How to delete a specific website from your Firefox history

Web browsers store website history to speed up navigation and loading, and you can delete all history fairly easily, but you can also target location-specific history if you know the right steps.

Why delete history?

One of the most common reasons for deleting browsing history is using a public or otherwise shared computer. Clearing your history once you’ve completed both protects your privacy and prevents other users from potentially finding and logging into the websites you visit.

A browser’s saved history also eats up a device’s memory. A bit or two of saved or cached data doesn’t make a noticeable difference, but over time (especially if you visit a lot of websites) it adds up – sometimes to the point of significantly depleting your available hard drive space.

Deleting a website’s history

Clearing all saved data for a specific website in Firefox is a little more involved than clearing history normally, but not all that complicated. However, please note that deleting website history in this way will also delete all associated browser cookies, cached data and website settings.

In Firefox, click the three horizontal lines in the top right corner of the window. Then select “History” from the drop-down menu.

At the bottom of the menu, find and select “Manage History.” This will open a library pop-up window.

Click in the “Search History” text box in the top right corner of the pop-up window and enter the name of the website you want to delete.

Hold down the Ctrl key on a Mac or right-click on a PC, then click the name of the website you want to delete in the search results list.

Select “Forget this site” from the drop-down menu that appears.

In the pop-up confirmation window, click “Forget” to delete all history of that particular website.

Removing cookies and cached data

Browser cookies are intended to be a useful way for a website to remember your login details and preferences, so you don’t have to manually log in and configure things every time you visit a particular website. However, some cookies may also be used to track some of the websites you visit in order to provide targeted advertising or personalized ads.

Open Firefox and click the Firefox menu in the upper left corner of the screen on macOS, or click the three-line menu item in the upper right corner of Windows and then select Settings.

Select “Privacy and Security” from the menu column on the left side of the window, then scroll down to “Cookies and site data.”

Click the “Manage Data” button to open a cookie management pop-up window.

Browse the list to find the website for which you want to remove cookies, or enter the name of the website in the search bar at the top of the window. In the list you want to remove, click the site name or hold down Shift and click to select multiple entries.

Click Remove Selected to remove all selected sites from the list (repeat if necessary), then select Save Changes when you’re finished. Click Remove in the pop-up window to confirm.

Delete all saved websites

Of course, if precision isn’t required, you can also mass delete all Firefox browsing history and other stored data.

In Firefox on macOS, click the Firefox menu option in the top left corner of the screen and select Settings. If you’re using Windows, click the three-line button in the top right and select Settings. Then select “Privacy and Security” from the menu list on the left.

Scroll down to the “Cookies and site data” section and then click the “Clear data” button to open a new pop-up window.

Click the drop-down menu next to “When” and select a time frame: “Last Hour,” “Last Two Hours,” “Last Four Hours,” “Since 12:00 AM,” or “All.”

Select the checkboxes for each site data you want to delete – “History,” “Cookies and Site Data,” “Temporarily Cached Files and Pages,” and “Site Settings” — and then click the “Delete” button “.

When it comes to deleting saved browser data, it’s important to remember that it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. It can delete annoying trackers and free up storage you might not have known you were using, but it can also make navigating and logging into your favorite websites more irritating. Choosing specific websites for removal should alleviate the annoyance somewhat.