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Tracking protection remaining on in normal mode after using private mode

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  • 4 have this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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In Firefox 54.0.1, tracking protection remaining on in normal mode after using private mode and returning to normal mode. Is this a bug?

In Firefox 54.0.1, tracking protection remaining on in normal mode after using private mode and returning to normal mode. Is this a bug?

All Replies (3)

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There are two prefs that control Tracking Protection:

  • privacy.trackingprotection.enabled (false)
  • privacy.trackingprotection.pbmode.enabled (true)

It sounds that both are true in your case or you haven't disabled private browsing mode.


You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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That's not my point.

I did turn off private browsing.

After I close off private browsing - even after restarting Firefox - privacy.trackingprotection.enabled remains true.

I have tried this on multiple computers.

I know how to use about:config to toggle prefs but I shouldn't have to.

Surely, it should revert to false.

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Turning off private browsing mode doesn't affect the two prefs I posted above. The prefs only determine when Tracking Protection is active. By default only privacy.trackingprotection.pbmode.enabled is set to true to enable Tracking Protection in private browsing mode. If privacy.trackingprotection.enabled is set to true then this pref likely shows as user set (bold) and and you have made this change manually and this means that Tracking Protection is active in normal mode.