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Mozilla removes individual cookie management in Firefox 60 from preferences

The most recent version of Firefox Nightly, currently at version 60, comes with changes to Firefox's cookie management. Mozilla merged cookie settings with site data in the web browser which impacts how you configure and manage cookie options.

If you run Firefox 59 or earlier, you can load about:preferences#privacy to manage privacy related settings in Firefox. If you set the history to "use custom settings for history" or "remember history", you get an option manage cookie settings and to remove individual cookies from Firefox.

A click on the link or button opens a new browser window in which all set cookies are listed. You can use it to find set cookies, look up information, remove selected or all cookies.

firefox cookies management

Update: Some commenters stated that Firefox users may still manage individual cookies in the following ways for now:

  1. Load chrome://browser/content/preferences/cookies.xul to display the dialog.
  2. Click on the information button in the Firefox address bar, and navigate to "right arrow" > More Information > View Cookies. Remove the site name to list all set cookies.
  3. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-I to open the Developer Tools and switch to the Storage tab (enable it under settings if it is not there). This lists only the cookies for the active site.

Mozilla engineers changed this in recent versions of Firefox 60 (currently on the Nightly channel).

If you open the privacy section of about:preferences, you may notice the following:

  • History lists only three options. The "request cookies from websites" option is no longer listed under History.
  • A new Cookies and Site Data section is available. It lists the cookie preferences that were listed under History in previous versions.
  • The "show cookies" link has been removed from the history. It is replaced by a combined management option that includes Site Data and cookies.

firefox 60 cookie management

Cookie settings moved from "use custom settings for history" to a better location in the preferences. Firefox users who did not select the custom option were probably never exposed to the cookie preferences in first place. Also, all options but one that existed previously are still there, some, however, under a different name.

There is no "show cookies" button anymore; Mozilla moved it to Settings under "Cookies and Site Data". A click on the button displays the new management interface. It looks similar to the cookie management interface of previous versions of Firefox but includes storage as well now.

firefox 60 cookies

The interface lists sites and the number of set cookies and used storage, as well as the time the site was accessed the last time in the browser.

While the new interface looks great, you may notice that it is no longer possible to list or remove individual cookies from Firefox using it.

Mozilla mentions the fact on the official bug listing.

As per our UI concept in bug 1421690 and (finally) following the spec guidelines (https://www.w3.org/TR/webstorage/#privacy) we'd like to merge the cookies settings into the "Site Data" section and move them to top-level.

This also means removing individual cookie management from about:preferences.

This is bad for users who want full control over cookies. While it is possible that Mozilla will implement the removed functionality before Firefox 60 hits the stable channel, Firefox users may use extensions to restore the functionality.  Check out our updated Firefox cookies management guide for a list of extensions that support Firefox 57 and newer, and Firefox 56.x and older.

Google Chrome includes an option to list and remove individual cookies, still.

Now You: Do you need the removed functionality?

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

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