503540 - Clear private data does not clear all data specifically temp files and temporary internet files

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[iamwyznrich]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042316 Firefox/3.0.10 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042316 Firefox/3.0.10 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

When I press clear private date there is no prompt, some or all cookies are not deleted, some or all temp files are not deleted

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Clear private data
2.Open c/users/me/app data/local/temp (some or all temp files still there)
3.Open c/users/me/app data/local/microsoft/windows/temporary internet files (all or many files still there)
Actual Results:  
files are still there

Expected Results:  
all temp files not in use should be deleted and all temporary internet files should be deleted

Windows vista

Comment 1

[nemo]

Unfortunately, the bug is a little vague.

In (3) - are you sure that the files in temporary internet files were created by firefox, and not ietab, IE, or some other application?

In private browsing, I tested opening a PDF from Firefox, that was launched in Adobe Reader (not the plugin) on my Windows XP test machine, and it opened in %TEMP% (set on this system to C:\Temp)

On exiting private browsing, the PDF was deleted (the PDF remained when testing with private browsing turned off).

Comment 2

[Dave Garrett]

First of all, you should upgrade to the current version of Firefox at some point as the handling of this has been improved in Firefox 3.5. The private browsing mode in comment 1 being one of the new features in this area.
http://getfirefox.com/

To the specific points for this bug:
1) The Windows temp folder is not going to be cleared by Firefox. It'll only clean up its own files, not other applications' and the temp space is available to anyone. Firefox should not be deleting any files other than its own. (and I don't think Firefox puts anything here)
2) The "Temporary Internet Files" folder is under "Microsoft" because that's IE's cache location. Firefox won't put anything there or delete anything there. (IE Tab, as referenced in comment 1 is IE, just loaded from within Firefox) If you want to clear IE's cache then do so from IE. Firefox's cache folder is in your Firefox profile, which on Vista would be down under the "Mozilla" folder in app data.

Firefox's "Clear Private Data" (now "Clear Recent History" in Firefox 3.5) is only to clear things for Firefox. It is not a general system cleaner. There are external programs for that out there if you want them, but that is not what this function is designed to do. Neither of the two listed folders should be expected to be cleared with this function.

Comment 3

[Dave Garrett]

Clarification: The temp dir is where files that are opened without being saved to a specific place can be put, but Firefox doesn't leave any "private data" etc. here afterwards that should need cleaning.

For more information on what this thing clears, see this:
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Clearing+private+data