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Why does clearing "Download & Browser History" crash Firefox and NOT clear my history?

  • 3 cavab
  • 12 have this problem
  • 14 views
  • Last reply by FredMcD

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I want my Locator bar autocomplete cleared. I use my computer for both personal and business and don't want my history showing up on screen share meetings when typing in the browser.

Firefox 40.0 on Mac (Yosemite).

I go to:

- History - Clear Recent History - Browsing & Download History - Click 'Clear Now'

Firefox crashes (beachball), wait several minutes, still not responding, has to be 'Forced Quit' via OS X

Re-open Firefox, Locator bar is still auto-completing. History still there.

Booted into Safe Mode, disabled all Add-Ons. Still crashes and does not clear history.

Disabling the autocomplete in the locator bar is not a solution. It's a poor workaround.

If there were a folder or .js I could delete in the file system, that would at least be something, but I have found nothing on these forums that instructs on how to do that. The only solutions are to disable Add-Ons, boot into safe mode, click the same "Clear Recent History" button that crashes the browser. In trying to fix this, I have had to wipe out all my open tabs, re-configure my workspace, all of this costing me time and money.

I use Firefox because I'm a software developer and it has the best tools for development, but it increasingly tries to be a consumer-oriented browser, like Chrome or Safari, and I hate those intensely. I don't want that. I want something that is a developer tool.

I want my Locator bar autocomplete cleared. I use my computer for both personal and business and don't want my history showing up on screen share meetings when typing in the browser. Firefox 40.0 on Mac (Yosemite). I go to: - History - Clear Recent History - Browsing & Download History - Click 'Clear Now' Firefox crashes (beachball), wait several minutes, still not responding, has to be 'Forced Quit' via OS X Re-open Firefox, Locator bar is still auto-completing. History still there. Booted into Safe Mode, disabled all Add-Ons. Still crashes and does not clear history. Disabling the autocomplete in the locator bar is not a solution. It's a poor workaround. If there were a folder or .js I could delete in the file system, that would at least be something, but I have found nothing on these forums that instructs on how to do that. The only solutions are to disable Add-Ons, boot into safe mode, click the same "Clear Recent History" button that crashes the browser. In trying to fix this, I have had to wipe out all my open tabs, re-configure my workspace, all of this costing me time and money. I use Firefox because I'm a software developer and it has the best tools for development, but it increasingly tries to be a consumer-oriented browser, like Chrome or Safari, and I hate those intensely. I don't want that. I want something that is a developer tool.

Chosen solution

Places Maintenance {web link} Allows to run Maintenance tasks on the database that drives Places, the bookmarks and history module behind Firefox.


Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac Options)
key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?


Problems with bookmarks and history not working properly can be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite database file.

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Places Maintenance {web link} Allows to run Maintenance tasks on the database that drives Places, the bookmarks and history module behind Firefox.


Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web Link} by holding down the <Shift>
(Mac Options)
key, and then starting Firefox. Is the problem still there?


Problems with bookmarks and history not working properly can be caused by a corrupted places.sqlite database file.

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Thanks, FredMcD! The "Places Maintenance" add-on did not report any problems, but it still fixed the issue. I am now able to Clear History without crashing the browser. Phew!

Now, the other part of this was that I was STILL seeing autocomplete suggestions in the Location bar, even after this clearing of history. I had another thread open here about Search suggestions and figured out that what I thought were History suggestions, were in fact 'Bookmarks' suggestions. Disabling 'Bookmarks' as well as 'History' from my Privacy Location Bar settings did the trick.

So, you kids out there let that be a lesson to you. If you have 5,000 personal bookmarks, those get suggested in the location bar, too, unless you disable them.

Thanks again!

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That is a different "history."

Type about:preferences#privacy<enter> in the address bar. Under Location Bar, de-select everything.