I hear that clearing cookies when Firefox closes is good practice from a privacy perspective, but what about cache, are there any good reasons to clear it too? Are there any negatives?
Serious Discussion What Are the Pros / Cons of Clearing Cache When Firefox Closes?
- Thread starter lokamoka820
- Start date
Firefox
10 Replies
1,758 Views
Pros:
1. Privacy: Regularly clearing cache can protect your privacy by removing browsing data.
2. Troubleshooting: It can help resolve website loading issues.
3. Space Saving: It can free up storage space on your device.
Cons:
1. Slower Loading Times: Cache stores website data to load pages faster, clearing it may slow down this process.
2. Lost Data: You may lose saved data like login information or website preferences.
3. Increased Data Usage: If you're on a limited internet plan, re-downloading data can increase your data usage.
1. Privacy: Regularly clearing cache can protect your privacy by removing browsing data.
2. Troubleshooting: It can help resolve website loading issues.
3. Space Saving: It can free up storage space on your device.
Cons:
1. Slower Loading Times: Cache stores website data to load pages faster, clearing it may slow down this process.
2. Lost Data: You may lose saved data like login information or website preferences.
3. Increased Data Usage: If you're on a limited internet plan, re-downloading data can increase your data usage.
I clear cookies, cache, history and autofills. Clearing this data along with cookies is def good practice, e.g. sites can read your history. You may see some slower page opening times, but it shouldn't be noticeable, expecially with today's browser technology, etc.
i7ii
Level 1
Cookies seem to be tied to "site data" - used for storing login info. Clearing them - means you have to re-login every time you use a popular site. There's a FF Extension called Cookie Quick Manger - which gives you more cookies control but also extra info used cookies (what they actually contain). While using commercial sites like Amazon (or any site - where you use a credit card) - it's definitely beneficial/safer to clear does cookies and re-login every time.
As for Cache - FF has multiple features which cache specific settings. If you have enough Ram (even 16 Gb is more than enough - if using the browser alone) - you could disable the general cache - which tends to help with speed (Ram being faster even than SSD) - more than security, but can also help increase SSD life by a bit - since the Ram is not affected in same way by daily cache/writings from using the browser (ofc, depends how extensive you use it).
All browsers that I'm aware of have settings to make cookie exceptions, so they are saved when clearing data on browser close.
As @oldschool explained, the downsides would be slow page loading, mainly websites where there a lot of images. Here in MT for example, user's profile pictures are saved on browser cache. Without cache the browser will have to download them every time. Actually, deleting would also lead to your SSD/HDD working harder. In my experience, Firefox suffers the most in speed if you delete cache. Chromium browsers seem to have different kinds of cache in different locations. The main one usually contains media related cache but there are other ones like javascript cache and more which if I remember correctly are not usually deleted by browser's built-in options. HiBit Uninstaller can delete most of them and there are even some more leftovers that even HiBit don't delete but Ccleaner does. I didn't look into these things too much. I'm just saying what I saw in my usage.
I delete my cache once or twice a month and do the same for cookies if I remember using the Cookie AutoDelete extension. Sites where I wanna be logged in are whitelisted in the extension.
I delete my cache once or twice a month and do the same for cookies if I remember using the Cookie AutoDelete extension. Sites where I wanna be logged in are whitelisted in the extension.
Last edited:
Thanks all, I get the answer I was looking for, this forum is better that searching for hours on the internet.
i7ii
Level 1
Sure, but in FireFox is rather inconvenient ( Open Application menu -> Go to Settings ->Go to Privacy & Security -> Scroll to Cookies and Site Data -> Manage Exceptions -> add the name of the Site) vs open Cookie Quick Manager -> Manage All Cookies -> search name of the site and Protect. You can even go to Protected Cookies and select only specific Cookies to keep:
The default/integrated Cookie Manager - can only save all cookies for a given site. Seems to be the same for Chrome. And if you select to Clear Cookies from History - that's based on a time-line clear (Last Hour, Last 2 hours, Last 4 hours, Since 12:00 AM or Everything) - so if you select for Last Hour - you can still keep cookies used before that (along with the rest - be it good or bad). So hey, i guess that to can help for people with OCD (or some obsession with tidiness and control) - just lest convenient for the rest.
Bookmark that page and name it Privacy. Boom. Quick.
For the OCD user there are extensions like CookieAutoDelete, etc.. I don't see any need for them myself.
i7ii
Level 1
And yet... "it doesn't work as expected". Don't know what/which cookies or site data - it still keeps (or if any) - cause it doesn't show any details - but even adding a site to FF internal Exception list...
...didn't really help while clearing browser data and cookies....
...as in, before clearing data...
...and after...
And yet, MalwareTips Forums it's still shown as part of above exception list. There's another internal cookie manager - for deleting specific cookies manually - which does work if you have the time to waste - manually clearing individual cookies....
Cookie AutoDelete works too - since it has a white/grey list for cookies to keep. And that's just it - FF internal/embed tools are rather mediocre if not bad - compared to dedicated extension for managing a specific function/feature which is better in any way. Kinda like Windows internal apps vs dedicated 3rd party apps. Same can be said about Chrome - but not Chromium based browsers (over 10+ by now) - since most Chromium based browsers - compete with each-other (also with FF or Safari and such) - by including specific features by default - which others don't have (but some can't be added as extensions). For example Brave Browser - which keeps getting praised for having one of the best ad-blockers embed in - while most of the other browsers have to add one as extension (such as uBlock).
Tho, sure - depending on personal preferences - this extensions are not for everyone. Some prefer - to clear all data - and simply use a password manager to re-login every-time. Which is definitely - a safer option - something i actually recommend for any site which needs credit card info and such.
Recently browsing
Members who viewed this thread in the last 5 minutes
