How do I prevent Firefox from becoming unresponsive when I try to clear all my browser & download history?
When I attempt to clear ALL my browser & downloading history, Firefox freezes up and I have to force quit it. I haven't manually cleared my history in about a year. I cleared all my cookies, cache, and form & search history with no problem at all. I'm on Mac OS X 10
All Replies (4)
I'm not surprised it takes a long time to clear history. How long have you let it run before giving up and using force quit?
Apart from that the fact that clearing a large amount of history can take a while, when you force quit Firefox, you run the risk of corrupting the data in your profile folder.
To get rid of all your history,
- Create a manual backup of your bookmarks.
- Open your profile folder.
- Quit Firefox.
- Rename the places.sqlite file in your profile folder to places.sqlite-old
- Restore the bookmarks you backed up earlier (detailed directions are in the same article in the first step).
- If everything went well, delete the places.sqlite-old file.
You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.
I followed your instructions Gingerbread Man & I think it worked...the only thing different was my bookmarks weren't removed, so I didn't have to restore them. I cleared my browsing history as a test afterward & it worked fine. Thank you!