Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of textual information stored by webpages on your computer. Their many uses include remembering login information and preserving the contents of your basket on shopping sites. For more information about the concept, see the Wikipedia article.
Cookie permissions
In Firefox, cookie permissions are controlled in "Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Cookies". You may choose to accept all cookies that websites wish to set or, in Firefox 1.5 and earlier, you may choose to accept cookies "for the originating site only", which will block third-party cookies that are often set by other companies who advertise on those sites. Starting in Firefox 2, the option to block third-party cookies has been removed from the user interface [1]. Firefox 2 users who wish to limit allowed cookies to those set by the originating website can use about:config to modify the preference network.cookie.cookieBehavior to "1".
If websites report cookies are blocked, and you have set Firefox to accept cookies, read this article.
Exceptions list
As well as the basic permissions above, you may also make blacklists and whitelists using the Exceptions list. The settings in this list override your basic cookie settings, so that you can have stronger control over individual sites that you have manually added to the list. You can choose to allow an individual site to set cookies, or to set "session" cookies which are deleted once you have closed Firefox, or to stop it from setting cookies at all.
Removing cookies
To remove all cookies, go to "Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Cookies" and click "Clear Cookies Now". To remove specific cookies, click "View Cookies", select a cookie from the list, and click "Remove Cookie)
Where are cookies stored
Cookie information is stored in two files: cookies.txt and hostperm.1. (Older versions used cookperm.txt instead of hostperm.1.) Both of these files are located in your profile folder.
File | Description |
---|---|
cookies.txt | Holds all of your cookies, including login information, session data, and preferences. |
cookperm.txt hostperm.1 |
Holds preferences about which sites you allow or prohibit to set cookies, to display images, to open popup windows and to initiate extensions installation. |