Why save data on the back button?
I have set the privacy setting to not remember anything, but! The back button remembers everywhere I go. Why is this? and how can I prevent it?
All Replies (10)
This is only for that session. After you close, it will be gone.
So, if I walk away from my computer, anyone can get that info? Unless I shut the browser down, then log back on to what I was doing?
Not A good plan.
Not if you lock the keyboard.
Why can't you just stop it from remembering? Shouldn't be that hard.
There is a setting for back button history depth. I haven't tested it because I don't want to risk trashing my running session, but take a look here:
(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful.
(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste sess and pause while the list is filtered
(3) Double-click the browser.sessionhistory.max_entries preference and edit it to the desired depth, i.e., if you want to be able to go back a maximum of 1 page instead of 50, try editing this to 1 and then click OK.
(4) Double-click the browser.sessionstore.max_serialize_back preference and edit it to the desired depth, i.e., if you want to be able to go back a maximum of 1 page instead of 10, try editing this to 1 and then click OK. This is a newer preference that affects what is saved in the recovery.js file on disk. It would not seem logical for it to exceed the setting under #3, but you probably should change it just in case.
Since I haven't tested it, I don't know whether the changes take effect only in new tabs or also affect existing tabs.
When you are in (permanent) PB mode then all session data is stored in memory and not saved to the profile folder on the hard drive. If you would disable everything completely in PB mode then you wouldn't be able to visit websites in a way that would work and be acceptable for normal usage (navigating though pages). That includes the way cookies work regarding exceptions and also the Back and Forward buttons (tab history). If all PB mode windows are closed then this tab history should be purged from memory.
FireFox automatically forgets the history of the back button once you close the specific tab and any history saved on the session is deleted once FireFox itself is closed. That's normal behavior,I believe.
However, if you truly want nothing to be remembered for your session, open a private window. (Ctrl+Shift+P)
While this will still remember the webpages on the back button, the only thing FireFox will remember from the private window are any files you downloaded and whatever new bookmarks you added.
If you're worried about some stranger taking a peak at your browsing history, I suggest using private windows in public areas but that's your call.
ADDENDUM: Whoops. I just noticed this is a 4-month-old topic. My bad. ^_^'
Okulungisiwe ngu NeoSpearBlade
Hi NeoSpearBlade, for the record, this part --
FireFox automatically forgets the history of the back button once you close the specific tab and any history saved on the session is deleted once FireFox itself is closed.
-- is not quite right.
By default, Firefox allows you to re-open the last 10 closed tabs in a window, and those should still have their history (although possibly losing any back history in excess of 10 pages). If you closed the window itself, by default, Firefox allows you to re-open the last 3 closed windows. This should all be listed on the History menu if it's available.
By default, Firefox retains session history and allows you to restore it at your next startup. But if you clear history at shutdown (i.e., you have Firefox set to clear the URLs visited) then session history also will be cleared -- in a normal shutdown, crashes do not clear the file.
Dummy me, I should've been more specific.
jscher2000, what I said is not based on regular, remember-browsing settings but on what Baroldo said he put his privacy settings. Also, I am aware you can re-open closed tabs but I didn't know it remembers up to 10. That's new to me.
That said, the point of my post is about the private windows as those don't save history.....but as I just checked, that point is also useless as not only does it still remember the history on the back button, you can still re-open closed tabs in a private window.
Well, I apologize for wasting my time and yours with suggestions that don't work. cor-el's post above me is more useful than what I posted.
Again, sorry for wasting your time. ^_^'