312211 - Keep Cookies: until I close Firefox doesn't remove cookies when Firefox is closed

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[mchiocca]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7

In the Privacy settings you can choose to 'Keep Cookies: until I close Firefox'.
However, cookies are not removed when Firefox is closed and then restarted.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Select 'Keep Cookies: until I close Firefox' in the Privacy settings.
2. Close Firefox.
3. Restart (reopen) Firefox.

Actual Results:  
Cookies were not removed.

Expected Results:  
All cookies should have been removed.

Comment 1

[dave neal]

I have a Sony VAIO pretty much out of the box,and so am I.having read that mozilla f/fox was the browser to use I installed it.Within a few minutes I started to run slow, got web pages hanging,all sorts of frights,had my first crash and  then a view of the fabled blue death.So I deleated the last thing I did,I removed the mozilla browser.Computor things returned to normal as my inexperienced way of percieving computor life sees it.This was 2to3 months ago at least.More reading ,,, and then I stumbled on the pitstop site I had 3or4 references for them,nearly as many as I have for Mozilla.So I gave them a whirl,or rather they gave me one. Their privacy test showed I had a lot of cookies and browser history under Mozilla.I have no mozilla browser!Not much of aproblem in itself but odd.I am unable to clear this stuff.IE clears ok. So I reinstall Mozilla,and go through the motions.Mozilla says no cookies no history,pitstop says loads of motzilla stuff not deleated I'm inclined to believe them,if I load up IE with cookies and history,run pitstop it shows it all if I then use IE to clear em , it does so no problem, not so with Motzilla.Together with a new today that is rash of hangs and crashes using Mozilla leaves me with acouple of obvious questions.Got any ideas about where. I may be going wrong.

Comment 2

[Lawrence Worth]

I have the same problem in 1.5.0.8.  Go to www.etrade.com, close the browser, and reopen it.  You'll find that you still have an etrade cookie even when you select "until I close Firefox" as the cookie deletion policy.  People hate persistent cookies because they constitute a moderate security hazard.  Please fix this.  Thank you.

Comment 3

[Aaron Racine]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9a6pre) Gecko/2007060204 Minefield/3.0a6pre

Whether cookies are removed when Fx closes appears to be determined by the status of the "Keep Until" option at the time the cookies are set.  If you have set "Keep until they expire," visit a site that gives you a cookie, set "Keep until I close Firefox," and then close Firefox, the cookies will not be removed.

If, however, you set it to delete cookies when you close Firefox, then visit a site that gives you a cookie and close Firefox, the cookies will be removed.

Reporter, are you requesting that Firefox remove all cookies as long as the "Keep until I close Firefox" option is set at the time Firefox closes, rather than when that option was set in relation to when the cookies were set?

Comment 4

[Samuel Sidler (old account; do not CC)]

Dan, can you look at this?

Comment 5

[[e-mail]]

comment 3 is correct, the setting only affects cookies when they are set - that is, persistent cookies that are already there before you change the option to "keep until", will not be removed.

you can test this by first removing all cookies in the preferences panel, then browsing around for a while, restarting, and checking to see if you have any cookies.

can anyone confirm that this is what they're seeing? if so, we can think about having the "keep until" option remove all cookies when it's checked (or going through "clear private data").

Comment 6

[fly]

I'm disappointed. Two years are behind the first bug report about cookie settings, and the problem still exists. Cookies are removed only when they are forced to be removed by the user. Firefox is my default browser from the version 1.0, so many good things are built in, and I don't know where is the catch? Cookies are not important, never was, never be?

Comment 7

[[e-mail]]

well, instead of complaining, can you be constructive? specifically, is what i said in comment 5 correct, or are you finding that even freshly set cookies aren't removed when you close the browser? you can easily test this by clearing all your cookies, browsing around, restarting, and checking if they're still there...

Comment 8

[fly]

see for your self - cookie stays until you remove it in the Privacy settings, no matter what you select from the drop down, or whatever

http://aoc.tiborasfly.com/testcookie/

Comment 9

[[e-mail]]

but that's exactly the point - except for the original reporter of this bug (which is likely seeing what i described in comment 5), and you, *no one* else here can reproduce this bug. which is why i need information from you to help figure out what's going on. for me, loading your site sets a session cookie which is correctly removed once i shut down the browser. it does this regardless of whether i have the "keep until i close" pref set.

so, are you willing to help me debug what's going on here?

Comment 10

[fly]

yes, if I can, but...
I tested over 3h the "cookie behaviors", on many different ways, on both mine PCs.  I cleared out the cookies hundred times, and maybe four times the cookie was removed after firefox closing, but who knows way. When I tried the same settings again, after 2-3 times, the problem came back. Same setting, but maybe not the same site opened in other tabs, or not on the first tab, or I don't know. There is no logic. There is a coding issue. Only Firefox fails to work with cookies, all other tested browsers works fine. Programmers need to go deep into the codes, and I can not help, when there is no logic in this bug. 
It's a perfect crime :).

Comment 11

[fly]

And one more thing, there are browsers similar to firefox, the options for cookies are the same, thay use the same or a little bit different engine - I don't know this very well. And they are handling cookies perfectly.

Comment 12

[hemy]

you guys are wrong, i did the same thing if you exit Firefox properly  i.e.

go to the top left and click file > exit. it'll work fine.


but if you go to the top right and click the X (only in Firefox 3.x) it wont clear cookies, this wasn't a problem in Firefox 2.x.

tho i am glad they fixed the open last closed tab even if history is deleted. they just added another problem :(.

Comment 13

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #12)
> you guys are wrong, i did the same thing if you exit Firefox properly  i.e.
> 
> go to the top left and click file > exit. it'll work fine.
> 
> 
> but if you go to the top right and click the X (only in Firefox 3.x) it wont
> clear cookies, this wasn't a problem in Firefox 2.x.

bug 387159?

Comment 14

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

This bug was reported using Firefox 3.0 or older, which is no longer supported. The bug has also not been changed in over 500 days and is still in UNCO.
Reporter, please retest this bug in Firefox 3.6.10 or later using a fresh profile, http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/managing+profiles. If you still see this problem, please update the bug. If you no longer see the bug, please set the resolution to RESOLVED, WORKSFORME.

This is a mass search of unconfirmed bugs that have no activity on them, so if you feel a bug was marked in error, just remove the CLOSEME comment in the whiteboard within the next month.

Comment 15

[Tyler Downer [He/Him]]

No reply, INCOMPLETE. Please retest with Firefox 3.6.12 or later and a new profile (http://support.mozilla.com/kb/Managing+profiles). If you continue to see this issue with the newest firefox and a new profile, then please comment on this bug.