hello bolcrom, if you want to have that behaviour, please set firefox to "never remember history" in the options > privacy panel (=run in permanent private browsing mode).

These categories are all very distinct from one another.

• Site Preferences: this includes things such as the last zoom level for a site, allowed and blocked plugins, and cookie permissions. So a rough test would be to Ctrl+ several times on some sites, and use the Page Info dialog to modify some permissions, then exit Firefox and then start up again and check whether Firefox still remembers those preferences. You can set permissions for the current site by clicking the padlock or globe icon in the address bar, then More Information, then Permissions. Is Firefox flushing this data or not in your test?

• Form and Search History: these entries appear in a drop-down below the applicable form field, so you would know immediately whether Firefox is retaining them.

• Location Bar Auto-suggest: This requires further investigation to see whether clearing "Browsing History" clears or doesn't clear the previously computed "frecency" (frequency + recency) of site visits for a bookmarked site. You can use the SQLite Manager extension to inspect the places.sqlite database, so that is what I will use when I get a chance (maybe tonight).

@jscher2000: the auto-suggest data for the location bar is stored in the moz_inputhistory table within places.sqlite - it isn't getting deleted with either clearing site preferences or form/search histroy on shutdown...

Thank you for the quick reply. However, I believe it's incorrect.

I had previously identified two files that were being deleted which ultimately resulted in the unwanted behavior of remembering bookmark preferences being corrected. It turns out that there is a third file from the profile that's also being deleted, but that file isn't places.sqlite.

As the original question has been been edited, the three files are: -content-prefs.sqlite -permissions.sqlite -formhistory.sqlite

So, the bookmark preference information is stored within one of these

Thank you for the quick reply. However "Never Remember History" is no-go solution for me. I rely on the internal password manager which is set to not collect new passwords in that mode. I segregate trivial user/pass for trivial sites like these and those for high security sites with the use of the internal manager and lastpass. There are also a few other minor drawbacks to that mode which, in effect, make it a pass for me.

I feel that as i have selected all fields other than "Saved Passwords" to be cleared upon closing the browser, then this is the behavior I should expect. As that certainly isn't the case currently, Firefox should grant us further fields to select or tell us exactly which data is retained session to session.

Again, thanks for the quick reply.

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes, Site Preferences are being cleared re: zoom levels and permissions.

I originally wanted to indicate which files had to be deleted to reset the unwanted behavior of remembering bookmark preferences. Earlier, I failed to identify a third file formhistory.sqlite which was also being deleted and I've edited the original problem summary to reflect that. It's only after deleting these three files that the unwanted behavior is reset.

Thanks for the sqlite extention suggestion. I'll try to give it a go tonight.

Maybe modify the bonus frecency parameters.

See:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/Mozilla/Tech/Places/Frecency_algorithm

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/places.frecency.unvisited(place_type)Bonus
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/places.frecency.(visit_type)VisitBonus
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Places.frecency.%2ABucketCutoff

Did you confirm the effect by manually deleting those 3 files and not allowing CCleaner to modify anything else? I'm skeptical because:

My content-prefs.sqlite file appears to store only 4 kinds of site-specific preferences:

• zoom level
• last download directory
• last upload directory
• spell-check language

My permissions.sqlite file appears to store these categories of site permissions:

• cookies (allow/allow for session/block)
• popups (allow/block)
• STS (requirement to use only HTTPS)
• uitour (? I think related to Firefox 29)

My formhistory.sqlite file stores entries I've made in Firefox's search bar and various website forms. However I don't think this is related to the location bar.

Perhaps what is happening is that CCleaner is modifying places.sqlite in a manner that is invisible from simple inspection of the file system. Certainly it can't completely delete that file since it contains your bookmarks, so it must be able to make internal changes in order to remove browsing and download history.

Yes. You're right. Two files were being modified but not deleted: -signons.sqlite -places.sqlite

I looked at the "Date Modified" information after closing a firefox session and took a screepcap in descending order. Gave it a few minutes and then ran CCleaner. As expected, the three files previously mentioned were deleted. The Date Modified entry only changed to reflect the CCleaner operation for the preceding two files.

Someone earlier also suggested places.sqlite and the particular line which might be at play here. I too easily dismissed it earlier. Apologies to philipp.

Thanks to both jscher2000 and philipp for isolating the cause. It remains to be remedied, though. I think there's a good argument to be made that bookmark frecency improves usability. However, I find that it crosses pretty easily into the privacy arena and would prefer it to be under user control as well. Any suggestions?

I'll edit the original question with the new information.

You could take a look at cor-el's reply regarding how Firefox computes frecency. You may be able to make the behavior "not count" as a way to neutralize it. However, I haven't explored which of the many "weights" is/are the one(s) to modify.