I can't delete my history. The "clear recent history" tab in tools is inactive.

That probably means that you are in [[Private Browsing]] mode.
In Private Browsing mode some menu items are disabled (grayed) and some features like visited links and others are disabled and not working.
You are in Private Browsing mode if you see "Tools > Stop Private Browsing"
See [[Private Browsing]] and http://kb.mozillazine.org/Issues_related_to_Private_Browsing
You enter Private Browsing mode if you select: Tools > Options > Privacy > History: Firefox will: "Never Remember History"
To see all History settings, choose: Tools > Options > Privacy, choose the setting '''Firefox will: Use custom settings for history'''
Uncheck: [[ ] "Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session"

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Found 0 results for While browsing eBay, when I watch or bid on an item, and later view it again, many inches of white space appears before item appears. If I delete the clear recent history box, the pages will come up as they should for several times, th

While browsing eBay, when I watch or bid on an item, and later view it again, many inches of white space appears before item appears. If I delete the clear recent history box, the pages will come up as they should for several times, then go back to a lot of extra white space. How can I prevent this? Thank you, Rick in English
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== About a month ago

As stated in 1.:
1. This procedure is a diagnostic test. It changes nothing, for better or worse, and therefore will not, in itself, solve the problem.
Obviously, it will not harm your computer provided you follow the instructions. However, if you don't post your results in the thread where you were given those instructions, then the person helping you cannot help you further. As he asks at the end, "please post the test results on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created."

Under Tools the Clear Recent History line is in shaded type and can't be accessed

In the dropdown menu under Tools the Clear Recent History option is in lighter type and cannot be accessed. Please advise.
== This happened ==
Every time Firefox opened
== I just tried to clear history

Check that you do not start Firefox in Private Browsing mode (Tools > Stop Private Browsing is grayed)
From the menu bar: Tools > Options > Privacy, choose the setting Firefox will: Use custom settings for history
Uncheck: [ ] "Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session"
You enter Private Browsing mode if you select: Tools > Options > Privacy > History: Firefox will: "Never Remember History"
You can't clear your recent history in [[Private Browsing]] mode, because there isn't any new history being kept.

The "Clear Recent History" option is not available in my version of FF (7.0.1). How can I restore that?

The Firefox Help section describes how to clear history, cache, etc. by using the "Clear Recent History" option, but my version of Firefox (7.0.1) does not have that available.
Is there a way to restore this option to my version?

You will need to contact your company's IT department. If they have disabled that function, they have done so for security reasons and only they can undo the change.
'''If this reply solves your problem, please click "Solved It" next to this reply when signed-in to the forum.'''

Why is the "Clear Recent History" under my "History" menu inactive (grayed out, not black)?

When I click on the "History" icon, I get a new window with "History" at the top. Under it are three sub-options: "view History Sidebar", "Clear Recent History" (which is the one that I want to access), and "Restore Previous Session". Only the first one is black/active/"hot"; the other two are gray and do nothing when either clicked or the designated keyboard alternative is used. what must I do to be able to clear my history.

Did you make sure that Firefox isn't already running in private browsing mode?
Start Firefox in [[Safe Mode|Safe Mode]] to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem.
*Switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance
*Do NOT click the Reset button on the Safe Mode start window
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Safe+Mode
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Troubleshooting+extensions+and+themes
You can also check the target line in the Firefox desktop shortcut.
You can use an extension to get Private Browsing mode support per tab to see if that shows that you are in a Private Browsing mode tab.
*Private Tab: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/private-tab/
*Private Browsing mode tabs get a dashed underline
*You can toggle Private Browsing mode on/off on each tab via the right-click context menu of the tab
Do a clean reinstall and delete the Firefox program folder before (re)installing a fresh copy of the current Firefox release.
*Download the full Firefox installer and save the file to the desktop https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/
If possible uninstall your current Firefox version to cleanup the Windows registry and settings in security software.
*Do NOT remove "personal data" when you uninstall your current Firefox version, because this will remove all profile folders and you lose personal data like bookmarks and passwords including data in profiles created by other Firefox versions.
Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.
*(32 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\"
*(64 bit Windows) "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\"
*It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Uninstalling_Firefox
Your bookmarks and other personal data are stored in the Firefox profile folder and won't be affected by an uninstall and (re)install, but make sure NOT to remove personal data when you uninstall Firefox as that will remove all Firefox profile folders and you lose your personal data.
If you keep having problems then also create a new profile.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Firefox#Clean_reinstall

How do I disable the "Clear Recent History" function in the tools drop menu?

I've figured out how to disable the "Start Private Browsing" function, and would also like to delete the "Clear Recent History" and "Forget this site" options. I have teenaged children and would just like the options gone.

Disabling it in Firefox itself wouldn't help, since the users would still be able to find the files in profile folder and delete them manually. If you want to disable that, you might log in as Administrator on your system and modify the permissions to the history file, but it would end up in Firefox (running at the user account) being unable to add data to the file as well.

The Clear recent History Tool, locks up and (not responding) appears. A second attempt then works fine ??

<blockquote>Locking duplicate thread. 
Please continue here: [/questions/827453]</blockquote> 
the Clear recent History Tool, locks up and (not responding) appears. A second attempt then works fine ??

You're welcome
Clearing Cookies can cause problems because Firefox also asks plugins to clear their cookies.

