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IS there a way to start a session in NOT private browsing on a Mac after you set it to always start in private browsing besides going to the preferences?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I set it to always start in private browsing on a Mac. For some sessions, I would like to start the browser where the history IS kept on the computer. When I try to go and turn off private browsing in the "Tools" menu, the "Stop Private Browsing" menu is grayed out (i.e. unable to click it).

Basically, I want a reverse to the original function (i.e. I want it to always be in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times instead of the original never in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times).

I set it to always start in private browsing on a Mac. For some sessions, I would like to start the browser where the history IS kept on the computer. When I try to go and turn off private browsing in the "Tools" menu, the "Stop Private Browsing" menu is grayed out (i.e. unable to click it). Basically, I want a reverse to the original function (i.e. I want it to always be in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times instead of the original never in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times).

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If you've set that via the Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history" window then you can't use the Stop Private Browsing menu entry.
You can try if it works if you remove the check mark Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > "Always use private browsing mode".
It does for me on Linux.

You can verify it with this code in the Web Developer > Error Console (Ctrl+Shift+J).


var pbs = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/privatebrowsing;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrivateBrowsingService);
alert('Private Browsing is '+((pbs.privateBrowsingEnabled)?'on':'off'));