How to Delete Browsing History in Firefox

Last Updated: May 6, 2021 Tested

Mozilla Firefox focuses a lot on privacy. The organization that makes it, Mozilla, believes that everybody should have a right to privacy on the internet. As such, it is possible to completely and permanently delete your browsing history on Firefox, simply follow the steps in this article.

Steps

1
Open Firefox.
2
Click on the hamburger menu (☰). It is in the top-right corner of the window. Then, click "Library".

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3
Click "History".
4
Select "Clear Recent History".
5
Decide how far back you want to clear your history. If you want to clear all history, then select "Everything".
6
Decide what you want to clear. You can only clear certain things, like cache or browsing history, or clear everything. Below is a description of what each of the options will clear:
- Browsing & Download History: Selecting this option will clear the list that contains of all the sites that you have visited, and it will clear the log of the files that you have downloaded (it won't delete the downloaded files themselves).
- Cookies: This option will remove all cookies that are stored on your computer (clearing cookies may log you out of your accounts).
- Active Logins: This option will log you out of all accounts that are currently set to remember you.
- Cache: Selecting this option will delete all cache that your browser has stored, you may need to do this if a website is not working correctly.
- Form & Search History: This option will remove the history and suggestions that pop up when you type things into text boxes.
- Site Preferences: Selecting this option will clear Firefox's memory of things like zoom on certain websites, sites that are whitelisted on your pop-up blocker, and whether or not you want to save passwords on sites (selecting this will not erase your saved passwords).
- Offline Website Data: This option will delete any files that a website has saved on your computer. Websites can only save offline website data if you have allowed it.
7
Click on Clear Now. Once you click this Firefox will start to delete your history, once the menu closes, your history is cleared.

Community Q&A

Question

What is form history and search history?

Community Answer

Search history lists what you typed into Firefox's search bar. Form history is what you type into forms for autocomplete.
Question

How do I restart Firefox?

Community Answer

To restart Firefox, click the exit button, then reopen the browser.