Firefox 64 (Latest) on Win10 spawns 1000 cache profiles
I've been familiar with how FF works on Win7 for years. I know how and where its profiles and configs are stored and have reinstalled FF and recovered settings from the previous profiles.
I'm new to Windows10 64, don't really like it but it's embedded in an Intel nuc box. I have trusted file cleaner apps I use to clean unwanted temp files (except important FF profiles which are whitelisted from cleaning). On Win 7 I know roughly what the cleaner will find and remove.
I cleaned Win10 64 with the latest FF update installed (I don't think it's the update) and found over 1000 temporary files. The file path is Users\username\Appdata\local\Mozilla Firefox\Profiles\profile number\ default-release\cache2\entries. They are all small files and not the main default or custom profile I'm used to seeing. But they keep growing in number!
I know Win10 has account and file security protection which gets in the way and wthout changing ownership of this temp folder and sub folders, there is no admin user access.
Can anybody help me understand what I'm seeing. Are these FF profiles in cache2 temporary and not being deleted on exit due to Win10 file protection, or some other reason?
Thanks
Chosen solution
That is the location used for the disk cache as you can see on the about:cache and about:profiles page. You can possibly use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the Cache. Be cautious with clearing other data like Cookies and Site Preferences.
Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
All Replies (3)
Chosen Solution
That is the location used for the disk cache as you can see on the about:cache and about:profiles page. You can possibly use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear the Cache. Be cautious with clearing other data like Cookies and Site Preferences.
Firefox uses two locations for the Firefox profile folder. Location used for the main profile that keeps your personal data (Root Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Location used for the disk cache and other temporary files (Local Directory on about:profiles).
- C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>
Thanks it's definitely the disk cache. I think I didn't set the 'clear cache on exit' option because some of the sites I visit use a login first time, then look up the saved cookie? But for low security sites requiring a login, FF has that useful option to save the PW, which avoids retyping it in. However, I see there's an option to whitelist specific sites using cookies and I will try creating exceptions for those and clear the others on exit.
Over a 1000 individual registry entries in cache2 which built up fairly quickly is rather scary when you come across it.
Thanks for your help.
Clearing the disk cache doesn't affect cookies, so you are still logged in if you keep/allow cookies for these websites.
- using "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear cookies clears all cookies.
- using "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed" keeps cookies with an allow exception.