Clear your cache also.

From the Firefox Menu Bar /Firefox Menu click History then clear recent history.

If looking to clear all history then go to History click Show All History and delete the stuff there as it holds days, weeks, months, maybe even years.

Thanks for the reply. I have cleared the history and it is completely empty but whenever I visit old pages the links I have clicked on ages ago are still showing purple and I cannot find a way to reset these links back to blue.

Hi  !

Have you tried this :

Type in the address bar : about:preferences#privacy (press Enter) Under 'History' click on 'clear your recent history' and on the context menu that will appear choose the time range to clear. Then uncheck everything except 'Browsing & Download History'. Click on 'Clear Now'. Close and restart Firefox.

Thanks for the reply.

I have done this and my history folder is completely empty but the browser is still highlighting visited links from ages ago and whatever I try I cannot reset them.

Grahamrd said

Thanks for the reply. I have done this and my history folder is completely empty but the browser is still highlighting visited links from ages ago and whatever I try I cannot reset them.

I think that this will only work for links you have visited after you've changed those history settings. You can still click those purple links, though - but that's probably not the problem.

I found this add-on, but it hasn't been updated in quite a while, so chances are that it won't work when Firefox 57 is released : (you could try and contact the developer .... )

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/remove-visited-link/

Yes, I tried that add-on but it did not work. Seems strange this so difficult, the data must be cached somewhere else. Thanks anyway.

In the context menu I mentioned earlier, where it says 'choose the time range to clear' - did you choose 'Everything'  ?

Yes, I have done it several times now, still no luck.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database (bookmarks and history) in the Firefox profile folder.

• use "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

See also:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locked_or_damaged_places.sqlite
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

If "Verify Integrity" on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page or Places Maintenance can't repair the places.sqlite database then remove all places.sqlite file(s) in the Firefox profile folder to make Firefox rebuild the places.sqlite database from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

• keep a backup copy of places.sqlite in case a new places.sqlite database has to be created
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Unable_to_process_the_backup_file_-_Firefox

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page.

• Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
  Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox