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Hello, How to keep only certain cookies and delete all other history/browsing content when Firefox is closed? Thanks

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I cannot figure out how to keep only certain chosen cookies and delete all others, plus delete the cache and all history upon closing Firefox. Can this be done without using an add-on? Thanks

I cannot figure out how to keep only certain chosen cookies and delete all others, plus delete the cache and all history upon closing Firefox. Can this be done without using an add-on? Thanks

All Replies (8)

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Let the cookies expire when Firefox is closed to make them session cookies instead of using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cookies.

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
    Cookies and Site Data: [ ] "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed"

You can create an allow exception to keep specific cookies.

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
    Cookies and Site Data -> Manage Permissions

If you use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cookies then all cookies are removed including cookies with an allow exception. You can still use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cache.

Note that you lose pinned tabs if you select to clear the browsing history.

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Thanks for the reply cor-el. After a restart some cookies that haven't been given allow exceptions are still there, is that the expected behaviour? My intention is to have all cookies, except the ones I specify, be auto deleted each time Firefox is closed. Do I need an add-on for this? Thanks

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If you keep tabs open when you close Firefox then its cookies are retained in sessionstore.jsonlz4 as part of the session data if that is what you use.

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Interesting...I nearly always close the tabs before closing FF and definately did close them first when experimenting before posting earlier. I do have 'browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab' set to false, not sure if that makes a difference or not. I'm on version 69.0.1 (64-bit) on MX-Linux & I don't see a sessionstore file anywhere in my profile folder. There is a sessionstore-backup folder that contains 2 files named recovery, one has a jsonlz4 extension.

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Couldn't get it to work correctly so decided not to waste anymore time on it & installed the Cookie Quick Manager add-on. It does the job ok.

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Using Mac Mini, and latest FF update. I still need clear instructions for keeping cookies for selected sites when I delete cookies for all other sites.

I'm trying to not have to login in to selected sites after every time I clean cookies.

I can't find this in FF, and the extensions I've looked at don't seem to do that.

Thanx for helping.

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You can let the cookies expire when Firefox is closed to make them session cookies instead of using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear all cookies including cookies with an allow exception you may want to keep.

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
    Cookies and Site Data: [ ] "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed"

You can create an allow exception to keep cookies for specific websites.

  • Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security
    Cookies and Site Data: "Manage Permissions"

A cookie allow exception is only honored if you use "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed" and not when you use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cookies.

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Sorry to be a pain in the tush, but does that mean if I "Delete cookies when closing..", the cookies I've listed in Allow will not be deleted, but the others will?