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Cannot show cookies or clear history in Private Browsing Mode

  • 2 replies
  • 12 have this problem
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  • Last reply by Jeswondrin

Jeswondrin
Jeswondrin
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Hi, I've been reading other threads on this topic, and wonder if any progress is going to be made on bug#823941 regarding the cookie issue.

I always browse in Private Browsing mode, and when I allow cookies, I know there are cookies being stored on my computer because they are required.

However, I am unable to see any of these cookies when I go to: Options / Privacy / Show cookies. It's all blank except for Wot. Yesterday I used the add-on DownloadHelper one time, and those cookies, and only those cookies (along with Wot), remained in my PB cookie history through today even though I had closed the browser and shut down my computer completely.

I also cannot access the area to clear my cookies through "History > Clear Recent History" because it is disabled in PB mode.

I know cookies are being stored on my computer permanently, but I can't access them unless I go to normal browsing mode, and then I can see a big long list of cookies created when I was in PB mode!

1.) We need to be able to see those cookies in PM mode. 2.) We need a way to access and clear those cookies in PM mode. 3.) And aren't these cookies supposed to be cleared when exiting PM mode?

So far, none of the above is happening. This seems to be a big problem that needs to be addressed. Is anyone going to work on this and will it be changed?

BTW, I just recently switched from I.E. to Firefox and I love it. Thank you!

Hi, I've been reading other threads on this topic, and wonder if any progress is going to be made on bug#823941 regarding the cookie issue. I always browse in Private Browsing mode, and when I allow cookies, I know there are cookies being stored on my computer because they are required. However, I am unable to see any of these cookies when I go to: Options / Privacy / Show cookies. It's all blank except for Wot. Yesterday I used the add-on DownloadHelper one time, and those cookies, and only those cookies (along with Wot), remained in my PB cookie history through today even though I had closed the browser and shut down my computer completely. I also cannot access the area to clear my cookies through "History > Clear Recent History" because it is disabled in PB mode. I know cookies are being stored on my computer permanently, but I can't access them unless I go to normal browsing mode, and then I can see a big long list of cookies created when I was in PB mode! 1.) We need to be able to see those cookies in PM mode. 2.) We need a way to access and clear those cookies in PM mode. 3.) And aren't these cookies supposed to be cleared when exiting PM mode? So far, none of the above is happening. This seems to be a big problem that needs to be addressed. Is anyone going to work on this and will it be changed? BTW, I just recently switched from I.E. to Firefox and I love it. Thank you!

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window or otherwise make changes.

There shouldn't be persistent cookies left from a Private Browsing mode session.
Note that Firefox stores cookies from open tabs in the sessionstore.js file as part of session data in normal mode, so if you restore such a session then those cookies may reappear.

Jeswondrin
Jeswondrin Question owner
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OK, I will try your suggestions -- thank you. Although I did note today when I went out of private browsing mode and into normal mode, the recent cookies from PB mode were not visible like they were a couple of days ago.

But I am still confused about this because there are cookies definitely being placed and kept on my computer when I am in private browsing mode, but I can't see them or access them, so how do I get rid of them?

This was previously mentioned as a known bug that was supposed to be fixed, but it doesn't appear that it's been worked on yet. Here is the post from which I pulled the bug report link::

link text

I want to be sure I can see what cookies I have, and also be able to delete them. Currently there is no way to do that while in PB mode. And also, it now appears that even after switching to normal mode, I can't see the cookies that were placed while in PB mode, so how can we know and remove those cookies that are being placed while in PB mode?

Thanks!