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Did the semantics of cookie exceptions change in FF 38?

  • 2 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by kkm000

kkm000
kkm000
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I have set my cookie options to always accept first party only, and keep until end of session. Obviously, cookies do evaporate when FF is restarted, and this is what I want. I do want this behavior overridden for some specific sites. For example, I want to keep cookies from sites in the google.com, accounts.google.com in particular. Up until FF 38 (I think -- the behavior broke fairly recently), I had an exception for google.com to Allow cookies (see about:preferences#privacy). The Allow setting implied the cookies were not erased at end of session (there is also Allow for Session exceprtion).

This is not true any more. Even though I added an exception for both google.com and accounts.google.com, and I can indeed confirm that these sites have added non-session cookies after I log on, these cookies disappear when I restart FF.

Has anything changed in the treatment of cookie exceptions? Is this plainly a bug? Known bug? Or, if it is a feature, is there an option to revert to old behavior?

I have set my cookie options to always accept first party only, and keep until end of session. Obviously, cookies do evaporate when FF is restarted, and this is what I want. I do want this behavior overridden for some specific sites. For example, I want to keep cookies from sites in the google.com, accounts.google.com in particular. Up until FF 38 (I think -- the behavior broke fairly recently), I had an exception for google.com to Allow cookies (see about:preferences#privacy). The Allow setting implied the cookies were not erased at end of session (there is also Allow for Session exceprtion). This is not true any more. Even though I added an exception for both google.com and accounts.google.com, and I can indeed confirm that these sites have added non-session cookies after I log on, these cookies disappear when I restart FF. Has anything changed in the treatment of cookie exceptions? Is this plainly a bug? Known bug? Or, if it is a feature, is there an option to revert to old behavior?

Chosen solution

Are you letting the cookies expire when you close Firefox or are you using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cookies?

The latter removes all the cookies regardless of an allow exception.

If you use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear Cookies then exclude the cookies and instead let the cookies expire when you close Firefox to make them session cookies.

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > "Use custom settings for history" > Cookies: Keep until: "I close Firefox"

Create a cookie 'allow' exception for cookies that you would like to keep.

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > "Use custom settings for history" > Cookies: Exceptions
  • Clearing "Site Preferences" clears all exceptions for cookies, images, pop-up windows, software installation, passwords, and other website specific data.
  • Clearing cookies will remove all specified (selected) cookies including cookies with an allow exception that you would like to keep.
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cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Are you letting the cookies expire when you close Firefox or are you using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cookies?

The latter removes all the cookies regardless of an allow exception.

If you use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear Cookies then exclude the cookies and instead let the cookies expire when you close Firefox to make them session cookies.

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > "Use custom settings for history" > Cookies: Keep until: "I close Firefox"

Create a cookie 'allow' exception for cookies that you would like to keep.

  • Firefox/Tools > Options > Privacy > "Use custom settings for history" > Cookies: Exceptions
  • Clearing "Site Preferences" clears all exceptions for cookies, images, pop-up windows, software installation, passwords, and other website specific data.
  • Clearing cookies will remove all specified (selected) cookies including cookies with an allow exception that you would like to keep.
kkm000
kkm000 Question owner
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cor-el said

Are you letting the cookies expire when you close Firefox or are you using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the cookies?

My bad, thanks. That was it.