Why Firefox automatically clearing cookies/cache?
Recently Firefox has been automatically clearing all log-ins and passwords on a seemingly random basis. After closing a browser window, I launched Firefox, and all of my standard logins (emails, homepage, etc.) have been cleared. This has happened 3 times now at seemingly random times. I'll go for weeks without an issue, and at one point open a browser and everything is logged out. This is after a successful close - no error shutdown, same day as other uses without issue.
All Replies (7)
Hey there,
Thanks for reaching out to Mozilla Community Support! Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that turns off some settings, disables most add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
- In Firefox 29.0 and above, click the menu button , click Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
- In previous Firefox versions, click on the Firefox button at the top left of the Firefox window and click on Help (or click on Help in the Menu bar, if you don't have a Firefox button) then click on Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, and you need to figure out which one. Please follow the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
Please let me know if this helps, hope it does!
Curtis Parfitt-Ford Mozilla Support
Unfortunately, the problem has been very intermittent, and generally several days to weeks before it happens, seemingly randomly. For example, I've gone roughly 3 weeks since it last happened, have saved all relevant logins (at least for sites I wish to save), and was using Firefox multiple times throughout today. I had closed a browser window, with not notifications or errors. The next time I tried to launch a new window, no more than 20 minutes after the last successful close, ALL of my login credentials, saved passwords, etc. were cleared.
I don't think troubleshooting through safe mode will tell me anything unless I run strictly through safe mode for the next month, and even then the lack of recurrence doesn't identify the issue.
Hey,
Alright, cool. Let's see if we can sort this out. I think we need some more non-personal information from you, however, to do so. Please do the following:
- Use ONE of these methods to open the Firefox Troubleshooting Information page:
- Click the menu button , click on help and select Troubleshooting Information.
- Type about:support into the Firefox address bar and press the enter key.
- At the top of the Troubleshooting Information page that comes up, you should see a button that says "Copy text to clipboard". Click it.
- Now, go back to your forum post, right-click in the reply box and select Paste from the context menu (or else click inside the reply box and press the Ctrl+V keys) to paste all the information you copied into the forum post.
If you need further information about the Troubleshooting information page, please read the article Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Curtis Parfitt-Ford Mozilla Support
Application Basics
Name: Firefox Version: 33.0.2 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:33.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/33.0 Multiprocess Windows: 0/1
Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days
All Crash Reports
Extensions
Name: Daily Dilbert Version: 2.7.8 Enabled: true ID: {C598822D-6E25-4ADB-9137-D52C050F315C}
Name: Symantec Intrusion Prevention Version: 12.3.0.3 - 1 Enabled: false ID: {BBDA0591-3099-440a-AA10-41764D9DB4DB}
Graphics
Adapter Description: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 Adapter Description (GPU #2): NVIDIA NVS 5200M Adapter Drivers: igdumd64 igd10umd64 igd10umd64 igdumd32 igd10umd32 igd10umd32 Adapter Drivers (GPU #2): nvd3dumx,nvwgf2umx,nvwgf2umx nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um Adapter RAM: Unknown Adapter RAM (GPU #2): 1024 Device ID: 0x0166 Device ID (GPU #2): 0x0dfc Direct2D Enabled: true DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16492) Driver Date: 2-1-2012 Driver Date (GPU #2): 2-21-2012 Driver Version: 8.15.10.2639 Driver Version (GPU #2): 8.17.12.9077 GPU #2 Active: false GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 11 (OMTC) Vendor ID: 0x8086 Vendor ID (GPU #2): 0x10de WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0) windowLayerManagerRemote: true AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d AzureContentBackend: direct2d AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0
Important Modified Preferences
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0 browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400 browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 4 browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7 browser.search.useDBForOrder: true browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20141027150301 browser.startup.homepage: http://www.ighome.com/?t=298336 browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20141027150301 browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 33.0.2 browser.tabs.warnOnClose: false dom.mozApps.used: true extensions.lastAppVersion: 33.0.2 font.internaluseonly.changed: true gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 0 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.lastUpdate: 1414664915 media.gmp-gmpopenh264.version: 1.1 media.gmp-manager.lastCheck: 1414778207 network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true places.database.lastMaintenance: 1414772540 places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 104858 plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: plugin.importedState: true
print.printer_PDFCreator.print_bgcolor: false print.printer_PDFCreator.print_bgimages: false print.printer_PDFCreator.print_colorspace: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_command: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_downloadfonts: false print.printer_PDFCreator.print_duplex: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_edge_bottom: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_edge_left: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_edge_right: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_edge_top: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_evenpages: true print.printer_PDFCreator.print_footercenter: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_footerleft: &PT print.printer_PDFCreator.print_footerright: &D print.printer_PDFCreator.print_headercenter: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_headerleft: &T print.printer_PDFCreator.print_headerright: &U print.printer_PDFCreator.print_in_color: true print.printer_PDFCreator.print_margin_bottom: 0.5 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_margin_left: 0.5 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_margin_right: 0.5 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_margin_top: 0.5 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_oddpages: true print.printer_PDFCreator.print_orientation: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_page_delay: 50 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_paper_data: 9 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_paper_height: 297.00 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_paper_name: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_paper_size_type: 1 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_paper_size_unit: 1 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_paper_width: 210.00 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_plex_name: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_resolution: 348798672 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_resolution_name: print.printer_PDFCreator.print_reversed: false print.printer_PDFCreator.print_scaling: 1.00 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_shrink_to_fit: true print.printer_PDFCreator.print_to_file: false print.printer_PDFCreator.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0 print.printer_PDFCreator.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0 privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true privacy.sanitize.timeSpan: 0 security.csp.enable: false security.OCSP.enabled: 0 storage.vacuum.last.index: 1 storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1413803235
user.js Preferences
Your profile folder contains a user.js file, which includes preferences that were not created by Firefox.
Important Locked Preferences
JavaScript
Incremental GC: true
Accessibility
Activated: false Prevent Accessibility: 0
Library Versions
NSPR Expected minimum version: 4.10.7 Version in use: 4.10.7
NSS Expected minimum version: 3.17.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.17.1 Basic ECC
NSSSMIME Expected minimum version: 3.17.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.17.1 Basic ECC
NSSSSL Expected minimum version: 3.17.1 Basic ECC Version in use: 3.17.1 Basic ECC
NSSUTIL Expected minimum version: 3.17.1 Version in use: 3.17.1
Experimental Features
Thanks for the help - for the record, I deleted a few lines above with specific reference to local and network printers, as I received an error the the full text was above the allowed character limit.
Hey,
Thanks for the info, think I might see the issue here! Can you follow these steps please?
- Go back to about:support.
- Under the Application Basics section, click on Show Folder. A window with your profile files will open.
Once you've done that, please screenshot the directory listing. If you need help to create a screenshot, please see How do I create a screenshot of my problem?
Once you've done this, attach the saved screenshot file to your forum post by clicking the Browse... button below the Post your reply box.
With regard to the help, no problem! It's what I'm here for!
Thanks!
Curtis Parfitt-Ford Mozilla Support
user709721 moo ko soppali ci
Does this concur with Firefox updating about every six weeks?
It is possible that web servers invalidate cookies if they detect a browser change in the user agent.