Mild problem with Firefox

Factual Questions
1

Several weeks ago I downloaded Mozilla Firefox, and installed it. I really like it and have had no problem except…

I have, in the short space of several weeks, stored up a LOT of history. So I decided it was getting to be a bit much, and tried to find out how to delete it. So I went on the Internet with the question of “How to delete history in Firefox”, and immediately found several sites that gave the process. Unfortunately, the specified instructions don’t seem to do anything. I got to the Tools - Options - Privacy section, where it gives the option of deleting all or some of the history. I clicked on the “delete all history” icon. and followed the instructions. To no avail - all the history is still there. Tried this several times, with identical results.

Any of you Firefox users know how to really delete the history?

Bonus points if you can tell me where the bookmarks are stored.

2

Try clicking “History” instead of “Options”. That looks like it should do it.
ETA: I don’t see a “delete all” icon where you describe. I see a clear history on close, but that is probably just for the current session.

3

Bookmarks are stored in the file places.sqlite in your profile. In my linux case one goes to home/[username]/.mozilla/firefox/[weird-firefox-generated-named-profile]. Windows will have a different path.
You could back up your profile[s] with Fx closed; copy those parts, like places or logins elsewhere, uninstall Fx; delete your profile; reinstall Fx and after first run, close Fx and swap in those elements such as places into the new generated profile.
But back up your entire profile with copy/paste in case it all goes wrong.

4

When you go the delete history screen (which you can access more quickly with ctrl-shift-delete), did you choose “Everything” instead of the last hour or whatever the default is?

5

Upper left on any page. ( do not use a maximized page )
Buttons go : File Edit View History Bookmarks Tools Help

L Click on history and L click on the thing you want to do. It is right at the top of the box you opened when you clicked on ‘History.’

6

Mine says “Delete recent History” as an option. How do I know the definition of “recent History” without experimentally deleting it to see what disappears? Why would anybody want to delete “recent” history, but leave all the rest of the past five years there?

7

Once you click on it, isn’t there a dropdown that lets you choose HOW recent?

Porn, if they forgot to turn on incognito/private browsing.

8

  1. Going to History only allows going to the history sidebar, which shows nothing. It also tells you to hit CTRL+Shift+Delete, which does nothing.

  2. Where is the “File Edit View History Bookmarks Tools Help” menu list of which you speak? The upper left of my pages don’t have anything like that.

9

on the menu bar Tools

then Downloads

then on the left see History, click on

you will see time periods of days, weeks, months

right click on the value desired, click on delete.

10

Finally found the menu bar (it had been somehow turned off). However, clicking on

"on the menu bar Tools

then Downloads

then on the left see History, click on" does not help.

On my screen, “History” is not shown after clicking on “Downloads” A blank screen does come up, but that’s all.

Do you think that uninstalling Firefox, and reinstalling it, will do anything?

11

Only if, as I said, after copying your profile somewhere else for safety, you delete that profile whilst Firefox is closed.

The new profile generated by Firefox, first run, will have none of the information in the old profile.

12

Don’t go to the downloads box. Ctrl-Shift-Delete should do something; you sure you’re pushing the right keys? (Delete, not backspace?)

Or try the instructions here:

13

I don’t know. I won’t click it until I know what happens when I do. It says “clear recent history”, not “view menu of what can be cleared”.

14

Actually, it says “Clear Recent History…”

As with other Windows programs, the three dots signify that this command opens a dialog box that will then give you options regarding what you want to do.

You can choose to clear any or all of the following:

Browsing & Download History
Form & Search History
Cookies
Cache
Active Logins
Offline Web Data
Site Preferences

You can clear the things in the time range:

Last hour
Last two hours
Last four hours
Today
Everything

15

Thanks for that not-very-intuitive fact. Even after you mentioned it, I had to lean forward and peer closely at my screen, to resolve the presence of the three dots, which I would not have seen otherwise.

16

Well, thanks for all your replies. For some reason none of the instructions or advice made a dent on the problem - the screens that would come up after following the start of any of the procedures were completely different than what was supposed to show.

Uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox didn’t help, so I finally got rid of it permanently, and went back to old favorite Internet Explorer. Which seems to work perfectly.

17

These might help:

#!

#2

#3

18

When I delete the history in IE, it seems to delete the history in all of my browsers including Firefox.

19

Here’s another thing to try. At the above point, just under the “tracking” area, notice the captions “History” and “Firefox will:”. On the dropdown just to the right of the latter, select “never remember history”. Now click on “OK”, and shut down Firefox. This should delete all your history. When you restart Firefox, go back the the options and select “remember history”.

If all this fails, you can delete history entries manually. Just select some of them, and press the “delete” key on your keyboard. Warning: if you select a large number, the deletion can take a few seconds.