# I have some questions about the structure of the Cookies directory

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-some-questions-about-the-structure-of-the-cookies-directory/387596>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 11, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-some-questions-about-the-structure-of-the-cookies-directory/387596 "2007-01-11T19:24:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-some-questions-about-the-structure-of-the-cookies-directory/387596/1 "2007-01-11T19:24:28Z")

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A) I’m puzzled by entries such as these:  
…@amazon[1].txt 4/26/2005  
…@amazon[2].txt 3/24/2005  
…@amazon[3].txt 1/06/2007  
…@amazon[4].txt 9/12/2006  
…@amazon[5].txt 10/20/2006

Are they all active, or only the one with the highest number? Or the newest?  
Why are they not named in date order?  
If I delete the latest one will I revert to my prior settings or will I lose all my settings?

B) What is the role of index.dat?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2007, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-some-questions-about-the-structure-of-the-cookies-directory/387596/2 "2007-01-12T16:59:23Z")

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Sometimes I screw up my defaults for a site and want to go back to an old cookie.  
I can’t figure out how to activate it by itself, end up restoring the whole cookie folder, setting a lot of other cookies back.

Any way to just reactivate one old cookie?