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webappsstore.sqlite is 1GB, how do I clean it?

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I've searched for about an hour and a half now for an answer to this and have come up empty handed. My webappsstore.sqlite file is just under 1GB in size and taking up much needed space on my hard drive. As well, the places.sqlite file is over 80MB which also seems rather large. How do I clean these files and get them back to a normal size!? I found a Mozilla article that said not to delete the file. I have no idea why they are so large or how they got that way!

I've searched for about an hour and a half now for an answer to this and have come up empty handed. My webappsstore.sqlite file is just under 1GB in size and taking up much needed space on my hard drive. As well, the places.sqlite file is over 80MB which also seems rather large. How do I clean these files and get them back to a normal size!? I found a Mozilla article that said not to delete the file. I have no idea why they are so large or how they got that way!

All Replies (2)

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SQLite database files are enlarged with fixed chunks to avoid performance issues caused by severe fragmentation. For places.sqlite this is 10 MB. The file size is never decreased. The only way to achieve a size reduction is to vacuum the SQLite database file.

For the places.sqlite file you can use this extension.


You will probably have to delete the webappsstore.sqlite file to remove all data stored in local storage.

See also:

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Have you been looking thru the Mozilla Developer Network documentation?

Not sure which Mozilla article said not to delete that file, but AFAIK if that file is deleted (with Firefox closed, of course) a new file will be created when needed. Editing that file is not recommended, though. per - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Webappsstore.sqlite linked from - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Storage = under Storage location and clearing the data