Most mobile browsers delete history after so long.. Y advice is to keep track of it via a 3rd party app

It never did previously up until a recent update. Is this the same for you on an android device? The court order is to cover ten years. I'm not that technical but I don't think this is possible without impacting on the performance of the browser due to the available memory on my device? If so then I am being set up to fail due to unrealistic demands by a judge with no technical knowledge.

Do all browsers such as Chrome or Opera delete browsing history after a set limit or can it be for an unrestricted period? I need factual information if I have to contest this in a court of law.

Which 3rd party android apps will retain my browsing history?

I used netgaurd to track all network usage(requires pro) and I believe Chrome will save it in your Google account

https://www.hoverwatch.com/android-phone-tracker This has been known to work well

Since I have all my bookmarks & passwords synced into my Firefox account, is there a compatible browser that Iets me send them from Firefox to another browser? Opera, Chrome, etc

BTW when I checked the box to sync my stored browsing history, bookmarks & passwords following a reinstall, signing in restored my passwords & bookmarks but not my browsing history.

I don't think so. It's a privacy thing. My advice is to try to screenshot it, and save that

I did a little research & some suggested adding a new string in about:config places.history.expiration.max_pages with a value of 999999 but this doesn't work

clcombs262 said

I don't think so. It's a privacy thing. My advice is to try to screenshot it, and save that

Saving screenshots isn't practical for such a long period, it would use up too much storage. I would also need to be able to capture the whole list not just the part showing on the screen.

Preferably I just want a browser that retains my history indefinitley without using any 3rd party apps that could be subject to glitches.

Unfortunately, the modern privacy crisis renders that pretty much unthinkable.

What is this privacy crisis? Doesn't that relate to being asked to accept cookies on websites we visit? I think this is imposed by the EU.

Would Chrome, Opera & any other android browser not retain my browsing history indefinitley?

1)read the news 2)everyone is afraid of data leaks and tracking 3) usually not user accessible or not easily. Could you imagine having Let's say 10 million records in a 3 to 4 gb file?

It turns out that Firefox is not deleting my browsing history, it's just that once it gets past 100 pages there not viewable, where previously it would be categorised by day, week & month.

How can it be fixed?

Make sure you do not have another application (cleaner, optimizer, etc.) installed as well. Many of these operate automatically unless you set them not to do so (if possible).

Otherwise, do as clcombs suggests, and hopefully your device is not limited by storage capacity. One would hope courts would recognize device and app limitations, but don't hold your breath. Maybe frequent backup to a computer would be a good idea.

Hi, there is no 3rd party cleaning app on my phone other than the cleaning software built in. I have already checked that cleaning the cache & resididual junk files does not delete my browsing. I have the browser add on Ublock Origin but checked that this does not interfere with my browsing history. I also have the Avira antivirus app but this should not interfere with the browsing history.

Checking my Samsung S7 Edge phone i have the same issue of Firefox hiding my previous browsing history. This issue with only showing the last 100 visited web pages appears to be part of the Quantum update & probably affects everyone.

OK, i have confirmed on my device that history entries are limited to 100. Never noticed before really.

Try this and see how you get on:

Make note of your bottom history entry so you can check to see if it disappears at any time.

type in the address bar about:config tap the go arrow on keyboard type hist in the search field tap on the entry browser.sessionhistory.max_entries tap the number value until you get the keyboard change the entry from 50 to -1 (increasing value seems to to nothing) close ff. reopen ff and try going to a few sites and check if your bottom entry disappears.

i suspect this should let you keep history until you literally run out of storage or it crashes browser.

i would still back up your ff history locally for the courts. impress them. :) hopefully rhere is a simple solution for you to do that. cloud sync will always overwrite stuff and i don't know about granular backups to simply save stuff to the cloud. whether your phone vendor has a backup app you can install on a computer, or you use something like airdroid or wifi file browser, you should be able to back up just ff history without overwriting previous backups, via usb cable or wifi.

omg i am sorry. this forum-oid page seems to ignore carriage returns and i see my post is an absolute mess.

And i am sorry again, but upon further review, this does not work. Not surprising given that this is not what the config entry is for. I don't know why it seemed to work until i closed and reopened the browser.

That boolean config doesn't exist in the current android version of Firefox unless I create it. It's the same with browser.sessionhistory.max_entries that i mentioned earlier in the thread.

However the problem isn't retaining the history as first thought but making it viewable as it was before the Quantum update. I know the history is there because when I add a url name in the search bar it brings up websites I have previously visited.

It could be that Firefox does expire browsing history after a set period due to it affecting performance & limits of space, but I've not been using it long enough to find out. With constant updates & changes to fix bugs & security issues its difficult to know.

Its a pity I have no way of contacting mozilla technical support to get them to work on it.

the courts can always view an sqlite db that you have backed up. if there isn't an obvious native way to retain history, most people would have no clue how to effect a method of doing so, therefore the courts need to understand the limitations of the general consumer technology. they have forensics people in law enforcement who already well know these things after having searched nany seized phones. i would ask them then what they would like you to do. take a screenshot every time you have a full screen of history? back up places.sqlite occasionally?

would be cool if browsers did not keep losing functionality whether because they were ported to devices or dumbed-down for general purpose computing.