Use "Firefox > Exit" (Windows: Firefox/File > Exit; Mac: Firefox > Quit Firefox; Linux: Firefox/File > Quit) to close Firefox if you are currently doing that by clicking the close X on the Firefox title bar.

Does it make a difference if only the history is selected as the only item to clear when you close Firefox?

Telling Firefox not to remember history does nothing. All history is remembered. Even when I click 'clear history', it remembers. At least with IE the option to clear browsing history works. It does not work in Firefox.

I am running the latest version of Firefox in Windows 8.11 on an hp laptop.

Apparently there is no solution. Firefox is set to always remember history and there's nothing we can do about it. I've dumped Firefox, which I've used since 2.0, and this is sent using Internet Explorer 11, the first time I've used IE in many many years. If Firefox refuses to do what it's supposed to do then the only answer is to use a browser that works as it should.

It is possible that something went wrong with "Clear history when Firefox closes".

Firefox will try to clear private data on the next start when "Clear history when Firefox closes" is used and Firefox failed to do this on the previous close (pref privacy.sanitize.didShutdownSanitize is missing or false).

You can try to only clear the history as a test and remove the ticks on all other items.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite database file in the Firefox profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

• Places Maintenance: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

NavajoWhite said

When I hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click OK(in Clear Recent History window) it works, it deletes the history but it doesn't delete user names even though I have everything checked in that window.

User names that drop-down below fields on forms?

• If you expand the Details section of Clear Recent History, do you have the box for "Form & Search History" checked to clear that category?

• Presumably you already turned off saving of passwords but, if not, that is managed separately under Options > Security > Saved Passwords

Also, when using Clear Recent History, make sure to choose the "Everything" time range.

None of this is of any value. None of it works. And there continues to be the issue of no vertical navigation bar and no vertical navigation arrows. I tried to answer the survey and could not because of the lack of vertical navigation ability. Keyboard arrows don't work with the survey. They only change the answers already given.

Give it up, I say. IE is more secure and has full navigation ability. Firefox is good for downloading Youtube, but the only way to clear history is to run Ccleaner.

Hi garza, you didn't mention this before:

And there continues to be the issue of no vertical navigation bar and no vertical navigation arrows.

Do you mean the scroll bar? That could be an issue relating to private browsing which might not be relevant if you are using regular windows that accumulate history:

Firefox 38 has a glitch with this combination of circumstances:

(1) You are viewing a page in a private browsing window (2) Tabbed browsing is turned off (3) You click a link coded with target="_blank", which launches the link in a new window

The new window opens without menus, toolbar, scroll bars, etc.

Work on this bug is in process, but I don't know if the fix will be available in the next few weeks. These are the currently known workarounds so you can keep using private browsing windows -- any one of them will work around the bug:

(1) Use tabbed browsing (this is a checkbox under Options > General > "Open new windows in a new tab instead");

(2) Shift+click links to open them in a new window with the standard features; or

(3) Change a bunch of hidden settings as explained below -- this will not require you to make any changes to how you use Firefox, but you might occasionally need to enlarge some small pop-up windows that were sized for a window with no toolbars displayed.

For #3, here are the steps:

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(B) In the search box above the list, type or paste feat and pause while the list is filtered

(C) For every preference that starts with dom.disable_window_open_feature. if it is not "true", double-click it to switch it to true.

You may find that you prefer this anyway, since sites can no longer strip these features out of pop-up windows.