FAQ

FAQ

I whitelisted *.google.com but I still got logged out of YouTube / Gmail / Drive / etc.

Two possibilities:

1. You restarted the browser before adding *.google.com. The startup full sweep ran first and cleared the auth cookies. Add the entry, then everything will persist on subsequent restarts.
2. A regional Google TLD got cleaned. *.google.com does not cover google.com.ph, google.co.uk, etc. Add the regional ccTLDs separately if you use them. See Whitelist → Country-code TLDs.

For non-Google sites you visit through Google sign-in (e.g. third-party SaaS), the sign-in flow redirects to accounts.google.com, which is covered by *.google.com. You don't need to whitelist the third-party site to get auto-signed-in there — closing its tab will still wipe the third-party's local state, but the next visit re-authenticates seamlessly.

A site keeps logging me out even after I whitelist it.

Check whether it puts auth on a different host than the one you visit. For example:

• notion.so redirects auth through *.notion.com (a different registered domain).
• Many SaaS apps put auth tokens on auth.<service>.com while you visit app.<service>.com.

Open the site, watch the Whitelist Options in the popup, and whitelist whatever wildcard option covers the auth host. If unsure, whitelist both the apex domain you visit and a *.<auth-host>.com for the auth host you see during sign-in.

Why is the auto-cleanup delay capped at 30 seconds?

MV3 service workers shut down when idle. setTimeout keeps the worker alive only as long as the timer is pending, and Chrome can still kill the worker under memory pressure. Capping at 30 seconds keeps cleanups reliable.

Does the extension work in Incognito?

Not by default. Chrome requires you to explicitly allow extensions in Incognito on a per-extension basis. Open chrome://extensions/, find Wipeout Auto, click Details, and enable Allow in Incognito. Note that Incognito sessions are already cleared when the last Incognito window closes — so the extension is mostly redundant there.

Will it work in Firefox?

Not currently. The extension is built for Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi, Opera). Firefox uses a different MV3 implementation and has different APIs for browsingData. A Firefox port is plausible but not on the roadmap yet.

Why does the activity log show a domain I never visited?

Cookies travel. A site you visited may have set cookies for an embedded third-party (CDN, analytics, fonts). The startup sweep iterates every domain you have a cookie on, not just sites you intentionally visited.

How do I back up my whitelist?

Open settings → Whitelist → Export. Save the JSON file somewhere safe. To restore on another machine or after reinstall, use Import.

Does this extension send anything to a server?

No. Wipeout Auto makes zero network requests. All logic runs locally; all data stays in chrome.storage.local. See PRIVACY.md.

How is this different from Cookie AutoDelete?

Wipeout Auto is built in the same spirit as Cookie AutoDelete (CAD), which is no longer maintained for Chromium MV3. Compared to CAD it adds: per-category controls beyond cookies (localStorage, IndexedDB, cacheStorage, service workers, history), separate cleanup profiles for whitelisted vs. non-whitelisted domains, and a browser-restart full sweep. It's MV3-native.

I broke something. How do I reset?

• Reset advanced settings: Settings → Reset to defaults.
• Reset whitelist: remove all entries, or open chrome://extensions/, click Details on Wipeout Auto → Extension options → remove from the list. Or remove and reinstall the extension (this also wipes the activity log).