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FAQ: Common Questions and Issues

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Kenneth T edited this page Jul 10, 2023 · 42 revisions

The following FAQ assumes that you already have our web extension installed.

If you don't, please visit the repository homepage or the wiki homepage for links to official channels as well as self-installation.

FAQ

Why is Automatic Cleaning off by default?

  • The extension can be used in manual mode by using cleanup buttons manually.
  • People get annoyed when something gets done without their permission. Example a Self-Destructing Cookies review:

    • BE CAREFUL On first run, the Program destroyed all my cookies WITHOUT WARNING and tells me how I can recover it afterwards. Really? Ridiculous!

  • It gives people the chance to choose which domains to keep cookies in the Keeplist.
  • There's no way to get deleted cookies back at this time; so if the cookies are deleted, they are gone forever.

Is this compatible with temporary container extensions?

  • Short answer: Yes and No.
  • Long answer:
    • Yes as in CAD still treats it as an actual container (it is created in Firefox after all).
    • No as in you would need to configure it each time (only if you need to keep certain cookies/data on tab close in that container) as there is not a global container that affects all new and existing containers.
  • Note that version prior to 3.6.0 will NOT remove any lists from containers that have been removed.
    • Versions 3.5.0+ will start showing INVALID CONTAINER for lists that had a container but was deleted. Note that we only match by container ID, and Firefox appears to keep incrementing the ID even after container removal, to truly keep them unique per browser.
    • Version prior to 3.5.0 will not show this. HOWEVER, you will be able to see it upon exporting the lists and viewing that file.

Is there a way to turn off notifications?

  • Yeah, it's on the settings page. Click the gearbox in the top right of the popup.
  • There are two types of notifications.
    • 'Automatic' cleanup notifications (either automatically triggered or by clicking 'clean' or 'clean, include open tabs').
    • 'Manual' cleanup notifications (all other cleanup options i.e. 'Clean X for this domain').
      • These bypasses any CAD Setting Configurations.

Why can't I move the notification pop-up?

  • Since CAD uses the notification API, the details of how notifications appear and behave may differ according to the operating system and the user's settings. While it allows CAD to use the same code everywhere, it is impossible to add a setting to control where the notification appears on Mobile/Windows/Mac/Linux.

Is there a way to turn off sounds from notifications in Firefox 111+?

  • Firefox 111+ started using native OS notifications, so check with your Operating System (OS) for their notification settings for Firefox.
  • Regardless of browser/versions, the Notification API for web extensions have no configurations to specify audio/sounds.
  • As such, you now have to make a choice
    • keep using the native system notifications (which also shows in the history of windows action for the predefined time)
      • You'll need to go to your system settings and mute all notifications from Firefox then.
    • Switch back to the old Firefox notifications
      • requires tweaking about:config yourself: search for alerts.useSystemBackend and change to false
      • As with the old way, it is not connected with the native OS notification/history so once closed there's no getting those notifications back.

Why is there no import from SDC?/Why Cookie AutoDelete doesn't use the native cookie lists/configurations in Firefox or Chrome?

  • The main issue is that there's no API to access those.

How do I set all cookies to be deleted on browser restart rather than on tab close?

  • Add a wildcard * to the GreyList/RestartList.
  • Ensure Keep All Cookies is still CHECKED/ENABLED (as well as Keep Localstorage if desired/available) on the GreyList/RestartList wildcard.
  • To keep certain cookies forever and remove the rest after browser restart, the domain should be added to both WhiteList/KeepList and GreyList/RestartList, with the cookies to keep forever on WhiteList/KeepList checked/enabled.
  • WhiteList/KeepList still works because it takes precedence over the GreyList/RestartList so you will see 2 entries for a WhiteList/KeepList site in the popup.

What do all the cleanup options mean?

Cookies that don't correspond to an open tab Cookies that correspond to an open tab GreyList/RestartList WhiteList/KeepList
Normal Cleanup X
Cleanup, include open tabs X X
Startup cleanup X X
Startup cleanup with "Clean Cookies from Open Tabs on Startup" X X X

What is the state of the WebExtension API to clean X data?

Why do I still see storage being used after CAD cleans cookies and localstorage data?

As an extension to the above screenshot.

As per the words in the top part of the screenshot, there's cookies, persistent storage, and data from non-persistent storage. Second sentence explicitly states that persistent storage will be deleted when we want to, but the website data in the non-persistent storage will (only) be deleted when firefox deems that it needs the space.

