Cannot clear history prior to setting private browsing
I changed to Private browsing to experience it. I cannot clear history, that option in History is faded and not available. I had to change the privacy option to remember history, reboot firefox, and then clear history.
I'd think leave the option to clear history whether private browsing is on or off (and as we sometimes go back and clear out selected history). I assume the thought was to turn off the clear history option because private browsing does not remember history, but this is only going forward.
All Replies (7)
Please read these support articles to gain an understanding of Private Browsing mode and the settings for Privacy and history.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection-pbm
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/settings-privacy-browsing-history-do-not-track
There are differences that relate to this question.
If you go to Use Custom Settings and check to Always Use Private Browsing, this page does not have the clear history link. It does have the ability to show and edit cookies only.
If you afterwards or instead check to Never save history, this page does have the clear history link that includes cookies and more.
Neither page - customize or never save history - have the ability to clear history in the main menu. My question - suggestion is to always allow clearing of history, even if it is only past history in the above situations.
Modified by netemouse
Feature change and interface suggestions tend to get lost in the forum. You can submit comments on the following site as well:
jsher - Thank you! I sent the feedback. The suggestion reads:
When you right click a link, there is an option to open the link in a new private window. I'm hoping the developers could also do this for shortcuts.
This is really important. Right now I am set to always have private browsing. That means I have to re-logon to each website every time I visit and similar. That is very inconvenient. If the shortcuts worked like links, then I could turn off private browsing all the time, and selectively right click links and shortcuts to open them in private browsing when I need to - without editing properties of each one.
You can use an extension to get Private Browsing mode support per tab.
Private Browsing mode tabs get a dashed underline You can toggle Private Browsing mode on/off via the right-click context menu of a tab
Hi netemouse, did you also submit feedback about being able to clear all history at any time, regardless of whether you are in a regular or all-private session? I guess that would be moot if the shortcut could be modified, but it seems more in Mozilla's control to add an internal feature than to figure out how to override Windows' URL-handling scheme.
jsher - thanks, just submitted the second feedback !