6 replies to this topic

[instinct]

I'm using the latest build of Firefox (3.0.8), and version 2.18.878 of CCleaner. I have all the boxes checked in the Firefox/Mozilla configuration section in CCleaner, but still even after running through a clean process where CCleaner reports that it has removed certain cookies, those same cookies are still visible when I check Firefox. I confirmed that the cookies have indeed not been removed by visiting a site that has previously placed a cookie and noticing that all my information was still being retained. I've been noticing this behaviour in CCleaner since the previous few builds, but I didn't report it then because I thought it might be fixed in future builds.

What could be wrong?

[JamesM]

I'm using the same FF build and the same CC build and I just noticed the same thing. CC says that it has deleted the cookies, but FF still shows them.

[JamesM]

I think that I figured it out...LOL. Are you using TabMIX? If you are, TabMIx is saving sessions and cookies. If you open the session manager and delete the sessions, and the run CC, you will see that the cookies are indeed cleaned. If you aren't using TabMix, it is probably the built in session manager of FF that is keeping the cookies.

[instinct]

JamesM, on Apr 8 2009, 07:20 PM, said:

Are you using TabMIX?

No, I'm not using Tabmix, but you're right. It's Firefox's built-in session restore facility that's causing this problem. I disabled session restore, by setting the config value browser.sessionstore.enabled as FALSE. Sure enough, this time the cookies were really removed. Now that's a problem for me... I use the built-in session restore feature extensively and I don't want to disable it permanently. If I had to disable session restore from within Firefox each time I wanted to run CCleaner, I would much rather clear my cookies and cache from within Firefox itself, using the handy "Clear Private Data" feature. It will also break the usage of CCleaner's "autoclean" feature in scripts for those like me who need session restore in Firefox. Will this ever be fixed?

[JamesM]

instinct, on Apr 8 2009, 01:52 PM, said:

No, I'm not using Tabmix, but you're right. It's Firefox's built-in session restore facility that's causing this problem. I disabled session restore, by setting the config value browser.sessionstore.enabled as FALSE. Sure enough, this time the cookies were really removed. Now that's a problem for me... I use the built-in session restore feature extensively and I don't want to disable it permanently. If I had to disable session restore from within Firefox each time I wanted to run CCleaner, I would much rather clear my cookies and cache from within Firefox itself, using the handy "Clear Private Data" feature. It will also break the usage of CCleaner's "autoclean" feature in scripts for those like me who need session restore in Firefox. Will this ever be fixed?

I don't see it as broken. If you use session restore, and want the entire session to be restored, then you would also need any cookies from the previous session, for it to "completely" restore.
If you install the addon TabMix, it will allow you to delete previous sessions before you exit FF and the cookies will be cleaned.

[instinct]

JamesM, on Apr 11 2009, 11:03 PM, said:

I don't see it as broken. If you use session restore, and want the entire session to be restored, then you would also need any cookies from the previous session, for it to "completely" restore.
If you install the addon TabMix, it will allow you to delete previous sessions before you exit FF and the cookies will be cleaned.

I must respectfully disagree with you here. If CCleaner reports that the cookies are removed after a "clean" process, then that is exactly what I would expect it to have actually done. I'm obviously fully aware that my session data would be lost the next time I open Firefox after I've run CCleaner because that is the intended result I'm looking for when CC says it has removed my cookies. I'm not interested in installing an addon to clean session data from within Firefox, when I could just as well do it using the built-in feature. I use CCleaner primarily because of the convenience of using one program to completely clean my tracks from multiple apps. This "bug" breaks that functionality.

[instinct]

I'm not a developer, but I suspect something like this is going on:

• If browser.sessionstore.enabled is set as TRUE(which it is by default), the session store feature kicks in when you exit Firefox and takes a backup of all the cookies from the default location where they are stored. (I think in %appdata%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\cookies.sqlite)
  
• When you run CCleaner, it cleans the cookies from the default location and reports that the cookies have been removed.
  
• The next time that you start Firefox, session restore restores the cookies from its backup, back to the default location.
  
• Et Voilà! Your cookies are back from the dead.

If CCleaner needs to stay effective, it might have to find a way to get at session restore's backup data and remove it from there as well. Mind you, I don't really know if this is exactly how it transpires. I'm only guessing.