I am unable to delete Form & Search History (it's greyed out as an option to be deleted under the clear recent hisotry tab) help!

my son has used my computer to visit porn websites and I want to delete the Form and Search history so the drop down with these sites is eliminated. The instructions said to go to History > clear recent history and then chose Form and Search history, but it won't allow me to choose this (it's greyed out). How do I do this?

I found this link for a similar problem someone had with a Lotus Notes account. I used it to resolve my issue with a different email account (basically followed the same steps, and then looked for the particular account I needed to delete)... hope it helps!
http://aumja24-usa.blogspot.com/2010/10/iphone-removing-lotus-notes-traveler.htm l

Why oh why did developers think it's okay to automatically check AND gray out "form history" in clear recent history??

For years I have been using clear recent history to quickly clear cookies and cache only. I had already unchecked the things I did NOT want cleared in options. But the new update automatically re-checked everything to be cleared! I did not realize this until too late, now ALL of my autocompletes are GONE! Updates should improve the function of the browser NOT change personal settings! Plus they changed options so the place to uncheck what is to be cleared is hidden and painstakingly time-consuming to find. Please do not pull this kind of "improvement" in the future, leave personal setting alone!!!!! you just ruined my night.

kaeandcolesmon,
If you open the recovery drive (partition) it should only have a single folder (Recovery).
To make sure that your not saving restore points to that drive.
See:
Start, Control Panel, System, System Protection tab. Make sure the D drive partition is set to OFF so that it does not save there.
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To say THANK YOU, press the "thumbs up symbol" to render a KUDO. Please click Accept as Solution, if your problem is solved. You can render both Solution and KUDO.
The Law of Effect states that positive reinforcement increases the probability of a behavior being repeated. (B.F.Skinner). You toss me KUDO and/or Solution, and I perform better.
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I cannot delete my browsing history. "Clear Recent History" does not highlight on any of my tabs. I've followed the insturctions, but nothing works. Help?

There are no other details.

CTRL+H should give you your history unless you enabled "Clear Browsing History" in Options | Options | Privacy.
Have a look at this add-on too: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/undo-closed-tabs-button/

The "Clear Recent History" setting under "Tools" suddenly stopped working about two weeks ago and is still not working with version 8.0. I am running Mac OX 10.6.8 on a desktop

Until a couple of weeks ago I could clear my history under the "Tools" setting.
Now the only way I am able to clear history is to open the history, select all, and then delete---all manually.

Dear cor-el:
I did restart in Safe Mode; however, I DID make change in the Safe Mode restart window, resetting to defaults.
Not only did this not help, but now it is worse, as my history won't show up when I click "Show All History" so I am unable to clear history even manually.
Did I misunderstand your suggestion? I've been using Firefox with various versions of OX 10 for years w/o such a problem, and now have so many bookmarks on Firefox that I hate to abandon the browser.
However, I do not wish to have a permanent, unclearable history.
Below is a screenshot of how the Safe Mode page appeared.

Why does Firefox sometimes still tell me that I have cache to clear in the Advanced tab of the Options menu after I completely clear it using Clear Recent History?

I always have the time range in the Clear Recent History window set to "Everything", too.

While I didn't know about the about:cache page, it doesn't help me understand why Firefox is doing this, and how to fix it. Also, as I said in my question, I already knew about the cache information in the Advanced tab of the Options menu. I was trying to imply that I sometimes have to clear it using both the Clear Recent History feature and in the Advanced tab of the Options menu, because using Clear Recent History doesn't delete it all.

When I clear recent history,yahoo login information is not cleared.

When I'm hit the clear recent history tab and I clear everything,the next time I log on to yahoo my wife's information shows up.This is happening on all websites-i.e ebay,msn,etc.how do I fix this?

See:
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Deleting_autocomplete_entries
*Click the (empty) input field on the web page to open the drop down list
*Highlight an entry in the drop down list
*Press the Delete key (on Mac: Shift+Delete) to remove it.
Firefox will remember new form data when entered.

Clear recent history tool is not working

the clear recent history button does not work when clicked on

Try switching to another persona. In order to switch to another persona that you had previously installed, do the following:
#Go to ''Tools'' and click ''Add-ons'' (or click the Firefox button at the top left and click ''Add-ons'').
#Switch to the ''Appearance'' tab. You should find your previously used personas in the list.
#Find the one you want to use and click the ''Enable'' button.
To uninstall the other ones you can click the ''Remove'' button on them and they'll be uninstalled instantly.

Clear Recent History Slow

What's happened to the speed of the "Clear recent history" feature? It's slow as molasses on FF4. A couple of times I thought it had locked up my computer because it took well over 30 seconds to gain control of my computer back. This was never an issue in past versions of FF.
This release seems a little buggy IMHO. I've had some rendering issues with websites and various other details that never happened in 3.xx

Unfortunately it can not be recommended that you go back to firefox 6, some of the fixes were security fixes, and firefox 6 is no longer considered secure or supported. ( Firefox 3.6.23 was updated and is still temporarily supported, but I doubt many would consider downgrading that far)
* see [[installing a previous version of firefox]]
Check that all your extensions are up to date. Possibly it is due to a change in the version or combinations of themes plugins and add-ons that you use. You clearly have out of date plugins showing.
*try http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ & See also
**[[troubleshooting extensions and themes ]]
** [[basic troubleshooting]]

I can't delete my history. The "clear recent history" tab in tools is inactive.

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