Firefox History Not Recording or Displaying Correctly

Firefox history not working can take several forms: the panel shows no new entries, dates are wrong, or the Library window fails to load. Most causes trace back to a privacy mode setting, a corrupted Places database, or a conflicting extension.

This guide walks through the current Settings labels, the built-in Verify Integrity tool, Troubleshoot Mode, and a safe profile rebuild as of the latest Firefox release.

In this guide, I have covered:

Why Firefox History Stops Recording or Shows Wrong Entries

Firefox saves every site you visit to a local database called the Places database. When entries go missing, sites you just visited never appear, or the History panel shows old, missing, or duplicated data, the cause is usually a privacy setting, a corrupted database, or a conflicting extension.

Below are the practical fixes that resolve most Firefox history problems on Windows, macOS, and Linux as of the latest Firefox release. Try them in order and stop when the symptom is gone.

Open the History Library First to Confirm the Symptom

Before changing anything, confirm exactly what is broken. Missing entries, no new entries being saved, and a panel that fails to load each point to a different fix.

1. Click the hamburger menu at the top right of Firefox.
2. Choose History, then click Manage history. You can also press Ctrl+Shift+H on Windows or Linux, or Cmd+Shift+H on macOS.
3. Look at the left pane: Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, This Month, Older. If "Today" is empty after browsing several sites, Firefox is not recording. If it loads but dates look wrong, the database may be corrupted.

If the Library window will not open at all, skip ahead to “Repair the Places Database” below.

Make Sure History Is Set to Remember

Firefox’s Privacy panel has three history modes. If it is set to “Never remember history” or “Always use private browsing mode” is on, no entries will be saved. This is the most common cause of empty or missing history.

1. Click the hamburger menu and choose Settings.
2. Select Privacy & Security in the left rail.
3. Scroll to the History section and find the "Firefox will" dropdown.
4. Select Remember history.
5. Below it, confirm the toggle "Always use private browsing mode" is off. For a primer on what private windows do and do not save, see our guide on private browsing in Firefox.

TIP: You can skip the menu and load the page directly by typing about:preferences#privacy in the address bar.

Open the Library again and visit a new site. If it appears in “Today” within a few seconds, the privacy mode was the cause.

Check “Clear History When Firefox Closes”

If your Library looks fine during a session but is empty every time you reopen Firefox, a “Clear on close” rule is wiping it on exit. This often happens after a Sync or update, even if you never enabled it yourself.

1. Open the hamburger menu at the top right of the browser and click Settings.
2. Pick Privacy & Security from the left sidebar of Settings.
3. Scroll to the History section. Make sure the dropdown at the top is set to Use custom settings for history.
4. Uncheck Clear history when Firefox is closed. If you want to keep clearing other things on exit, click Settings… next to that checkbox and uncheck Cookies and Site Settings, leaving browsing history and cache checked if you still want those wiped. The Site Settings box in particular wipes cookie exceptions, which is what forces a logout on every restart.
5. Close the Settings tab. Sign into one of the affected sites, close Firefox, and reopen it to confirm the session survives a restart.

Sync can re-enable Clear-on-Close on a different device. If you use Firefox Sync, check the same panel on every signed-in computer, otherwise the wipe may keep coming back the next time you sign in.

Repair the Places Database

When the database file is corrupted, Firefox may show old entries, fail to open the Library, or refuse to save new visits. The built-in Verify Integrity tool rebuilds the index without losing your bookmarks or saved logins.

1. Type about:support in the address bar and press Enter.
2. Scroll to the Places Database section near the bottom of the page.
3. Click Verify Integrity. Firefox scans the file and reports any problems it finds.
4. If problems are reported, restart Firefox so it can rebuild the index automatically.

TIP: If Verify Integrity reports a problem that does not clear after a restart, quit Firefox, open the profile folder, and rename the file places.sqlite to places.sqlite.old. Firefox creates a fresh database the next time you launch it. Saved logins live in logins.json and are not affected by the rename.

Try Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode

Extensions, custom themes, and hardware acceleration can interfere with how Firefox writes to the Places database. Troubleshoot Mode loads Firefox without any of these extras so you can confirm whether an add-on is the cause.

1. Click the hamburger menu at the top right of Firefox.
2. Click Help.
3. Select Troubleshoot Mode….
4. Click Restart in the confirmation dialog.

If history works normally in Troubleshoot Mode, re-enable your add-ons one at a time until the broken entries return. The last add-on you re-enable is the offender.

Test a Fresh Profile

If a new profile shows history correctly but your main profile still does not, your main profile is damaged. The about:profiles page lets you create a clean profile and switch to it without uninstalling Firefox.

1. Type about:profiles into the address bar and press Enter.
2. Review the This is the profile in use section and any Other profiles listed below.
3. Note the path of the profile you usually use, and check whether the desktop you are looking at matches.
4. Click Launch profile in new browser next to the profile you want to inspect.
5. In the new window, open about:logins and search for the missing entry.

If the new profile fixes the symptom, your old profile’s preferences or extensions are the cause. The cleanest long-term fix is to keep the new profile and re-add only the add-ons you actually need.

Update Firefox to the Latest Version

Many Places database bugs are fixed in newer Firefox releases. Running an outdated build can leave known history bugs unpatched.

1. Open the Firefox browser app on your computer.
2. Click on the More menu and select the Settings menu.
   
3. Scroll down to the Firefox Updates section within the General tab, and click the Check for updates button.
   
4. Firefox will check for updates and download them. It may ask to restart to complete the installation of the update.
   The browser will be updated to the latest version.

After updating, restart Firefox and visit a few new sites. Open the History Library to confirm entries appear in “Today” as expected.

Clear Cookies and Cache

Although not a direct fix for history, stale cookies and a bloated cache can occasionally block the history panel from loading or cause partial loads where only some entries appear. Clearing them is a fast way to rule out a stale profile state.

1. Open the Firefox browser on your computer.
2. Click on the More menu and select the Settings menu.
   
3. Switch to the Privacy & Security tab and scroll to the Cookies and Site data section.
   
4. Click on the Clear Data... button.
5. Enable the checkbox for the 'Cookies and Site Data' and 'Cached Web Content' options.
   
6. Hit on the Clear option.
   It will immediately delete the cache, cookies, and site data on the browser.

After clearing, reopen the Library and check whether the missing entries reappear and whether new visits are being saved.

What to Do If Nothing Works

If the steps above do not bring history back, the Places database is too damaged to recover automatically. The nuclear option is to start with a clean profile, but you can preserve your existing data first.

1. Open about:profiles in Firefox and note the Root Directory path of your current profile.
2. Quit Firefox completely so it is not holding the database file open.
3. Back up the entire profile folder to a safe location before doing anything else.
4. Inside the profile folder, delete only the file named places.sqlite. Leave places.sqlite-wal and places.sqlite-shm untouched.
5. Launch Firefox. It rebuilds the Places database and the History panel starts fresh.
6. Restore your bookmarks from the most recent JSON backup in the bookmarkbackups folder: open the Library, choose Bookmarks, then Show All Bookmarks, then Import and Backup, then Restore.

ALERT: Always back up your profile before deleting database files. Without the backup, lost history, form data, or site preferences cannot be recovered.

For an example of the symptom reported by Firefox users over time, see this Mozilla support thread where the same recording failure has been discussed.

RELATED: Clear Browsing History from Mozilla Firefox