1563841 - Impossible to clean last used bookmark folder in New Bookmark/Bookmarks/StarUI window

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

STR:

1. Add some bookmarks to various folders
   so last used bookmarks folders appeared in "Folder:" dropdown menu

There is no option to clean them in "Clean All History" or even in New Bookmark/Bookmarks/StarUI window as some button for this

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

:Virtual, if you think that's a regression, then could you try to find a regression range in using for example mozregression?

Comment 2

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

I don't understand why anyone would want or need to do this. Please can you explain your reasons for wanting this.

Comment 3

[Virtual_ManPL [:Virtual] 🇵🇱 - (please needinfo? me - so I will see your comment/reply/question/etc.)]

Because of the ability, the control, the privacy and there is no any reason to forbidding users doing this. What's more, I don't want some old bookmark folders to be visible there anymore, especially when I'm sharing work PC with other people on same system account and same browser profile, as it's violation of my privacy, because I can't clean in Firefox last used bookmark folder in New Bookmark/Bookmarks/StarUI window, so other people will see them. I able to clean all or some parts: Top Sites in Firefox Home, Highlights in Firefox Home, downloads items, history items, cookies, cache, site preferences, offline website data, logins, passwords, addresses etc., so why behaving differently with last used bookmarks folders, especially when other software allowing this?

I really don't understand why Firefox still can't do that simple basic thing, especially when Mozilla is prioritizing the privacy in manifest.
Source: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/

Principle 4 - Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.

Comment 4

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Bookmarks are treated slightly differently, since they are not on the internet. You've chosen to save those, that's why they're not in the "Clear all History" window. Someone looking at your computer could decide to do show all bookmarks, and see the last used folders and everything else - at that point having clearing the last used folders history isn't going to help. Generally for that level of privacy, we recommend separate user accounts.

As workarounds, the last used folders list does get cleaned up if you remove the folder itself (though I realise that might not be convenient). You could also manually create a dummy bookmark and move it across some dummy folders via the star UI, to clear out the list.

For the longer term view, having a hidden preference to set the number of last used might help, e.g. setting it to zero would mean no entries even if that's slightly less convenient. That is already covered by bug 1230453.

I'm going to mark this as a wontfix, as we don't see us every implementing this option for the reasons above, bug 1230453 would be the preferred way forward.