The Simple view gets you up and running as fast as possible, but only has minimal options. You set it up as follows:
Cookie will scan and remove all data not related to your browser bookmarks (in all enabled browsers) according to your settings. A handy Clean Now button is included to instantly remove all selected data. A 2global Pause/Enable Cookie button is also included.
1. The timer icon will be colored green when your settings include removal while your browser is running. I generally don't recommend this, as it can cause issues on some websites.
2. The Pause/Enable button is useful for quickly disabling/enabling Cookie, without having to manually change any settings. When Cookie is disabled, the menuBar icon will be a dull gray color.
Along the left side of the window you will see a vertical list of all compatible browsers.
Click on any browser to toggle it between enabled and disabled. All enabled browsers will be managed according to your settings.
All removal settings are determined by the Privacy level slider. The closer to the right the slider is, the more aggressive your privacy settings will be.
The Advanced view can seem daunting at first look, but it's really quite easy once you get the hang of it. You can completely customize how your cookies are managed. Custom removal schedules and selective removal of data is easy to configure once you understand how Cookie works. First lets look at how the Interface is layed out.
The default interface is basically split into 3 components, first of all there is a sidebar on the left with all your installed browsers. This sidebar is common to 3both of Cookie's tabs.
3. You may have more tabs if you have enabled the option Manage Cookie types separately on the Advanced Preferences tab. Each of these extra tabs functions exactly like the Websites tab.
Now you know your way around Cookie, you need to customize how it runs, it's easy, and is done like so:
On the Websites tab, you will see a list of all websites which store cookies in all of your enabled browsers grouped together. You can filter the list by browser using the browser sidebar. Next to each domain name in the list you will see a number in brackets - this indicates how many cookies are related to that website. To view individual cookies, click the small triangle icon to expand the website. Once expanded you can see exactly what types of cookie and any attributes they may have that are stored in the website. You will also see a number of icons to the left of the window:
4. If a dash is displayed instead of a check mark - this indicates that not all cookies under the website are favorites! This is most commonly seen when ALL is selected in the browser sidebar. For example you may have the website cookierocks.com marked as a favorite in Safari, but not in Firefox.
Your CHECKED websites will never be removed. You can remove them manually only by using the button on the Websites tab. You can also only manually select a favorite if you already have a cookie on your computer from previously visiting the website.
These are cookies which have been identified as one's which may track your browsing habits. They are conveniently RED colored for easy identification. You can completely customize how Cookie identifies tracking cookies in the Tracking Cookie Editor. This is accessed by way of contextual menu, or by clicking the shortcut icon.
You very rarely want to remove browser extensions as they are needed by any extension's you may have installed. Any adblockers or password managers etc... that you use in your browser would see unexpected results if you happened to remove any corresponding cookies.
You very rarely need to whitelist a cookie, but it is a useful feature. In some cases Cookie gets it wrong, and flags a cookie as a Tracking cookie. This can cause sometimes login issues for you, but is easily fixed by whitelisting any offending tracking cookies. You add individual cookies to the whitelist via the contextual menu, or manually in the Tracking Cookie Editor
The shortcut icons are the group of icons at the bottom right of the Websites tab. Clicking on any of the icons will reveal handy shortcuts.
The removal tab is where you give Cookie access to data, and decide when to remove it.
Setting removal schedules is pretty straight forward, you select which data you want to enable for removal - then you choose when to remove it. This can be done globally - on the All selected in the sidebar tab, or individually by selected a browser in the sidebar.
If a dash is displayed instead of a check mark for any settings - this indicates that not all browsers have this particular setting checked.
On this tab you give Cookie access to the listed cookie/data types. Cookie can not remove anything unless you allow it first. You can select Unwanted data and apply it globally to all your enabled browsers, or if you prefer for each individual browser.
Tracking Cookies - these are any cookies which Cookie determines as a cookie which tracks you.
Non-Favorites - any cookies which are UNCHECKED as favorites on the Websites tab.
Cache - the cache stores files used by sites you visit to help speed up browsing if you re-visit the site again at a later date. Images, style sheets and video files are a few things stored in the cache.
History - your browser history.
Favicons - the small icons which display in your browser next to the website address in the url bar, and sometimes also on any browser tabs.
Webpage previews - these are snapshots which browsers periodically take of webpages you visit. Safari uses these in Tab expose.
Form values - any text you fill out on a webpage is stored as a form value.
Downloads - everything you've chosen to download to your computer from your browser. For example; app updates, torrent files, movies etc.
Website preferences - any website specific options. For example; autoplay settings, page zoom, microphone and camera access.
Other search engines - some browsers save custom search engines (if available) for each site you visit.
While tracking cookies, and non-favorites are removed per website, all other data types are not... For example you can not only remove history and cache for a particular website and not others. It is all websites, or no websites. This is true for cache, history, favicons, webpage previews, form values, downloads, website preferences and Other search engines.
This tab is where you tell Cookie when you want the data you previously selected removed. Once again, all these options can be configured globally or on a per browser basis.
On Quit - Cookie will remove your unwanted data from ALL browsers when you Quit Cookie.
On Browser Quit - browser data will be removed whenever you quit one of your enabled browsers. For example, if Unwanted data has been selected for Firefox, and Firefox is Quit, Firefox data only will be removed.
Every x minutes while Browser is Open - I don't generally recommend using ths option as it can cause issues on some websites. But some people may find it useful. Timers when set, will only run while an enabled browser is open and will run independent to all other browser timers even if multiple browsers have timers set. Timers are also configured independently to regular removal options.
