Tip: Restore Old Classic Clear History Dialog Box in Firefox

In newer versions of Mozilla Firefox web browser, the clear history dialog box has been redesigned. This article will help you in restoring the old classic clear browsing data and cookies dialog box in Firefox.

The clear history dialog box helps users in deleting their recent or complete browsing history (such as cache, cookies, site and download history, etc) from the web browser. Users can access the clear history feature by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Delete keys together in any web browser. Firefox users can also open the same dialog box using main Firefox Menu -> History -> Clear recent history option.

The clear history option is also available on Firefox Settings -> Privacy and Security (about:preferences#privacy) page. Scroll down on the Settings page and you’ll see “Clear History” button available under History section.

Related: [Tip] How to Clear Cache and Cookies in Your Web Browser

Following image shows a comparison of the new and old clear history dialog box available in Mozilla Firefox web browser:

Mozilla team has changed the UI of the built-in clear history dialog box in Firefox 128.0 and later versions. The official changelog page contains information about the new dialog box as following:

Following screenshot shows the new clear history dialog box present in newer versions of Firefox web browser:

As you can see in the above screenshot, the dialog box title is displayed as “Clear browsing data and cookies” and following 4 options are available to select:

• History
• Cookies and site data
• Temporary cached files and pages
• Site settings

In older versions of Firefox web browser, the classic clear history dialog box looks as shown in following screenshot:

The dialog box title is displayed as “Clear Recent History” and following 7 options are available to select:

• Browsing and download history
• Cookies
• Active logins
• Cache
• Form and search history
• Site settings
• Offline website data

PS: The new clear history dialog box has been developed to look simple and easy to use. On the other hand, the old dialog box was more advanced and provided lots of options to select. The new clear history dialog box also displays the data size.

If you regularly use the clear history feature and don’t like the new dialog box, here is a good news for you. Mozilla team has provided a hidden secret preference/flag to disable the new clear history dialog box and enable old classic dialog box again in Firefox web browser.

You can modify the secret preference to restore and bring back the old clear history dialog box in newer versions of Firefox web browser.

Interested Firefox users can follow the steps give below to get rid of the new dialog box and enable old clear history dialog box in their web browser:

STEP 1: Open Mozilla Firefox and type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

STEP 2: Now type useold in Search filter box and look for following preference in the window:

STEP 3: To deactivate and disable the new clear history dialog box and restore old dialog box in Firefox, set the above mentioned preference to True.

To change the preference value, double-click on the preference and it’ll toggle the preference value.

That’s it. It’ll immediately restore the old classic clear history dialog box in your Firefox browser.

PS: In future, if you decide to enable the new revamped clear history dialog box again, set the above mentioned preference to false.

Also Check:

Enable or Disable Tab Hover Preview Cards in Mozilla Firefox

Disable All Kind of Suggestions in Mozilla Firefox Address Bar