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Vasileios Plavos edited this page Jul 23, 2026 · 3 revisions

Cookie AutoDelete V3 — Documentation

Cookie AutoDelete V3 is a Manifest V3 fork of Cookie AutoDelete. It automatically deletes cookies (and, optionally, other site data) once they're no longer used by open tabs, so sites you didn't explicitly choose to keep don't stay logged in or tracked between visits. Sites you want to keep are added to a KeepList/WhiteList or a RestartList/GreyList so their cookies survive cleanup.

The extension ships from a single codebase to both Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi) and Firefox; the two builds differ only in a small manifest patch. Supported browser versions are Chrome/Edge 109+ and Firefox 115+.

Settings

The Settings tab groups the options below into four sections. Export, Import, and Reset buttons at the top of the tab let you save your settings to a JSON file, load them back in, or restore every setting to its default.

Automatic Cleaning Options

Enable Automatic Cleaning

Default: Enabled. The master switch for automatic cleanup. While on, Cookie AutoDelete removes cookies (and any enabled site data types) for domains that are not in your whitelist or greylist as tabs close or domains change, subject to the other settings in this section. Turning it off stops automatic cleanup entirely; you can still clean manually from the popup.

Delay Before Automatic Cleaning

Default: 15 seconds. How long Cookie AutoDelete waits after a tab closes (or a domain change is detected) before running a cleanup, giving you a chance to reopen the tab without losing its cookies.

Enable Cleanup for Discarded/Unloaded Tabs

Default: Disabled. When enabled, tabs that the browser has discarded (unloaded from memory to save resources, but still shown in the tab strip) are treated the same as closed tabs for cleanup purposes.

Enable Cleanup on Domain Change

Default: Disabled. When enabled, cleanup also runs when a tab navigates from one domain to another, not only when a tab is closed.

Enable GreyList Cleanup on Browser Restart

Default: Enabled. Controls whether domains on the RestartList/GreyList are cleaned when the browser starts up. The greylist is meant to hold cookies only until the next restart; this setting is what enforces that on startup.

Clean Cookies from Open Tabs on Startup

Default: Disabled. When enabled, on browser startup Cookie AutoDelete also cleans cookies and other site data for domains that are currently open in tabs (not just closed ones), as long as they aren't protected by the whitelist or greylist.

Clean All Expired Cookies

Default: Disabled. When enabled, Cookie AutoDelete additionally removes cookies that have already passed their expiration date but that the browser hasn't yet purged on its own.

Expression Options

Default Expression Options

Default: —. These are the default values applied to a new entry when you add a domain or expression to the whitelist or greylist (for example, from the popup or the right-click menu): which site data types are cleaned alongside cookies, and whether only first-party cookies are kept. See the Expression List section below for how individual expressions can override these defaults.

Other Browsing Data Cleanup Options

Other Browsing Data Cleanup Options extend automatic cleanup beyond cookies to the non-cookie site data types below. These cleanups go through the browser's browsingData API, which is host-scoped only — it is not aware of storage partitioning, so clearing a host's data clears it for that host across all of its partitions. This is not available on Firefox for Android. To catch first-party sites that leave no cookie behind, Cookie AutoDelete maintains an internal registry of visited hostnames whenever any of the types below is enabled, and sweeps it on every cleanup run so those sites are still cleaned even without a cookie to key off of.

Clean Existing Data for Newly Enabled Browsing Data Types

Default: Enabled. When you turn on one of the site data types below for the first time, this setting also cleans any data of that type left over from before it was enabled, instead of only clearing data going forward.

Cache

Default: Disabled. Includes the browser's cache in automatic cleanup.

File System

Default: Disabled. Includes File System API data in automatic cleanup. Chromium only — Firefox does not expose this browsingData type.

IndexedDB

Default: Disabled. Includes IndexedDB databases in automatic cleanup.

LocalStorage

Default: Disabled. Includes localStorage in automatic cleanup.

Plugin Data

Default: Disabled. Includes plugin (e.g. Flash) data in automatic cleanup. This browsing data type is deprecated and has no effect on Chromium-based browsers; it is kept for compatibility.

Service Workers

Default: Disabled. Includes registered service workers in automatic cleanup.

Extension Options

Enable Support for Firefox's Container Tabs

Default: Disabled. Firefox only. Turns on per-container handling so that whitelist/greylist expressions and cleanup are scoped to Firefox's Contextual Identities (container tabs) individually, rather than treating all containers the same.

Enable Automatic Removal of Expression List when its Container is Removed

Default: Enabled. Firefox only. When a container is deleted in Firefox, this also deletes the expression list that belonged to that container instead of leaving it behind.

Enable Cleanup Log and Counter

Default: Enabled. Enables the Activity Log tab and the cookie-deletion counters. When disabled, cleanup still happens but nothing is recorded.

Show Number of Cookies for that Domain

Default: Enabled. Shows the number of cookies for the active tab's domain as a badge on the toolbar icon.

Keep Default Icon on all list types

Default: Disabled. When disabled, the icon color reflects whether the current domain is on the whitelist, the greylist, or neither. When enabled, the icon stays the default color regardless of list membership.

Show Notification After Automatic Cleanup

Default: Enabled. Shows a browser notification summarizing what was cleaned after an automatic cleanup runs.

Show Notification from Manual Site Data Cleanups

Default: Enabled. Shows a browser notification when you manually trigger a site data cleanup (for example, from the popup or context menu).

Duration for Notifications

Default: 3 seconds. How long cleanup notifications stay on screen before automatically dismissing.

Size of Popup

Default: 16 px. Sets the font size used in the popup window.

Size of Setting

Default: 16 px. Sets the font size used on the Settings pages.

Enable Context Menus

Default: Enabled. Adds Cookie AutoDelete entries to the browser's right-click menu for quickly adding a domain/expression or manually cleaning, without opening the popup.

Debug Mode

Default: Disabled. Enables additional console logging, useful when reporting or diagnosing an issue.

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