Some time ago I also found FF keeping stuff I didn't want kept. In Settings > Search > Address Bar, there's a list under "When using the address bar, suggest" Although all were unchecked, suggestions from bookmarks and sites previously visited still showed up. Didn't matter that "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed" and "Clear history when Firefox closes" were checked. Bleachbit wiped any further suggestions. This FF setting works now but is the info simply hidden?

In my fluxbox menu along with a script:

xterm -e 'bleachbit --preset -c && ~/scripts/./flashcache.sh'

The script deletes mozilla's cookies.sqlite, favicons.sqlite, bookmarkbackups, cleans ~/.dbus/session-bus, /tmp files and dirs in ~/.cache. I created a waterfox.xml cleaner for bleachbit and did the same when I replaced it with librewolf.

I don't expect to remain anonymous, just keep FF and LW (if possible) from knowing everything I do. I agree about excess SSD use yet I've been running bleachbit daily on this Crucial 120GB for ~10 years.

If interested in what Bleachbit's firefox cleaner does:
https://github.com/bleachbit/bleachbit/ … irefox.xml

Also if interested, open the user.js file (bottom of list) for about:config privacy/security settings at https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js

and further reported that it only happened once and/or infrequently.

a guess would be that firefox somehow failed to shutdown completely/gracefully/etc or that it somehow was still _running_in_the_background_ unknown to the OP.

and since we are now at firefox 128.4.0esr, hopefully it won't happen again.

Tor browser does that by default because it's set to private browsing mode or not to store history at all - can't remember which,  as I haven't used it in years.

https://tails.net/about/index.en.html

Post #2 actually refers to removing the cache, which is counterproductive - unless you're absolutely paranoid - and won't remove the browsing history.

The file(s) you would need to remove are actually in the profile directory

The following should remove all browsing history from all profiles (or modify the below just to target your profile directory).

$ rm ~/.mozilla/firefox/*/places.sqlite

You could place this in a simple script to start firefox and run that on exit.

https://www.bleachbit.org/

Using bleachbit I never had problems with "destroying my system" by accidentally deleting files, but I make backups and am mindful when using this software :-)

It's kind of astounding the amount of temp files and cookies and other garbage that accumulates in just one day, usually 400+mb on my machine. Ridiculous, almost half a gig.

I run bleachbit at the end of the day before shutdown, it cleans that stuff up pretty good.

That is usually, albeit not always, a good way to start.

I went looking and through trial and error finally managed to (?) domesticate the beast a bit.
But the jury is still deliberating, so caveat emptor.

What I did in about:config was this:

1. looked for all instances of recent
2. set browser.bookmarks.editDialog.maxRecentFolders to 0
3. set browser.download.manager.addToRecentDocs to false
4. set browser.engagement.recent_visited_origins.expiry to 1*
5. set browser.urlbar.recentsearches.featureGate to false
6. set browser.urlbar.suggest.recentsearches to false
7. set privacy.restrict3rdpartystorage.heuristic.recently_visited_time to 1*
8. set services.sync.prefs.sync.browser.ctrlTab.sortByRecentlyUsed to false

* the default values are (probably) in seconds so I used 1 in case nought (0) means forever.

There's probably more to edit, time will tell.

Thank you all for your input.

Best,

A.

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgrepo … t=unstable

Maybe a relevant one among that bugfest: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … bug=682369

Still seems open and unfixed...

128.3.1esr in the same excalibur also works correctly. This one has a folder icon in the upper left that says "View recent browsing..."

I tried the newer version both by closing the window and by killing firefox from a terminal. Both worked correctly.

Sure, no problem with that.

Thanks for that info.

Of course, always.

But ...
On one hand, I have not heard from anyone (yet) with the same issue and on the other, I have not been able to reproduce it.
Not has it happened again.

What I know for sure is that I had not ever seen it happen before the last two Firefox *esr updates.
ie: the versions without the upper left hand View recent browsing across windows and devices icon.

Can that new crap feature be disabled?

And then it may be a fluke, a hardware problem or worse, allucinations. 8^°
No idea, but I don't like it.

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.