  • (optional menu bar) History > Clear Recent History
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If the spacing changes when you select an item in the list of choices then that would suggest a change of line height or box height.

Do you have this problem only in the window or also if you select something elsewhere?

Does this also happen if you use the Tab key to go the the selection area and use cursor Down to select and Space to toggle?

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jscher2000 & Cor-el, That was a good idea. The spacing about doubles when it happens. I just found that if I zoom it out 1-2 clicks, it leaves just enough of the button showing so I can click and activate it. Of course I'll have to zoom it like that every time but that's not so often anyway. Not a big deal. Thank you all for the help!! Mike

Modified by Whitney2010

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Update: I was wrong in saying that I'll have to zoom it every time. Once you click the items you prefer, then zoom it out and activate, your program will remember your choices permanently [or long term, as few things are really "permanent" [;-)

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Chosen Solution

Such settings are saved as part of the Site Preferences, so as long as you do not clear the Site Preferences then you are fine.