How can I quickly and easily delete persistent cookies? Is there something special about them?

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Level 1

4 points

How can I quickly and easily delete persistent cookies? Is there something special about them?

Yes, I realize you delete cookies by going to Preferences/Privacy/Details if you don't want to mass-delete all of them (which you usually don't want to do). But it seems cookies from some sites take 3, 4, sometimes 5 select/deletes to finally get rid of them.

Is there something unusual about some cookies that makes them so difficult to get rid of? Is there anything you can do about it, other than multiple deletions?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Mar 28, 2015 9:02 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

seventy one

Level 7

27,430 points

Mar 29, 2015 12:56 AM in response to CamdenMike

Yes, some cookies appear to be more persistent than others. Then again, there are different types of cookies, basic, flash, databases. Some require a different approach.

Take a look at this app. I have used it for some time.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cookie/id415585910?mt=12

PS. Is you profile up to date?

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Answer 2

CamdenMike Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 29, 2015 3:41 PM in response to seventy one

Thanks for that advice. Cookie found a bunch of cookies I didn't know were there. Not sure it plays too well with Yosemite 10.10.3, but it seems to do the job. I have it configed to keep the cookies I want and delete all the others, including ANY tracking cookies. Those things should be deemed illegal. Nobody should have the right to track where you go when you're not on their site. It's one of the reasons I use DuckDuckGo instead of Google. No wonder they dropped their motto "don't be evil."

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Answer 3

seventy one

Level 7

27,430 points

Mar 29, 2015 3:59 PM in response to CamdenMike

Glad to read you found Cookie helpful. Just to add, sometimes a cookie persists when an extension you have deleted is not fully deleted. I had one such occasion with an extension called checkout couponfollow. A vestige hung around for ages in the Cookie database list until I used Find any File, and discovered it. Deleted it ... now gone.

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Answer 4

Nov 2, 2015 2:26 PM in response to seventy one

I have the same problem. Very frustrating. I never had this before. It happens for most cookies ( cache and or local storage) doesn't matter. Sometimes up to 7 times to get them deleted. They return after a couple seconds.

What is going on??

If Apple would have given more control over this list. You could indicate for which websites you want the save the cookies and then delete the rest. And hit that button 7 times in my case.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

684,057 points

Nov 3, 2015 7:44 AM in response to Leo Derks

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.

Feedback

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Answer 6

Nov 3, 2015 10:03 AM in response to Eric Root

Even when I am not connected to the internet I have the same problem. I was reading in very old posts that this is probably caused by an error in updating the cookies list. Any ideas how to solve this without trowing all cookies away?

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