Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Buscar en Ayuda

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Should I delete all cookies every so often? If so, how often?

  • 4 respuestas
  • 1 tiene este problema
  • 1 visita
  • Última respuesta de cor-el

more options

Should I delete all cookies every so often? If so, how often? I have dozens and dozens of them.

Should I delete all cookies every so often? If so, how often? I have dozens and dozens of them.

Todas las respuestas (4)

more options

You don't "need" to. Cookies are used by websites for various things, such as saving your login so you don't have to log in everytime you visit the site, savings shopping carts, etc.

However, if you are worried about them, you can delete them. It's very much a personal preference (I personally do not delete cookies unless I'm diagnosing a specific issue)

more options

Hi, you can. If you are using some of those cookies for auto remember passwords and site preferences which I am sure you know the names of then go in and manually clear out all the other cookies except those.

Once do that then a once a week chore to go along with Windows Disk Cleanup and Defrag along with your virus scan.

more options

What you really need is to clear out the cache now and then. That is where old data can be found.

Type about:preferences#privacy<enter> in the address bar. The button next to History, select Use Custom Settings.

At the bottom of the page, turn on Clear History When Firefox Closes. At the far right, press the Settings button. Turn on ONLY Cache and Form And Search History leaving the others off.

more options

You can set network.cookie.thirdparty.sessionOnly to true on the about:config page to make third-party cookies behave as session cookies that expire when Firefox is closed.

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I accept the risk!" to continue.

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
    Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history" -> Cookies: Keep until: "I close Firefox"

You can create an "Allow" exception to keep specific cookies, e.g. cookies to make a website remember you, login automatically or keep specific settings.