Cookie AutoDelete is a new extension for the Firefox web browser that has been inspired by the popular Self-Destructing Cookies add-on.

Cookie AutoDelete is a WebExtension, which means that it will work in Firefox 57 and newer versions of the web browser, while Self-Destructing Cookies won't.

Mozilla plans to disable support for legacy add-ons in Firefox 57, and the author of Self-Destructing Cookies confirmed already that the extension won't be rewritten as a WebExtension.

Cookie AutoDelete picks up the core functionality of Self-Destructing Cookies. Basically, what it does is delete all cookies automatically that sites and applications set in Firefox when you close tabs in the browser.

Cookie AutoDelete

The extension works right after installation. It adds an icon to the browser's main toolbar that indicates the number of cookies set by the site in the active tab.

These cookies will be deleted when the tab is closed. While that is desired usually, whitelisting allows you to prevent that from happening.

So, if you don't want to sign in to Facebook each time you visit the site, you could add Facebook to the whitelist to make things a little bit more comfortable.

As far as whitelists are concerned, you may add URLs in the options, with a click on the extension's icon in the main toolbar, or by selecting the upload file option in the preferences.

Whitelisted URLs can be exported, and it is this file that you may select to upload on the same computer or another one.

The icon that the extension adds offers additional functionality. A click on it opens options to clear all cookies of the selected domain right away, to run cookie cleanup on all cookies, or only on cookies that are not set by sites currently open.

The two remaining options allow you to enable Active Mode for a site, and to add it to the whitelist instead. Active Mode delays the removal of cookies for a set time period. This can be useful to prevent that cookies get deleted when you close a tab accidentally.

Cookie AutoDelete supports Container Tabs already. This feature enables Firefox users to load sites in different containers and isolate some data, cookies for instance.

The extension has some issues right now which the author of the extension listed on the add-on's page on the Mozilla website.

The most important ones are that it does not support the clearing of LocalStorage (yet), and that you may run into issues where cookies may not be deleted correctly.

If you start anew, the first thing that you may want to do is add sites to the whitelist so that these cookies won't get deleted whenever you close tabs. Active Mode may also be useful, and you may want to export the whitelist and import it to other Firefox profiles on the same computer or others.

Comparison to Self-Destructing Cookies

Self-Destructing Cookies is a matured add-on, and it supports features that Cookie AutoDelete does not support right now. While the main functionality is there in both add-ons, Self-Destructing Cookies supports the following features that Cookie AutoDelete does not in this version:

Clearing of browser cache when idle.

Include LocalStorage.

Enable Strict Cookie Access Policy.

Allow third party tracking (keep cookies used exclusively by iFrames).

Statistics.

Closing Words

Firefox users who use Self-Destructing Cookies currently may want to switch over to Cookie AutoDelete once Firefox leaves legacy add-ons behind. There is no import option yet to bring the Self-Destructing Cookies whitelist to Cookie AutoDelete though. Depending on your setup, you may spend some time adding sites to the whitelist again.

Now You: Do you use Self-Destructing Cookies or another add-on that deals with cookies automatically?

Summary Author Rating 3.5 based on 14 votes Software Name Cookie AutoDelete Software Category Browser Landing Page https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/

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