Safari still creating website history with Private browsing on

Since downloading Lion I have noticed that despite having Private Browsing on Safari regulalry records a history of web sites visited. It doesn't do it all the time but I now have no confidence in this faciltiy. Has anyone else had the same problem?

This issue appears to be effecting Safari 5.1 in general, as I see this behavior both under Mac OS X 10.6.8 and OS X Lion 10.7. Still hoping to find a resolution, but I may suggest using "Report bugs to Apple..." under the Safari menu to ensure they are aware of this issue in the meantime.

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Why when using private browsing does Safari still remember websites visited?

Even when private browsing is selected on my MacBook and iPad2, websites visited are remembered and displayed in history. Why is this?

Hi Graham,
Welcome to the Support Communities! Is it possible that you have some Safari windows open as private browsing, and others not? See the overview of private browsing below (see the note I've highlighted in bold):
Safari 8 (Yosemite): Use Private Browsing windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19216
Use Private Browsing windows in Safari
When you use Private Browsing windows, Safari doesn’t save your browsing history, and it asks websites you visit not to track you.
Use Private Browsing:
Choose File > New Private Window, or switch to a Safari window that’s already using Private Browsing. A window that’s using Private Browsing has a dark address and search field with white text.
When you use a Private Browsing window:
Each tab in the window is isolated from the others, so websites you view in one tab can’t track your browsing in other tabs.
Safari doesn’t remember the webpages you visit or your AutoFill information.
Safari doesn’t store your open webpages in iCloud, so they aren’t shown when you view all your open tabs from other devices.
Your recent searches aren’t included in the results list when you use the address and search field.
Items you download aren’t included in the downloads list. (The items do remain on your computer.
Safari doesn’t remember changes to your cookies or other website data. Safari also asks websites and others who provide those sites with content (including advertisers) not to keep track of your browsing, although it is up to the websites to honor this request.
Plug-ins that support Private Browsing stop storing cookies and other tracking information.
Websites can’t modify information stored on your device, so services normally available at such sites may work differently until you turn off Private Browsing.
Note: None of the above applies in other Safari windows you may have open that don’t use Private Browsing.
Stop using Private Browsing:
Close the Private Browsing window, switch to a different Safari window that isn’t using Private Browsing, or choose File > New Window to open a window that doesn’t use Private Browsing. To further enhance privacy:
Delete any items you downloaded while using Private Browsing windows.
Close any other Private Browsing windows that are still open, to prevent others from using the Back and Forward buttons to see pages you visited in them.
Besides using Private Browsing windows, you can manage cookies and data stored by all websites and have Safari ask all websites not to track you.
If you forget to use a Private Browsing window, you can clear your browsing history.
Last Modified: Jan 6, 2015
Cheers,
- Judy

Why do some pages (Facebook) in Safari 5.1 show up in History when Private Browsing is turned on in Lion??

Why do some pages (like Facebook) show up in my History when Private Browsing is turned on in Lion?

Agreed, going to Firefox is the step in the right privacy direction.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/09/25/2131205/facebook-cookies-track-users-even -after-logging-out
AdBlock Plus, BetterPrivacy, Ghostery, Click&Clean and yes even NoScript (drag a Temp allow all button to the toolbar)
To deny your computer from accessing Facebook
In Admin user
sudo pico /etc/hosts
Arrow down below the material you see there and don't change it
add
0.0.0.0 www.facebook.com
0.0.0.0 www.facebook.net
control x to exit and save.
another easier way (can use in Standard User this way) is to use the free TextWrangler and open file by name:
/etc/hosts
and perform the same thing.

History of Private Browsing

I suspect my 13 yr old son has been using the "private browsing" function to hide his browsing practices. For instance, yesterday I know he re-arranged our netflix queue and watched one of their movies on demand. However, when I view the history all I see is a visit to our church's website. Technical support tells me there is no way for me to view the history of "private browsing". Is that accurate?
If so, what type of 3rd party software do you recommend I install to monitor his internet usage even when in private browsing mode?
Thanks for your help!!

