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how to not delete some cookies when firefox closes

  • 6 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Previous versions of FF allowed you to select individual cookies that wouldn't be deleted when FF closed. This meant you wouldn't have to log in to your favorite sites each time you opened FF; - you'd already be logged in. Later versions of FF no longer have this functionality. However, IE and Safari both do have this functionality. Does anyone know if the functionality will be restored to FF? The current lack of versatile cookie settings is a hindrance to efficiency.

Previous versions of FF allowed you to select individual cookies that wouldn't be deleted when FF closed. This meant you wouldn't have to log in to your favorite sites each time you opened FF; - you'd already be logged in. Later versions of FF no longer have this functionality. However, IE and Safari both do have this functionality. Does anyone know if the functionality will be restored to FF? The current lack of versatile cookie settings is a hindrance to efficiency.

All Replies (6)

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Please bear in mind that I want all unimportant cookies to be deleted when FF closes. I just want some individual ones to be saved. Current settings don't permit this. It's all or nothing, - or until expiry, which is a useless option.

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Let all cookies expire when you close Firefox.

  • Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Keep until": "I close Firefox"

Make an Allow exception for the ones that you want to keep.

  • Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies: "Exceptions"

You can inspect and modify the permissions for the domain in the current tab in "Tools > Page Info > Permissions" or via the about:permissions page Make sure that you do not use "Clear Recent History" to clear the "Cookies" and the "Site Preferences" (Site Preferences includes the cookie exceptions)

Clearing cookies will remove all specified (selected) cookies including cookies that have an allow exception.


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Thanks Cor-el, but the whole point I was trying to make is that I *want* to clear History and cookies when FF closes. I just want some cookies saved. You said "Clearing cookies will remove all specified (selected) cookies including cookies that have an allow exception."

I have some urls' cookies 'Allowed', but they're still cleared when the browser closes. This is not what I want to have happen. I want some cookies saved so I don't have to keep logging into my favorite sites, while everything else is cleared. FF used to do this in previous versions. This is the functionality I'm looking for.

See, I *want' some cookies not to be cleared when FF closes. That's all. FF used to do it, and IE and Safari still do it.

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You can't use Clear Recent History to clear the cookies if you want to keep some, but cookies without an allow exception expire and are removed if you let cookies expire when you close Firefox. So in that case there is no need to clear all cookies via Clear Recent History.

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Thanks cor-el, but you really don't seem to get what I'm saying. I don't know how to make this more clear -

I want to be able to select some individual cookies to not be deleted when FF closes. That's all.

Earlier versions of FF had that functionality. IE and Safari have that functionality.

Latest versions of FF don't have this functionality.

Firefox should make its cookie-handling more versatile so that users can choose not to delete some cookies at close. That's all.

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You can't protect individual cookies and you can't protect cookies against deletion if you use Clear Recent History.
Firefox never had this, so you must have had an extension installed if this was possible in the past.
Firefox can only protect all cookies from a specific domain via an allow exception and not specific cookies.