How to Clear the Cache and History in Firefox on Windows

What Firefox keeps on disk: cache, history, cookies

Firefox's cache lives in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\cache2 — the folder name is a random string ending in .default-release for a standard install. Everything the browser reuses to render pages faster lands there: images, scripts, compressed copies of pages. History is stored separately in places.sqlite inside the profile folder, cookies in cookies.sqlite; the three have nothing in common except an address, which is why the clearing dialog lists them as independent items.

Cache bloat is the disk-space problem — a few gigabytes after a year of heavy use is normal. History is not a space problem at all; it is a privacy one, since it is a readable log of every address you typed or opened. Cookies decide whether sites remember you. Firefox lets you delete any mix of these without touching the rest.

• "Browsing & download history" — every address visited and every file downloaded; the log lives in places.sqlite
• "Form & search history" — what you typed into search boxes and web forms
• "Cookies" — site logins and preferences; clearing them signs you out of most sites
• "Cache" — the reusable page files in cache2; the item that frees the most disk space
• "Active logins" — logins in HTTP-auth dialogs, the ones where the browser itself pops up a username/password box
• "Site preferences" — per-site permissions you granted: camera, microphone, zoom level

Clearing cache and history, step by step

Open Firefox and press Ctrl+Shift+Del — or go to the menu button → Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the History section and click "Clear History…"; the address about:preferences#privacy lands on the same page. In the window that appears, set "Time range to clear" to "Everything", click the arrow next to Details to expand the item list, then tick "Cache" and "Browsing & download history" as needed. Click OK and Firefox wipes exactly the ticked items — nothing else.

The division of labor matters here: clearing Cache alone does not sign you out of anywhere and loses nothing but disk space; clearing Cookies is what produces the sign-out wave. Passwords are simply not members of this dialog — they are managed in Firefox's own password manager (about:logins), and clearing history never touches them. If you only want cookies and cache gone, the Privacy & Security page also has "Cookies and Site Data" → "Clear Data…" as a narrower alternative.

Automatic behavior: what Firefox can do on its own

Firefox has more built-in control over history than Chromium browsers. In Settings → Privacy & Security → History, the "Firefox will" dropdown offers "Remember history", "Never remember history" (a permanent private mode) and "Use custom settings", where you can make Firefox clear items on exit or keep cookies only until you close the browser. The toggle "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed" sits a bit higher, in the Cookies and Site Data section, and does exactly what its name says.

As for cadence, a cache clearing every few months is plenty unless the disk is chronically full or a specific site starts rendering badly — stale cache files are the classic suspect there, and clearing just the cache fixes it without a logout. Heavy privacy users can go further with the custom settings; everyone else can leave history mode on default and clean on demand.

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