In 19.0.2 I can't see cookies I know are there in cookies window I always keep open; why not?
I keep the tools->options->show_cookies window open whenever Firefox is running. I want to see which sites are dropping cookies and I manage them aggressively, since many sites ignore "do not track." Also, sites like nytimes.com drop cookies that count articles read. I delete such counter cookies to thwart their gatekeeping efforts. Anyway, why I do this is not relevant to my question other than to depict the technique I use. After upgrade to 19.0.2 the cookies window no longer shows any cookies. I know they are there since I can still delete them in tools->clear_recent_history. Proof of this: I login to google/finance and can see personal portfolio info. When I clear_recent_history->cookies my google/finance session refreshes to the generic site, sans all personal info. I want to see cookie activity in real-time as I could before this upgrade. What changed; why; and how do I reestablish my window into cookie activity?
Chosen solution
The article on private browsing was very helpful and gives me another tool I did not know I had. I don't look for new features after an upgrade because a solid browser that gets the basics right is all I'm looking for. Less is more, as far as I'm concerned. As to not seeing cookies in the cookies window, I must fess up to pilot error... sort of. I keep tools->options->privacy->show_cookies open all the time so I take its default settings for granted. By default I mean when it opens after a Firefox upgrade it opens minimal size, even after it has been used repeatedly. So, apparently, after 19.0.2 it opened in its smallest manifestation, not the way I usually view it. When smallest, you can't see its content. After poking and prodding at everything to figure out what was happening I, just for grins, pulled the corner marker to make it larger and saw the current set of cookies. Mea culpa for wasting everyone's time. Thanks for the vector to private browsing. I still will use the cookies window to selectively blow off the ones I don't want around even during active sessions, i.e., subscription sites such as nytimes.com that count free articles and store results in a cookie. When you hit their arbitrary limit they demand you pay up to read more. I object to paying for news content that includes ads. I'd gladly subscribe and pay the toll to get an ad-free textual context but I'm not paying to get their ads too... so I blow that counter cookie away and read on. Thanks cor-el for your response.
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Thanks but no thanks. I don't want another add-on. Firefox is already a memory hog without making its memory footprint even bigger. I want to use built-in Firefox features to see cookies in real-time as I could before 19.0.2. This looks and smells to me like Firefox changed the name of the active cookie file so that the show_cookies option and the clear-recent-history function are not looking at the same disk filenames. Something changed and tools->options->show_cookies no longer works.
This can happen if you run Firefox in (permanent) Private Browsing mode.
- Tools > Options > Privacy: Use custom settings for history
- Deselect: [ ] "Always use private browsing mode"
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The article on private browsing was very helpful and gives me another tool I did not know I had. I don't look for new features after an upgrade because a solid browser that gets the basics right is all I'm looking for. Less is more, as far as I'm concerned. As to not seeing cookies in the cookies window, I must fess up to pilot error... sort of. I keep tools->options->privacy->show_cookies open all the time so I take its default settings for granted. By default I mean when it opens after a Firefox upgrade it opens minimal size, even after it has been used repeatedly. So, apparently, after 19.0.2 it opened in its smallest manifestation, not the way I usually view it. When smallest, you can't see its content. After poking and prodding at everything to figure out what was happening I, just for grins, pulled the corner marker to make it larger and saw the current set of cookies. Mea culpa for wasting everyone's time. Thanks for the vector to private browsing. I still will use the cookies window to selectively blow off the ones I don't want around even during active sessions, i.e., subscription sites such as nytimes.com that count free articles and store results in a cookie. When you hit their arbitrary limit they demand you pay up to read more. I object to paying for news content that includes ads. I'd gladly subscribe and pay the toll to get an ad-free textual context but I'm not paying to get their ads too... so I blow that counter cookie away and read on. Thanks cor-el for your response.