Sorry, there's not a simple, built-in way to do this. We may add this to a future version of Firefox, or a programmer could write an add-on to add this feature. Here's the feature request in our issue tracker: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=542388

If you want to do this now, the only way I know is:

1. Disconnect your mobile Firefox from Firefox Sync.
2. Press the "Clear Private Data" button in the mobile Firefox preferences.
3. Go to about:config, search for "services.sync.engine.history," and set it to "false."
4. Reconnect to Firefox Sync. Now your passwords will reappear, but your history will not.

(Unfortunately, you will also lose your form data if you do this, because it's handled by the history sync engine.)

To help us plan Firefox features, could you tell me a bit about why you want to keep form data and passwords, but clear out history? Thank you very much!

I sometimes go to websites on my phone that I wouldn't want someone at work to know about. I usually clear my browser history on exit. I stopped using ff mobile because this isn't possible right now.

Most peoples phones do double duty for work and pleasure. Clearing history is a necessity.

By the way, I wrote a simple add-on that puts a "Clear history" button in the mobile Firefox preferences: https://addons.mozilla.org/mobile/addon/clear-mobile-history/

Update: Because of a bug in addons.mozilla.org, installing the addon from the above page might not work. Until that's fixed, you can install it from limpet.net/clear instead.

Awesome thanks!

Ah, OK - makes sense. Thanks for answering!

(sorry for cross-posting, this seemed to be a more relevant place to have my little rant ;-)

History, form data and cache are really very different kinds of private data than passwords and bookmarks (the latter two having been assigned a more permanent meaning by the user through a storage action, while the first three are collected while browsing without the user specifically storing the data).

Basically you could define Bookmarks as History items that have been marked as 'to be persisted' by the user. Which means the History items that have not been bookmarked are safe to be regarded as volatile.

At least, that's how I see it in everyday use.

I find it a very annoying omission that cache, history and form data can not be deleted without losing permanently relevant data like bookmarks and passwords.

To give a little analogy: the current combined deletion of all private data is like going to the car wash for a wash and wax job and finding out the washer insists on throwing away all the personal belongings you keep stored in your trunk and glove compartment as well.

I can't wait till you implement a solution for this (no add-on hacks, just add it to the regular features already).