Hi,
Technical support tells me there is no way for me to view the history of "private browsing". Is that accurate?
Yes, that's accurate. It wouldn't be very private if you could see where someone has been
If you're using a router to connect to the internet, many of them offer logging facilities to record what sites have been accessed. Check the documentation that came with it to see if this is possible.
Also, you could change your DNS settings to use OpenDNS which can also record what domains are being requested:
http://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/solutions/parental/
Accounts with OpenDNS are free.

I have Firefox 10.0.2. and OSX 10.6.8. and the latest PDF adobe reader, and still can not open with the browser PDF files.Can someone help,pls?Thanx

Dear Ones,
I have Firefox 10.0.2. and OSX 10.6.8. and the latest PDF adobe reader, and still can not open with the browser PDF files.Can someone help,pls?Thanx

see if this is helpful : [http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Opening%20PDF%20files%20within%20Firefox Opening PDF files within Firefox]
thank you
Please mark "Solved" the answer that really solve the problem, to help others with a similar problem.

How to retieve history from private browsing in firefox?

If I want to see the history in private browsing,how can I retrieve the sites which one has seen in firefox private window.

I suspect that you have a misconception of what Private Browsing is all about. See this support article for an explanation of what Private Browsing does, and doesn't do. 
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-browse-web-without-saving-info

In Firefox 23, with private browsing enabled, why are the addresses of websites visited being added to the file places.sqlite?

In Firefox documentation it is claimed that while a user is in private browsing Cached Web Content, Offline Web Content or User Data will be saved. I am using Firefox beta 23. With 'do not track' and 'private browsing' enabled.
An examination of the file places.sqlite stored in my profile shows it is adding to the file the addresses of every website I visit. This information is not cleared when I close Firefox. When I have closed Firefox I have deleted the file but it reappears unchanged at each fresh machine start.
As I regularly update my versions of Firefox and the file is one carried over with each update the entries in places.sqlite also record my browsing history over a long period - all of it is there whether I had private browsing enabled or not.
How is this true private browsing when this file keeps a complete record of browsing history?

Further to: In order to delete the now very large ''places.sqlite'' I exported my Bookmarks to a html file. Then from my profile I deleted the 9 ''bookmark.json'' files in the folder''' bookmarkbackups'''.
With Firefox shutdown I then deleted ''places.sqlite''. Then with Firefox open I imported the html bookmark file.
The new ''places.sqlite'' generated now only contains the links kept in Bookmarks. I do not yet know if this has solved the problem. I will use the Firefox browser for a couple of days without adding any bookmarks and then check the ''places.sqlite'' file again.

Found a bug, Safari log out sites with Private Browsing

When I click Private Browsing, every site I visit with Safari is logged out. When I turn off Private Browsing, I'm automatically logged in. This was not the behavior in Snow Leopard or earlier (I don't believe).
This was driving me crazy...it's a real PITA to log in to every site (including the ones where you're not autosaving the password, such as financial sites, etc.)
I reported it to apple.com/feedback but thougth I'd share it with the community in case anyone else noticed it.

#2 makes sense and that fits with what Private Browsing should be all about
#1 doesn't make sense, since, as soon as you exit Private Browsing a user that has access to the machine, has access to all sites. Accordingly, it's not very private nor secure. In fact the big PRIVATE that appears on the address bar invites curiousity and folks will click it, and be offered the option to end Private Browsing (and thus, full access).
In any event, pre Lion, I believe, this wasn't the case...although now I'm not sure, as I only used Private Browsing a few times.

Safari & Yahoo Access Problems with Private Browsing

Hi Folks
Just moved to an iMac - put on the Safari -Private Browsing to access my e-mail account on Yahoo - No joy it doesn't let me in - when I take off Private Browsing - no problem - I can get in ok - When I use this on my old emac - no problems!
Any answers folk ? would welcome advice
Thanks

You need to have cookies turned on. In Private Browsing they are turned off.

Safari autofills login field while in Private Browsing mode (and it shouldn't)

I've come across a strange behaviour when using Safari in "Private Browsing" mode (under Lion).
Recently, I'd visited a website which required logging in. Then I logged out, and after some time, tried to log in again. Somehow, my login name (which is an email address) was already in the respective field. "OK, that's strange, and it shouldn't happen," I thought and cleared Safari's Cache and Website Data. Interestingly, this wouldn't work either, and my login info was still accessible to Safari. I then went to Users/.../Library and trashed everything related to Safari that I could find. But to no avail. Now, at this moment I was surprised and a bit frustrated! Then I tried to access the same website using a second Mac. Login field remained unfilled in Safari there. Apparently, this issue is system-specific.
Obviously, login data had been stored somewhere as a cookie or in a plist file or whatever. Question is, why on Earth does this happen in PRIVATE BROWSING mode, and where exactly this data is being stored? Anyone?
Thanks!

