I wish to report that the Avast browser security plug-in for Firefox will not save any settings permanently despite clicking the “SAVE” button after making any changes.
They are reset to default when Firefox is closed and opened again.
My recollection is that there is a cookie that is set that holds the settings. At least that is what was used in the past. You might check to see if you are clearing all cookies and, if so, see if you can find the one likely used by the Avast security plug-in and exclude that from being deleted.
I have allowed all cookies with all cookies kept until deleted and the settings are still not saved from one session to the next. I have rebooted in between test to make sure everything is cleared between one session and the next - Settings are not saved under Firefox.
I also run IE 11 sometimes and settings on the same computer are saved under IE but not under Firefox (Note Order of items under “more settings” is different between IE and Firefox so implementation seems different)
Avast settings were saved OK in version 14 with Firefox set to delete cookies at the end of session and the change happed when I upgraded from version 14 to version 17 on 2 different computers so please will you investigate it. My view is that there is a fault in version 17 of the softeware.
You need to move/keep this cookie 102518c5-88fe-453f-b551-3ad1dc3219a3:moc.tsava04%crw=dInodda^:f:0 and put it to the right in CCleaner to keep this cookie.
Thanks for your help guys. I took your advice and persisted with the cookie investigation and it seems that Firefox hides some cookies. I resorted to keeping all history and the settings were saved so I have worked from there. I like to use custom settings for history, accepting cookies from visited sites and deleting when I exit Firefox. But this seems only to apply to cookies from the point where you change the settings and you seem to be only able to view cookies that relate to this setting.
So a step by step guide for anyone else having problems:
I have set Firefox to start up on a blank page with home page as about:blank in the Tools - Options - General settings.
Using - Tools - Options - Privacy, set “Firefox will” to “use custom settings” and select “Clear history when Firefox closes” with all the attached settings ticked. Then exit Firefox. This gives a clear reset of all cookies, history etc.
2)Restart Firefox and return to Privacy settings. Clear selection of “Clear history when Firefox closes” and set “Firefox will” to “Remember History”. Exit Firefox.
3)Restart Firefox and go to a website as the icon is greyed out with no website loaded. I used Google since it doesn’t seem to load much although I am sure it loads more than you can see. If you have a less suspicious site you might try using that ! Avast icon changes from grey to green with a counter. Click on the green icon and go to more settings to set what you want and press save. Exit Firefox.
Restart Firefox, go to you chosen website (Google for me) and click on the green Avast Icon again. Set to enable Automatic blocking of all tracking. Exit Firefox
At this point I restarted Firefox, went back to Google to check that the settings had been saved. For some reason it kept disabling the Auto blocking of tracking unless I had made changes and saved the settings in more settings first and in 2 separate actions - weird.
Restart Firefox and go to Privacy settings. Set “Firefox will” to " Use custom settings". I selected my preferred settings of “Remember browsing and download history”, “Remember search form history” and “Accept cookies from sites” with “Accept third party cookies” “from visited sites” and “Keep until I close Firefox”. Selecting Show cookies I could see cookies from Google which I deleted and also 2 from Avast. The cookie that you need to keep is “uib.ff.avast.com”. Exit Firefox.
This kept the settings in for Avast as I wanted. But having kept the “uib” cookie, when I went back to check that visited sites had not left cookies, I was surprised that the “uib” cookie had disappeared but the settings were still saved for each Firefox session.
I can’t explain how the upgrade from Avast v14 to v17 changed things but I guess if the hidden cookie was renamed then that could have caused problems.