Where do you see that there is data left -- is this in the Firefox UI (Preferences dialog or about:cache) or in Mac Finder?

Firefox, Preferencees, Advanced, Network, Cached Web Data

Since posting my question earlier, I've tried emptying that cache a few times, without quitting FF. The first incomplete emptying left 12KB in Cache, next time it left about double that, and again, and now after "emptying" the cache "is currently using 69.0 KB of disc space", so whatever the cause, the disc space it's using is growing....

I'll say this also..., I have the very same web pages up as were up before I chose to accept the recommended update to 20.0. No videos, pages I use all the time, nothing unusual.

Thanks for your consideration,

Lance

If you open the about:cache page (type or paste about:cache in the address bar and press Enter), what do the statistics show there? I think the Disk cache is the critical one.

Thanks for getting back to me, and please forgive me for not checking back in sooner... You're mighty quick!

I just "emptied" the cache once again. It has "stabilized" at 69 KB disc space.

After that, and following your directions, "Memory cache" and "Offline cache device" are both showing "0" entries, 0 KiB.

Disk cache device show ONE entry. Clicking on "List Cache Entries" results in:

Number of entries: 3 Maximum storage size: 358400 KiB Storage in use: 84 KiB Cache Directory: /Users/iMac/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/quvq0msg.default/Cache

Key

https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif?zx=wmiprqmwqjtf 43 bytes 1 2013-04-02 18:31:35 2014-04-02 18:31:34 https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif?zx=mlc1q4c6k6ai 43 bytes 1 2013-04-02 18:29:34 2014-04-02 18:29:33 https://mail.google.com/mail/images/cleardot.gif?zx=pogu0pxmv7ff 43 bytes 1 2013-04-02 18:28:33 2014-04-02 18:28:33

I do keep one instance of gmail open, but I always have. The only change today was FF 20.0

Thoughts?

Maybe Firefox 20 is handling these little images differently for some reason? It seems you get a new one every minute. Hopefully someone has a good guess, because reading the full list of changes (linked on the following page) is more than mind-numbing:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/20.0/releasenotes/

Well, Thanks so much!

Interesting that it's a google thing. One of the many things I love about Firefox is the ability to easily block cookies by just unchecking the "Accept cookies from sites" box. With any regularly visited sites which REQUIRE cookies, one can add them to the "exception" list as OK.

Google is particularly giving with their numerous cookies. I DO have gmail, and once very two weeks have to "unblock" google.com and www.google.com in the exceptions list in order to sign in, then I go back and add them to be blocked. I keep 8 "regular cookies", the rest get chucked when done at that site.

Two FF version upgrades ago, all of a sudden, no matter what I did, the plethora of google cookies bypassed the FF blocker and were stored. Wipe them out, stored again. This went on for close to a week and was irritating me more each day, but then all of a sudden the blocker and exceptions list worked flawlessly again. I thought it may have been some sort of test attack google was exploring, but have no clue what was really happening.

If this cache thing keeps up, I'll try going back a version. That one worked fine this morning before the switch...

Be well,

Lance

Try to remove the cache folder manually in case some files are corrupted.
You can see the path of the cache on the about:cache page.

Also make sure to close all open tabs and Windows in case that is causing objects to stay in the cache.

Cor-el,

Thanks for the thoughts.

From when I last reported, things have changed.... Now when I go to the FF/advanced/network window to clear the cache, the "gauge" which was there and which showed how much space was currently being stored is GONE. Entirely. I've done nothing which may have caused this to happen. Las time I checked it was there, now not there. ?

So, I did the about:cache thing and ALSO MISSING is "Disk cache" report. Just a couple hours ago there were three statistics categories, now only "Memory cache" and "Offline cache device" remain showing.

It's alive! It knows what I dislike and so hides it from view.... lol That's not a cure but a coverup...

Several updates back this same thing (disappearing "gauge") happened, but it was back the next day and has remained since, until now.

I'll look tomorrow to see if things change to my liking.

Be well,

Lance

Update:

OK, the last twist was on me. When at the Privacy pane, evidently when I clicked on "Show Cookies", I must have also accidentally clicked just a wee bit below, which activated the "Clear history when Firefox closes". I just noticed the checked box this morning (and all of my "always" websites needed signing back into).

When I unchecked that box, the "Cache Gauge" was once again visible and showing current cached content at the advanced/network pane.

I then cleared cache, and everything cleared so I was back to zero. A bit later, same results. However, now "clearing cache" is leaving 8 KB. Checking the about:cache results Disc Cache show three items, this time from eBay.

After this post I'll try quitting and restarting FF, then note whether cache may once again be emptied fully.

I know all of this isn't a big deal, however Empty means empty to me, and when the result is otherwise, it disturbs some small part of my pea brain.

No joy. After manually emptying cache as per the above directions, after restarting FF, "Empty Cache" results in there being 12.0 KB of disc space still being used.

FF 20.0 just doesn't seem to perform as thorough a cleaning job as past versions. I'll give it another day to heal, but then migrate backwards to the last version, which did respect the "Empty" command (most of the time).

Thanks for the help, folks!

Do you see any objects listed on the about:cache page to help to determine where these objects are coming from?

Cor-el,

Here is an update in which your question is answered.

My computer is on at all times and located not far from my workbench. Late yesterday morning I quit FF, restarted, then "Emptied" Cache and was left with 7KB remaining. I then decided to keep FF 20.0 up for an extended period without "Quitting", and to monitor results as I periodically "Emptied" Cache. When I remembered to, I would also then check about:cache and make note of results.

Unlike the first time I looked in about:cache and there was a hyperlink in the "Disk cache" folder which when clicked on showed 3 google related items (other times the remaining items were from other sites), Now when cache is "Emptied", all three categories in about: cache show 0 "entries". There is now no hyperlink in "Disk cache", however, the "Storage in use" line matches with what I see remaining on the Empty Cache page. I took some edited screen shots and hope they show and make sense below.

Each time during the 26 hours or so that I let this experiment run, when I "Emptied" Cache, the leftover amount increased by varying amounts. Then, at 256KB remaining, three times in a row when I emptied, 256KB remained and I thought I had reached some "limit". But the 4th time I emptied, the remains were 257KB and the amount has increased each time since, up to the 433KB "emptied" amount just before I wrote this.

This last time I had 6.4MB in cache before "emptying". I took a screenshot of that and also of the about:cache window at that moment. I then emptied cache and took screen shots of each. I then Quit FF 20.0, restarted, then emptied and took shots. Let's see if the images make it to this post, and if so, if they provide a clue to what's happening.

Thanks to Oldapps, I'm happily back to FF version 19.0 on my Mac, and "Empty" once again means empty when clicked on in Cache. I think I'll stick with FF 19 for the immediate future, hoping that in some later version the FF 20 Cache emptying failures will be addressed. After having tried the alternatives, Firefox is still far above all other browsers for my use.

I truly appreciate all the thought you two put into the puzzling behavior of FF 20.0.

Be well,

Lance