History is a permanent record of where you have been. This is not kept when you are using Private browsing. The Back button contains the last sequence of links that you clicked which is not the same as history. The back button site chain will be kept for convenience (else how could you back up in a browsing session?). When you turn off private browsing the back button chain will be discarded. There will be no history and no back button chain.

Safari, how to turn on/off private browsing in ios7

how to turn on/off private browsing in Safari on Ipad with Ios7

Left of Safari screen.
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/8eb4f554e7099a905efc53fef5bab 277_zpsa317fe00.jpg
(See bottom left)
http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/e3611d61d700edbc01253ded54f71 f84_zps3894e0e1.jpg

Is there some sort of bug where app tabs don't work with private browsing? My pinned tabs don't show when I start Firefox in private mode.

I recently updated to Firefox 5.0, and I was pretty impressed with the app tabs. I usually use Firefox in private browsing mode, but recently I changed that to make use of the history function. However, I decided to change it back to permanent private browsing, and apparently my pinned tabs all just disappeared. Is there anyway I can change this?

App (pinned) tabs and Tab Groups (Panorama) are stored as part of the session data in the file sessionstore.js in the Firefox profile folder. 
If you use Private Browsing mode then no session data is stored to disk.

Cannot clear recent history in Private Browsing Mode

Hello,
so why is this option disabled in the private browsing mode? It can be useful to clear cookies without restarting Firefox!
This is a pity :-(

OK, I will try your suggestions -- thank you. Although I did note today when I went out of private browsing mode and into normal mode, the recent cookies from PB mode were not visible like they were a couple of days ago.
But I am still confused about this because there are cookies definitely being placed and kept on my computer when I am in private browsing mode, but I can't see them or access them, so how do I get rid of them?
This was previously mentioned as a known bug that was supposed to be fixed, but it doesn't appear that it's been worked on yet. Here is the post from which I pulled the bug report link::
[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/957436?esab=a&as=aaq#question-reply link text]
I want to be sure I can see what cookies I have, and also be able to delete them. Currently there is no way to do that while in PB mode. And also, it now appears that even after switching to normal mode, I can't see the cookies that were placed while in PB mode, so how can we know and remove those cookies that are being placed while in PB mode?
Thanks!

Why did my saved passwords disappear, and now even with private browsing off I cannot get Firefox to save the passwords over again. Care to help on this????

The most recent version of Firefox just loaded onto my computer and all of my previously saved passwords are gone. To top it off I went in to the Privacy settings and turned off private browsing in order to start saving my passwords again, and it will not save, it doesn't even give me the pop up to ask if I want to save it. Care to help here? I'm way beyond angry right now, some of those passwords were rather unique and I will have a hard time recalling them exactly so not looking forward to having to reset them...

You can force Firefox to reimport the passwords from the signons.sqlite file.
* reset the signon.importedFromSqlite pref on the about:config page to the default value via the right-click context menu
* delete the logins.json file in the Firefox profile folder with Firefox closed
When you restart Firefox then you should have the signon.importedFromSqlite pref with the value set to true and you should have the passwords imported in the Password Manager unless there may have been errors.
You can use this button to go to the currently used Firefox profile folder:
*Help > Troubleshooting Information > Profile Directory: Show Folder (Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder)
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar.
You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
*http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

Clear history and private browsing is stuck in gray

stop private browsing and clear history are stuck in gray and not responding when I click on them

You have turned on Permanent Private Browsing mode which makes those options grey so you don't accidentally turn it off.
Fortunately, there is a easy way to turn it off.
Click the Firefox button > Options > Options > Privacy tab then uncheck '''Permanent Private Browsing''' and click OK.
Or, if you don't have the orange Firefox button: 
Tools > Options > Privacy tab then uncheck '''Permanent Private Browsing''' and click OK.

Safari still creating website history with Private browsing on

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