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If you use Mozilla Firefox in the "never remember history" setting, how can one see which cookies are currently saved (and possibly delete specific ones)? The answer I've heard is to look in Preferences -> Tools, but this is the screen shot of that tab, and there is no list of cookies here:

enter image description here

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9 Answers 9

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As of Firefox 61, access to cookies has been removed from regular end user UI. You can still see and modify them via Developer Tools however:

  • Press Ctrl+Shift+I (Cmd+Option+I on macOS) to open Developer Tools.
  • Click the heading of the "Storage" tab.
  • On the left side of the panel, make sure to select the desired site under "Cookies." If the site has third-party frames, you can also see cookies set by these frames by selecting the right site.
  • You can delete cookies via context menu. You can also double-click the value to modify it.

Original answer, for reference

The Page Info dialog lets you view cookies - from the context menu on a page choose "View Page Info", go to the "Security" tab and click "View Cookies". By default it will only show the cookies for the current page but you can remove the search string and it will show all cookies. If you want it a bit more comfortable you can install the View Cookies extension.

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  • That extension is now removed from Firefox addons website. Nov 30, 2015 at 13:26
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    @SorenBjornstad: Yes, I've updated this answer for new Firefox versions. Oct 15, 2018 at 8:13
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    Mozilla "We totally value privacy and user freedom" Firefox, everyone Jun 11, 2019 at 14:12
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    The problem is that this requires actually going to the site which might not be possible for any number of reasons, but more importantly, going to the site might very well modify the data. I don't understand why they removed the ability to view cookies out-of-band. 😒
    – Synetech
    Sep 14, 2019 at 12:56
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    @WladimirPalant, that's the problem, it used to show you values and let you delete individual cookies, now it only shows you the sites and lets you only delete everything. The "simple" UI is completely useless. They assume every domain hosts only a single site and that all cookies are related to a single entity which is just not true (eg Geocities/ISP hosts, etc). Even if it were true, it's still useless because you might not want to delete everything. For example, you might want to only delete the cookies for a single game on Kongregate, not all of them.
    – Synetech
    Sep 16, 2019 at 13:44
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Quick Solution:

You can manage cookies by going to the following address*:

chrome://browser/content/preferences/cookies.xul

*Domains have been removed from the screenshot

Cookies


Alternatively...

Setting Firefox to Never remember history will hide the link or button to manage cookies. To enable the button, you must choose Remember history or Use custom settings for history as @kreemoweet mentioned.

Remember history

Custom settings

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    This doesn't work anymore (Firefox 62.0) -- the page doesn't exist. Oct 14, 2018 at 21:28
  • This doesn't work on Firefox 63 on mac os High Sierra. I get an error: "File not found"
    – user674669
    Nov 27, 2018 at 21:16
  • this does work on Firefox 52 (on RHEL 7.4) and I'm actually quite surprised that Firefox implements a chrome:// URL scheme Jun 20, 2019 at 21:04
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    The chrome:// URL scheme refers to the application look-and-feel. It is unrelated to and was in use well before the similarly named browser by Google. Jan 2, 2020 at 20:03
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By far, to me, this seems the best way to view and delete cookies in the Firefox since it shows some details which are not available in the other methods - e.g. if a field in a cookie is httpOnly or not will be visible this way.

  1. Press F12 to open Firefox Developer Tools.
  2. Go to Storage tab.
  3. From the left pane, expand Cookies node. Under this node you can see a list of Websites that have cookies stored on your device.
  4. Select one Website and see its cookies on the right pane with their details. From here you can delete every individual cookie.

HTH

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    As of 2018-06, or Firefox version 60 this is the only option. Page Info, chrome:URI, preferences/privacy and most of plugins will not show individual cookies.
    – papo
    Jul 22, 2018 at 12:54
  • Worked great on Firefox 63 on Mac OS High Sierra.
    – user674669
    Nov 27, 2018 at 21:18
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    The problem is that this requires actually going to the site which might not be possible for any number of reasons, but more importantly, going to the site might very well modify the data. I don't understand why they removed the ability to view cookies out-of-band. 😒
    – Synetech
    Sep 14, 2019 at 12:55
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    @Synetech When you visit the site and open the developer tools afterwards, any new modifications will be there. So, other than probable impossibility of going to the site, data modification should not be a serious problem I guess. I, too, don't understand why they removed the ability to view the cookies out-of-band.
    – Kamran
    Sep 16, 2019 at 11:02
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    "a list of Websites that have cookies stored on your device" - to be clear, this is only a list of sites/domains (and associated cookies) that have set cookies as a result of visiting the currently viewed website. It's not a list of all websites that have cookies stored on your device.
    – MrWhite
    Apr 13, 2020 at 12:00
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Access the Cookie Database

You can query the cookie DB directly using SQLite; you'll have all the power of SQL at your fingertips.

