19-05-2026 01:13 AM
The recent Firefox version (v150 at the time of writing) removed the setting/pref "privacy.sanitize.useOldClearHistoryDialog", which makes the setting/pref does nothing even when set to true. Previously it worked to restore the history dialog back to its more functional state/version. Now we have the new, simplified but very limited history dialog forced on us. As a long-time user of Firefox, I found the decision is baffling and bizarre. Please bring the setting "privacy.sanitize.useOldClearHistoryDialog" back so us advanced users can use the more functional version of history dialog.
And before the staff of Mozilla/Firefox ask or say, we will improve the history dialog design and make a new design: DO NOT!
There are too many baffling and bizarre "designs" and "ideas" that were implemented recently. I am from Arts (Visual Art) and Psychology and I can say this is not normal. Please just bring the setting "privacy.sanitize.useOldClearHistoryDialog" back so we can return to using the functional history dialog again.
19-05-2026 02:32 PM
This is the old/classic Clear History Dialog that has been removed silently without any notice:
Why was this dialog removed silently?
With the old Clear History Dialog, I have more options about what kind of assets/files/data that I want to remove or keep from my cache and history. The new Clear History Dialog does not allow me to have the same options that the old Clear History Dialog provided. As many people have already said about it in forums and sites, it was oversimplified and overall a terrible design and decision. Why removed something that was useful for advanced users of Firefox? You can offer the new overly-simplified Clear History Dialog to casual/mainstream users but at least keep the old, more functional Clear History Dialog for us advanced users to use.
It is not like the old Clear History Dialog will make your new Nova design or whatever it is called looks bad. As I mentioned, have the new Clear History Dialog as the default option, but at least leave the old, more functional Clear History Dialog with more options of type of assets/data to choose to clear or keep for us. We can always use the pref "privacy.sanitize.useOldClearHistoryDialog" to enable it.