Now that Never Remember History and Remember History have both been turned off (setting Edit > Preferences > Privacy > Firefox Will to either menu item followed by required restart causes autoselection of the only other menu item, Use Custom Settings For History), I checked what's happening with cookies. Although I opted for private browsing mode and to accept cookies with no exceptions including accepting from third parties and to keep until I close FF, although keeping until I close FF is dimmed, whenever I check for current cookies it has usually shown that there were none, even though I visited, among other websites, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and YouTube, which foursome previously (before FF version 41) produced dozens of cookies. Since I accept cookies for a session (and those that are persistent, although they're to be deleted when I quit FF), I should have some cookies, but FF says I have none. If I leave tabs open, quit FF, and restart FF, no tabs open up and I don't see cookies. I'm concerned that FF is refusing cookies or deleting them immediately upon arrival and that I'll have trouble with some websites if cookies are not lasting for a session. But cookies.sqlite is over 500kB and when I opened it in LibreOffice Writer it was composed mostly of pound signs. I tested tonight for cookies and got this: * cookies.sqlite not modified since before I booted * logged into and out of Wikipedia * at next login screen, Wikipedia remembered my username (I don't have it set to remember my password) * cookies found: 3 session cookies from .gwallet.com (subdomain unknown), source website unknown (I don't have Google wallet service, if that exists, and to my knowledge I didn't visit gwallet.com), subsequent visit to gwallet.com (not subdomain) auto-redirected to http://radiumone.com/products/publisher/engage/ * login to wikipedia.org successful * cookies found: still only <gwallet.com>, viz., not wikipedia.org * cookies.sqlite still not modified since before I booted * logouts from commons.wikimedia.org and wikipedia.org successful * cookies.sqlite still not modified since before I booted * logged into bugzilla.mozilla.org * cookies found: still only <gwallet.com>, viz., not mozilla.org * cookies.sqlite still not modified since before I booted * cookies.sqlite-shm unmodified in hours, long before any login * cookies.sqlite-wal unmodified in hours, long before any login I'm getting the impression that some cookies are not being reported, but are present somewhere. Help (Edit > Preferences > Privacy > "?" icon > https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/settings-privacy-browsing-history-do-not-track?redirectlocale=en-US&as=u&redirectslug=Options+window+-+Privacy+panel&utm_source=inproduct) did not reflect these new changes in FF.

(In reply to Nick Levinson from comment #0) > Now that Never Remember History and Remember History have both been turned > off (setting Edit > Preferences > Privacy > Firefox Will to either menu item > followed by required restart causes autoselection of the only other menu > item, Use Custom Settings For History) I don't see the problem you're reporting. I checked in Firefox 42 on Windows 7 and checking "Never remember history" and restarting Firefox works for me. I also checked the information in the https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/settings-privacy-browsing-history-do-not-track article (linked from the Firefox Options Window Privacy panel)and I don't see any content that needs to be changed. Related discussion: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history/discuss/6383 Can I set Firefox to always use Private Browsing? - new section Your best bet might be to ask a question in the support forum. You can use this link: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new

This is an evolving issue since changes have apparently been made and seem to continue being made to Remember History and Never Remember History. Apparently, Never Remember History is only prospective, not retrospective (see bug 1208693 and bug 1228686). Thus, going from Remember History to Never Remember History and back to Remember History restores tabs from the first Remember History time frame. With those tabs come a new round of cookies. That's possible only because history is being remembered when Never Remember History was in effect. If Never Remember History is not going to erase existing history but instead is supposed to preserve it, the user documentation needs to say so. There is also the oddity of hiding cookies from users (see bug 1224860) even when a user authorizes the in-session or persistent preservation of cookies and the visiting of websites that require acceptance of cookies, implying the presence of cookies, even though Show Cookies does not show any. The article you linked to above (<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/settings-privacy-browsing-history-do-not-track>, as accessed Dec. 17, 2015), says for Never Remember History, "Firefox will keep no record of your browsing history." But FF keeps a record of the history predating Never Remember History, therefore it does not keep "no" record. If cookies per se are not being kept but the keeping of tabs means the recreation of cookies, creating an appearance of FF keeping cookies contrary to FF's promise and users' expectations even though they're being not kept but recreated, users need to be told that. It may also be necessary to select the same (Never) Remember History setting twice consecutively (see bug 1228686). If that is to remain as FF's behavior, although that's probably not a good idea, it should be documented for users. I just tried an experiment in FF 42.0. I have Use Custom Settings For History and Always Use Private Browsing Mode turned on. I turned off Always Use Private Browsing Mode, that forced FF to restart with my ok, and promptly a tab auto-opened for amazon.com even though I had not visited that site since booting up. I selected Clear History When Firefox Closes. When I restored Always Use Private Browsing Mode, Clear History When Firefox Closes uncheckmarked itself. Apparently, private browsing requires keeping history, and, if that's intentional in the FF design, that should be documented for users.

This is not the proper place to receive support with your issue or discuss changes about the knowledge base/ help articles. I will have to ask you to take your concerns support.mozilla.org as Alice has mentioned in comment 1. If you have a question about the knowledge base, please contact Joni here: https://support.mozilla.org/user/jsavage Please do not play around with bug status/ resolutions as determined and marked by others. Thank you for your understanding.

There was not a hint of "play" and I was not seeking support. I appreciate the news about Joni but that wasn't available before. I thought I had clarified what Alice wasn't seeing in that history is preserved during Never Remember History and acknowledged that FF is apparently being developed in the area, but if apparent differences between docs and options are not supposed to be reported here then the process for filing a bug report should direct us accordingly and you may wish to advise Mozilla suitably. I don't handle that for Mozilla. I'll leave the status as is. Thank you.

By posting to the support forum, a volunteer would've escalated your concerns to garner the assistance or fix required. Thank you for your time, and bringing this up. It's appreciated.