Firefox Clearing My Cookies Everyday

Update: This issue was fixed in version 3.0.7.

After some frustration with Internet Explorer, I have been trying out Firefox. I like it well enough (… it’s a browser), but I am having one issue that is a bit of a deal breaker, unfortunately. I’d like to get it sorted.

It seems like, no matter what I do, my cookies get cleared each day. I absolutely cannot figure out why, but I am getting tired of logging into sites every day. I believe I have the settings correct. In Tools > Options, I have these settings:

Privacy:

Cookies:

“Accept cookies from sites” checked.
“Accept third-party cookies” checked.
“Keep until: they expire”

Private Data:

“Always clear my private data when I close Firefox” unchecked.

I’ve tried reinstalling Firefox over itself. I have tried a complete reinstall. I have tried importing settings from a Firefox installation on my laptop that doesn’t seem to have this trouble. Nothing is working.

It’s not a site related issue that I can see. It’s spread across all types of sites and services, whether it be forums I visit on different platforms and services, to sites like Mixx to Facebook to other ones.

This problem does not occur on IE. The extensions that I have installed are ChatZilla, Firebug, Google Gears, StumbleUpon and Web Developer.

With this in mind, I’d appreciate any suggestions. If you have an idea, please let me know! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate. I appreciate any assistance. Thanks!

Patrick O'Keefe

Managing online communities since 2000, I publish a collective of websites known as the iFroggy Network. I wrote the book Managing Online Forums and, as a public speaker, have presented for organizations like CNN, institutions like Australian National University and conferences like SXSW. More about me.

5 Comments

Rafael

about 15 years ago

Seems right, those are the same settings that I have but I'm not seeing your issue. The only other thing to check, that I can think of, is checking in the exceptions to make sure that the list is empty, and check the settings in your addons to see if there's something in there set to clear your cookies for you. One last thing, firefox likes to store your passwords in a cleartext file, so I advise against having FF remember your passwords. Cheers!

Reply

Patrick

about 15 years ago

Thanks for the comment, Rafael. I checked those things and everything appears to be in order. :( Thanks for the tip on passwords. I'm not using FF to store passwords, so that works. :) Thanks again, Patrick

Reply

Clip Hair

about 15 years ago

As a browser user, I have learnt something from your post. Mozilla deletes the unnecessary cookies that are welcomed. I too use mozzila.

Reply

trr

about 15 years ago

It is possible, I guess, that some third-party firewall or internet security suite is removing or intercepting the cookies. If you have such a thing, even an anti-virus program with some extra 'privacy' features, then try disabling that, just temporarily of course. Some ISP firewalls may also filter cookies, such as by setting their expiry date to a date much sooner or turning them into session-only cookies. However, it is probably unlikely that something like this would affect only Firefox and not Internet Explorer. If you want to further investigate whether Firefox is the problem you could try using Firefox with a fresh profile (firefox.exe -profilemanager) and no extensions (under Add-ons).

Reply

Patrick

about 15 years ago

Hey Tom, Thanks for the comment. :) I appreciate the suggestions. I have tried running Firefox in safe mode. That would have the same effect as a fresh profile, right? Or maybe not. I am running 3.1 Beta 2 now, trying to see if that will help! Thanks, Patrick

Reply

Leave a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you would like to comment, I welcome you to do so. Please keep in mind that the atmosphere here is kind, respectful and work appropriate. If you can't disagree without being polite, this probably isn't the best place to comment.

I'm probably more strict as far as advertising goes than other sites you've commented on. If you aren't sure if something is OK, please contact me privately (rather than in the comments) or read the full Comment Guidelines. Participation constitutes acceptance of the guidelines.