Choosing only to clear Browsing History on shutdown also clears Download History
In Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> History, I have "Use custom settings for history" selected. Under that, I have "Remember my browsing and download history " checked, as well as "Clear history when firefox closes" checked. In those settings, I only have "Browser History" checked. When I close and then re-open Firefox, the Browsing History has been cleared while things such as the Cache and Cookies have been retained. However, the Download History is also cleared, despite me never having checked that option.
All Replies (6)
Do you still see the downloads in the Downloads folder the Bookmarks and History Manager (Library)?
- History > Show All History
Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance/Themes).
- Don't click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
- https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
The downloads are still in the Downloads folder and I see them in the History Manager prior to closing Firefox. When I re-open Firefox, they and the Browsing History entries are gone. I followed your instructions and tested this in Safe Mode with my themes disabled and encountered the same problem.
Do you keep the download history if you do not use "Clear history when Firefox closes" ?
Yes. It retains my Browsing History and my Download History.
So the behavior seems to be that if you clear the browsing history then all history get cleared, including the download history in the download manager and the Downloads folder in the Library.
If you only clear the download history then the download history as you see in the Download Manager window is cleared, but you still have the Downloads folder in the Library showing the downloads.
So it is impossible to only clear the browsing history and keep the download history.
Oh, my downloaded files are never deleted in either case and I haven't tested just clearing the Download history yet, but yes, it seems as though I can't keep Download History when I just want to clear my Browser History.
My Firefox used to be able behave the way I wanted, but I recently had a corrupted profile problem. I reinstalled Firefox and created a new profile. I'm trying to get everything back to the settings I'm comfortable with, but I ran in to this odd problem.