Mozilla Firefox is a free, open-source internet web browser known for being fast, private, safe, and secure. Like other Internet browsers, Firefox collects cookies from websites to help remember your individual website preferences.
Cookies also keep you signed in to certain websites, which saves time. If you’re disconnected from frequently used websites, or websites keep forgetting your settings, Firefox’s cookies may have been disabled.
Cookies are also used to track your behavior as you browse online on different websites. A classic example is this, you browse online to buy a product and then this is repeated to you in the advertising banners of other sites. These are called third-party cookies and many users decide to disable them to prevent their tracking.
By default, this feature is already enabled, but there are situations where you need to adjust the cookies yourself. It is important to know where they are and how to activate them. In this text, we will show you how to configure cookies in Mozilla Firefox.
Before jumping to the steps required to block and unblock cookies in Mozilla Firefox, you need to understand the 3 types of settings that the browser offers.
Mozilla Firefox has advanced browser privacy settings. Cookies management is now integrated with some other privacy controls that you can select and change here.
You are given 3 main privacy / blocking options:
Default
Mozilla Firefox has default settings that allow you to use the common third-party cookies that most websites work with. This option will block third-party tracking cookies, which are often used by many organizations to track your browsing activity. Some third-party cookies will only be allowed if they are not considered third-party files.
Strict
The Strict setting gives stricter online privacy and security settings, but it may cause some websites to not work properly. If this happens, it is worth whitelisting these websites.
Self Configured
Let’s take a closer look at how to enable cookies in Mozilla Firefox. The most affordable and fastest way is through the firefox menu:
- Click on the menu. The menu button will be located in the upper right corner of Firefox; it looks like three horizontal lines.
- Click on Settings, after you have clicked the menu button, the Firefox menu will open; one of the items in it is Preferences.
- Go to the menu item Privacy and Security. The main sections are displayed on the left side of the window.
- You will now be in your browser’s privacy window. In the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, you will see the Standard option checked by default. This option allows the use of cookies, except for Cross-site tracking cookies.
- Below the Default option, click on Custom.
- You now have full control over which trackers and scripts you want to block. Uncheck the box located next to Cookies to allow all types of cookies, including those previously excluded (cross-site tracking cookies).
- Setting through the visual interface is the simplest and most accessible, here the user can select and change all the settings that he needs.
Disabling cookies is not as simple in Firefox as it is in other browsers, but it is also possible to do this in the browser. Check out the complete procedure below.
- First, open Firefox, click on the menu (three dashes in the upper right corner), and then on Options.
- On the settings page, tap on Privacy and Security. Now, in the Improved Tracking Protection section, you will have three protection options – Standard, Strict, and Custom. To be able to completely disable cookies, check the Custom box.
- Among other options, be sure to check the Cookies box and, from the pull-down menu on the side, select All Cookies. Finally, click Reload All Tabs to confirm the changes.
Enable/Disable Cookies for Specific Websites in Mozilla Firefox
If you want to enable or disable cookies for specific websites in Mozilla Firefox, the browser provides you the option to do so for which you can follow the steps mentioned below:
- Start Firefox and click the menu icon in the upper right corner.
- Click on Settings to get to the browser settings and click on the Privacy and Security category on the left.
- You can now activate cookies using the following options:
- Select Custom and remove the checkmark next to Cookies.
- Alternatively, select Standard from to return to the default settings.
- With a click on the button Manage permissions, you have the option of making user-defined settings. You can specify individual websites for which cookies should be allowed or blocked.
- Enter the URL of the page for which you want to allow or block cookies. Then click either Block or Allow.
- By clicking on the Allow for this session button, the site’s cookies will be allowed until you close Firefox again. Then click on Save changes.
Cookies can take up a lot of space in your computer and make the functioning of your computer slow. You can delete all the cookies stored by Mozilla Firefox by following these simple steps mentioned below:
- Open the Mozilla browser and click on three dots or horizontal lines located at the top right corner.
- Then click on Library located at the top of the drop-down menu.
- Now click on the History option located at the top of the drop-down menu.
- Tap on clear recent history located at the top of the History drop-down menu. A new pop-up window will be opened.
- Expand the Interval to be deleted field. You can see it at the top of the pop-up window. Tap on it to bring up a drop-down menu.
- Select All located at the drop-down menu, it ensures that all cookies in your browser will be deleted (and not the cookies of the day or the week).
- Now click on the cookie box, You can uncheck all other boxes in this window, but the Cookies box must be checked.
- All checked items will be permanently deleted when you delete cookies.
- Tap on Clear Now located at the bottom of the pop-up window, it allows you to delete cookies from Firefox.