First, find the Firefox profile directory. Type about:support in the URL bar. Look for "Profile Folder" in the table. Open a terminal and change to that directory.

$ cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/fw6qr.default-1234567

Close Firefox to unlock the cookie DB. Then open the cookie DB using SQLite.

$ sqlite3 cookies.sqlite
sqlite> .tables
moz_cookies
sqlite> -- view cookie table schema
sqlite> .schema moz_cookies
sqlite> -- example cookie query
sqlite> SELECT host, name, value FROM moz_cookies ORDER BY host;
sqlite> -- delete tracking cookies
sqlite> DELETE FROM moz_cookies WHERE host LIKE '%googleadservices.com';

Pro Tip

The cool thing about accessing the cookie database directly is that you can programatically delete nefarious or annoying cookies. Just wrap the invocation to Firefox in a script. After Firefox terminates, then cleanse your cookies.

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    Great tip. One thing though: one does not have to close Firefox. You can just copy the SQLite db file to some temporary location and then open it.
    – Jacques
    Nov 8, 2021 at 2:52
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Also, you could find Cookie Manager+ add-on useful. In particular, "Delete and block" command there.

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  • That looks interesting. Can add-on's like this leak information. i.e., am I giving the information about the cookies to the author of cookie manager+, or is it all working in a sand box? Feb 21, 2012 at 15:53
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You could try the Firecookie addon.

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  • Firecookie is not compatible with the firefox on the beta channel, so I haven't tried it yet, but it looks good. They should update it to make it compatible with 11.0, if you are or know the developer. Feb 21, 2012 at 22:15
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In Private Browsing you do not have cookies stored, so there's nothing to see. Details at: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Private-Browsing. Edit to add: If you have pre-existing cookies you want to look over, you can change the drop-down box setting to "use custom settings for history", which will cause a number of additional settings to appear below, among which is a button to "View Cookies".

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  • The question is not asking about Private Browsing. The user has set Firefox to 'never remember history'. This preference keeps any old history, cookies, etc, but in the future, will not store any history.
    – iglvzx
    Feb 21, 2012 at 5:49
  • Good catch! That is the reason why the 'show/remove cookies' link is missing. :)
    – iglvzx
    Feb 21, 2012 at 6:06
  • I think it still saves cookies for the length of the session. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to log in to gmail, and everythime you open a link, you would have to log back in. Its just that the cookies are deleted when you quit the application. Feb 21, 2012 at 15:43
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The list of cookies is here (any plugin is needed) :

Preference -> Tools -> Privacy -> Historic -> on the combo box is selected : "Use custom settings for historic" They are few checkbox underneath and a button named: "Display Cookies.."

When a click under this button a window pops with all the currents cookies inside, which could be deleted

I'm using FireFox 10.0 and I'm able to see which cookies are currently saved (and possibly delete specific ones).

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  • Strangely, that button is only displayed with the Use custom settings for history setting. It is not displayed when Never remember history is selected.
    – Underverse
    Feb 11, 2018 at 9:34
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The only built-in way at the moment is to go through the Developer-Tools which requires actually going to the site (assuming that's even possible), but even then, that means it's possible/likely that when you do, the site will modify the cookies. Unfortunately, for some reason, the Firefox developers decided to remove the built-in ability to view cookies out-of-band from the browser itself.

If you want to view cookies for a site without going to it (e.g., it's down, no Internet access, you want to recover the data, do mild forensics, etc.), currently the only option is to use a third-party utility. Fortunately Nirsoft is a reliable, trusted source of tools and his MZCookiesView utility is ideal for this purpose.

Some features include: • View and delete cookies without even closing the browser • Provides useful sorting, search, and filtering functions • Gives instant access to full meta-data about the cookies • Makes it easy to work with cookies of different profiles • Can let you access and edit with offline/backup profiles • Has builtin backup and restore functions for cookie file • Manually select a different "cookies.sqlite" file to use

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  • unrelated, but in your bio you said you will not be helping future users and said sorry to the 'non-existent' future users for not helping. Here I am forgiving you for the sorry you said back, for the endeavor you are doing now.
    – void
    Sep 17, 2019 at 8:21
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    (Sometimes I run into issues myself and find my way back onto SE sites—which is unavoidable now. If I end up finding a solution that isn't listed, then I'll probably share it. I'm just not actively "playing" the StackExchange MMOG anymore; I don't care about medals and points.)
    – Synetech
    Sep 17, 2019 at 13:46

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