[SOLVED] FF Keeps Changing DuckDuckGo Settings

[Wiggam72]

For a few weeks now I've been using a new Win10 PC. I still cannot get my DuckDuckGo homepage to not change my settings.

I access DDG's browser settings and change the Safe Search settings from Strict to Off, and the New Window setting to On.

FF keeps changing it after I close the browser. I've tried exhaustively to prevent it from changing it to the default but can't. It works on my old PC.

[therube]

I've tried exhaustively

What have you tried?

Where does DDG store its settings?

[Wiggam72]

I tried saving the DDG settings. To do that, go to DDG site. Click on the 3 lines for DDG that look like the ones for FF. Then click on Other Settings. The settings are at the left. There are cloud and bookmarklet settings to the right. After changing the settings, click Save and Exit at the bottom.

I even went into FF Privacy Settings and tried adding an exception since the browser is set to clear cookies when FF is closed. Am I doing something wrong concerning adding an exception?

I went to FF Options > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data > Exceptions > and then added the DDG Homepage link to it that I got from the bookmarklet in the DDG settings after first changing Safe Search from Strict to Off, and New Window to On.

[therube]

I even went into FF Privacy Settings and tried adding an exception since the browser is set to clear cookies when FF is closed. Am I doing something wrong concerning adding an exception?

I can't make heads or tails with "exceptions".

So how about you don't clear cookies - at all, then see if your settings stick.
If they do, then most like something to do with "exceptions".
Then see if you can figure out exceptions such that DDG works as you're wanting while at the same time clearing other cookies.

[Wiggam72]

Yep, when I change it to save cookies, it works. I'm going to take a look at my Win7 PC settings and see if there is something that's different.

[Wiggam72]

Just checked my Win7 PC. It's not working either! It could be that the previous update (before the last one a day or two ago) changed the functionality of using an exception. So, until this issue is fixed, I have no choice other than to go into the DDG settings and load and save the Cloud settings each time I open the browser after closing it.

[therube]

I can't make heads or tails with "exceptions".

Because of, Bug 1460768 Site Data Manager should watch for site data changes and update itself.
(An easier read of that, Bug 1470071 Cookies are not shown in the "Managed Cookies and Sites Data" dialog box.)

[Wiggam72]

Is it saying that bug is resolved? It's very confusing

[therube]

(Bug 1460768 show as Assigned [& P3 at that].

P3 = This isn't a bad idea, and maybe we'll want to implement it at some point in the future, but it's not near-term roadmap material. Some core Bugzilla developer may work on it.

That something actually works, as expected, is not a bad idea.

Yet they can put out a dot release that contains nothing but drivel, https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/6 ... easenotes/.)

[Wiggam72]

Mods, please consider making this thread a sticky as this is a global problem that has plagued me and others for a long time. I edited the title to reflect that a solution has been found.

The article is slightly confusing since it has a few different explanations, but I managed to figure it out.

At first, I still couldn't get it to work. But after trial and error, I made one change to the instructions. After following all of the previous instructions, instead of first changing the settings to Keep until: "I close Firefox", I had to first change it to Keep until: "They expire", close FF, then reopen, and then change it to Keep until: "I close Firefox".

That did the trick! It appears that action made the DuckDuckGo settings a persistent cookie, something I could not get it to do previously. Now my DDG settings are preserved and load perfectly when I open FF! No more manually loading my settings!!

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1159654

[siffemoz]

I just put the DDG options string at the end of the DDG URL, then make that my Home page e.g.,

https://duckduckgo.com/?&ks=l&k1=-1&k8= ... ko=s&kv=-1

[Wiggam72]

I'll try it out on my other PC to see if it works. Remember, the reason I had problems (other than one of the updates causing it to begin with) is my History and Cookies etc. settings. I wonder if your settings are the same as mine.

I clicked on the link you posted and the theme is different. However, the cloud settings are the same which makes me wonder if it changed anything other than the theme.

[siffemoz]

Surely my settings are different than yours What you need to do is load your cloud settings, then use the Bookmarklet URL as your home page. Deleting cookies/history/whatever won't affect it.

[dickvl]

Settings that are stored in a cookie only persist when you keep cookies and do not use "Clear history when Firefox closes" to clear cookies and Site Preferences.
To keep specific cookies you need to create an allow exception to keep cookies from specific domain and to keep exceptions you can't clear Site Preferences because this includes exceptions for cookies.

So you need keep cookies until you close Firefox and create an allow exception for cookies you need to keep.
That should work.
There are some network.cookie.thirdparty prefs present on the about:config page that you can inspect (leave out services.sync.prefs.sync.* prefs that define what prefs to sync).

[Wiggam72]

dickvl you are correct. Hence the reason why the settings used, and setting up persistent cookies is vital and why I started this thread to prevent others from going through what I did.

Surely my settings are different than yours What you need to do is load your cloud settings, then use the Bookmarklet URL as your home page. Deleting cookies/history/whatever won't affect it.

It doesn't work with the old Privacy settings on my other PC. The reason is two-fold addressed above. I have to go through the process I laid out earlier which includes making a persistent cookie and also change the setting to "Keep until Firefox is closed" from what it is on my other PC