The storage size may be calculated from both persistent and non-persistent combined, thus clearing the localstorage and cookies may only delete the persistent portion of the storage for that website, hence why we see zero cookies and that some storage may still exist - they may be from non-persistent storage, and from my brief research into the storage API on firefox it only has delete all for localStorage.

In addition there have been reports that the storage size also includes indexedDB. IndexedDB cleanup is only available on Chrome or Firefox Desktop 77+ with CAD 3.5.0+. Further findings indicate that if there's around 64.0KB or so, then it may be an empty indexedDB for that domain.

What are the Permissions used for?

  • Access your data for all websites: CAD requests this to delete cookies for all sites
  • Clear recent browsing history, cookies and related data: Ability to delete LocalStorage.
  • Display notifications to you: Self explanatory.
  • Read and modify privacy settings: Automatic detection of First Party Isolation support. Although the Privacy permission gives CAD "read and modify" permissions, NO MODIFICATIONS are done to your privacy settings, CAD only reads the setting of First Party Isolation. The privacy permission unfortunately cannot be given granular control, so this will stay for now.
  • Access browser tabs: CAD uses this permission to display the site hostname in the popup for easier additions to WhiteList/KeepList or GreyList/RestartList, displaying the amount of cookies for that site, and which rules apply to that site.

How do I reset the extension settings?

https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete/issues/484#issuecomment-454472981

Issues

I get a WhiteList/KeepList or GreyList/RestartList undefined error in Firefox

  • Turn on e10s.
  • Turn off contextual identities support in the extension.

Cookies are not being deleted

  • Clear all your cookies (start with a clean slate)
  • Reset settings other cookie extensions might have made in about:config -> restore default of all network.cookie.* preferences
  • Reset Profiles for your browser and try Cookie AutoDelete again in a fresh profile

Some cookies are being deleted

  • If you are coming from SDC and find that some cookies are deleted on shutdown, it's probably because SDC still has it whitelist intact in Firefox permissions. In this case, try deleting permissions.sqlite in your profile.

Some cookies are being deleted even though the site is in WhiteList/KeepList or GreyList/RestartList

  • Some sites may set 'Session' cookies instead of 'Persistent' Cookies. Issue#518
  • Some sites may set an expiry date/time for those cookies.
    • These cookies may be automatically removed outside of this webextension.
  • The browser and/or other cookie handling extensions may have removed them.
    • Cookies not removed by this webextension will not show up through the cleanup logs.

Can't install this extension on Firefox

  • You probably have privacy.resistFingerprinting enabled in about:config which can cause a different Firefox version to be shown.
  • Reset general.useragent.override in about:config if it has been changed.

Popup display doesn't look correct

The buttons / fonts are too big

  • In CAD Settings, scroll to the bottom and change the font size of the popup. Re-open the popup if you need to after changing this setting. 16px default was due to the browser setting it as default when we had yet to specify one. Use 12px for a smaller popup window/font to make it look similar to the older versions.

Why are example.com's cookies being Kept/Cleaned?

  • Remember to try everything you can before reporting it on GitHub.
  • Please note that if you report a individual site, you might not get any traction from me or from other contributors as most of us don't have problems with individual sites.
    • If the issue report doesn't contain a lot of information and if it's working fine for most people, then the issue will be closed and be redirected here.

  1. Make sure the Cleanup Log is enabled in the settings

  2. Trigger a cleanup automatically or manually from the popup

  3. Go to the Cleanup Log in the settings (different tab)

  1. Click on the latest log to expand it

    • Every site you see here is all the sites that CAD is monitoring
    • Green means the site's cookies were kept
    • Red means the site's cookies were deleted

  2. Find the offending site

    • Note: If you don't see your site here, then CAD is not monitoring it. Some other external program/extension/tool is causing your issue.

After finding that site, you will see a reason why that site's cookies is being Kept/Cleaned. Hopefully this will result in less reports. :)

Why are cookies still being shown through CCleaner if it was deleted through Cookie AutoDelete?

  • CCleaner is an external program that scans your computer files and known cookie folders.
  • You have the Enable Cleanup Log and Counter checked/enabled, which keeps a historic record of those cookies that were removed from the browser's cookie area. This feature allows you to restore the deleted cookies within that cleanup time just in case you wish to keep one or more of those cookies again (at the time of undo/restoring them you should ensure that cookie doesn't get erased again afterwards). The sites (as well as 3rd party sites) should not be able to see those deleted cookies as it is kept in a separate area.
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