Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

IS there a way to start a session in NOT private browsing on a Mac after you set it to always start in private browsing besides going to the preferences?

  • 1 jibu
  • 1 ana tatizo hili
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I set it to always start in private browsing on a Mac. For some sessions, I would like to start the browser where the history IS kept on the computer. When I try to go and turn off private browsing in the "Tools" menu, the "Stop Private Browsing" menu is grayed out (i.e. unable to click it).

Basically, I want a reverse to the original function (i.e. I want it to always be in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times instead of the original never in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times).

I set it to always start in private browsing on a Mac. For some sessions, I would like to start the browser where the history IS kept on the computer. When I try to go and turn off private browsing in the "Tools" menu, the "Stop Private Browsing" menu is grayed out (i.e. unable to click it). Basically, I want a reverse to the original function (i.e. I want it to always be in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times instead of the original never in private browsing EXCEPT for certain times).

All Replies (1)

more options

If you've set that via the Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > Firefox will: "Use custom settings for history" window then you can't use the Stop Private Browsing menu entry.
You can try if it works if you remove the check mark Firefox > Preferences > Privacy > "Always use private browsing mode".
It does for me on Linux.

You can verify it with this code in the Web Developer > Error Console (Ctrl+Shift+J).


var pbs = Components.classes["@mozilla.org/privatebrowsing;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrivateBrowsingService);
alert('Private Browsing is '+((pbs.privateBrowsingEnabled)?'on':'off'));