When computer wakes from Sleep - Cookie will remove your unwanted data from ALL browsers when you wake your computer.
At Login - As above, Cookie will remove your unwanted data from ALL browsers at Login (as long as you have configured Cookie to open at Login in Preferences).
The Pause/Enable Automatic Removal button is an important button. You can use it to quickly disable/enable ALL running timers and removal schedules
Timer unwanted data is configured separately to regular unwanted data, and this is the tab you do that on. To correctly set a timer, you need to:
Timers can be configured globally across ALL browsers, or per browser.
Most users will never need to use this feature of Cookie, but it does has it's uses. Upon opening, you will see 2 tabs:
The Tracking cookies tab holds stores all of Cookie's tracking cookie definitions. You can edit this as you please, if you find Cookie's list inadequate. Export/Import and restoration of defaults is possible from this tab.
On the Whitelist tab you will find any custom whitelist definitions you may have created. You can manually add or remove as required.
Secure Delete Data - overwrites any removed data ensuring it is virtually impossible to recover.
Display Notifications - Notifications are posted via macOS notification center whenever:
Reset All Warnings - removal warnings will again be shown before any data removal.
Global hotkeys are special key combinations you can use from within any application to run special Cookie actions. For example you may be browsing in Safari, and be interested in quickly favoriting a new site. You could press your Show Cookie hotkey to bring up the Cookie window and check the site as a favorite. There are 3 available global hotkeys you can configure for some of Cookie's most useful actions:
Show Cookie - quickly show Cookie's main window.
Enable/Pause Cookie - quickly toggle Cookie - perhaps useful if you want to quickly disable any running timers to favorite a new site.
Remove All Unwanted Data - quickly remove data from all enabled browsers.
Show Cookie in Menubar - an icon will be added to the right side of your system menubar (the system menubar is the bar running across the top of your screen). In this menu you can easily access all of Cookie's useful actions.
and Hide Dock Icon - this will remove the icon from the macOS Dock. It also disables the regular Cookie menu's (the menu's next to the Apple icon at the top left of your screen.)
Choose an icon to show in the menubar
5Open Cookie at Login - set Cookie to open when you restart your computer
and Hide - this will prevent Cookie's main window from opening at login
5. Make sure you don't add Cookie to Login Items in System Preferences, as it conflicts with Cookie's startup mechanism. A known issue is that Cookie's window may show at login even if you have chosen to hide it.
Please be cautious when changing any settings on the Advanced tab.
Use Advanced View - you can easily switch between the Simple View and the Advanced View.
Open Setup Window - open the setup window to run through setup again.
Enable sub-domain Favoriting - this is an advanced feature for users who want absolute control over all cookies which are retained and removed in their browser. It allows you to select individual cookies as favorites instead of domains (as is the default).
Manage Cookie types separately - you can separate out cookies, databases, flash cookies and silverlight into their own tabs with this selection.
Never remove Browser Extensions - this option is checked as default. When unselected, any 6browser extensions you have will need to be manually favorited.
Synchronize with Browser Bookmarks - with this option checked, any favorites you currently have will be overwritten by your browser bookmarks. This can be a handy option for those that don't want to manually manage favorites. Your favorites will also be kept up to date with any changes you may make to your bookmarks within the browser. Favorites will be applied individually to browsers, so for example, any bookmarks you have in Safari will not be carried over to Firefox and vice versa.
6. Browser Extensions are generally required by any extensions you may have installed, and should not really be removed - except perhaps after uninstalling an unwanted extension. Luckily Cookie retains them by default, whether they are marked as favorites or not. Often, stubborn to remove cookies are in fact browser extensions. You can easily identify them as they will have an indicator showing in the star column.
Run Cookie in the background - this is an advanced feature only really for power users. When checked Cookie will run with 7no Dock icon, and no system menuBar.
7. The only way you can access Cookie's window will be by double clicking the app icon (usually in the Applications folder) or by global hotkey. Likewise, the only way to access preferences will be by the system global Preferences hotkey of once you have Cookie's window open.
Remove All Sandbox Permissions - after clicking this Cookie will lose all permission to access any data on your computer. You will be prompted for permission the next time Cookie needs 8access.
8. Under rare conditions, Cookie's permissions can become corrupted - you will know this is happening, because you will be continually asked for permission to access certain folders. Resetting Permissions should fix this error.
Learn More... - clicking this will open an info page in you browser, with instructions to on how activate 9Safari.
https://sweetpproductions.com/products/cookie5/safari.htm
9. Safari has been disabled in the Mac App Store version of Cookie, but can easily be actiavte by following the instructions here.
As of Cookie v5.9.2 (Mac App store version only), Safari had to be disabled from a default installation of Cookie to pass through review for the Mac App Store. There is now an extra step required to get Safari showing in Cookie. You will need to download and install the helper scripts from the following link:
https://sweetpproductions.com/products/cookie5/safari.htm
MacOS Mojave introduced new security policies, which now require that Cookie has Full Disk Access before it can view, and remove any Safari data. What you need to do is this:
There are 2 possibilities here, Cookie could be disabled, or your browser removal settings may not be configured correctly.
1. If Cookie is disabled, your system menuBar icon will be a dull grey color. Simply re-enable Cookie through:
2. If Cookie is enabled, open the Removal tab and check:
When you are removing Tracking cookies - Cookie sometimes gets it wrong, and you may need to whitelist a specific cookie. What you need to do is this:
The most likely cause of this will be due to not installing the required cookie removal scripts. This only occurs on the Mac App Store version of Cookie, as the trial version installs the scripts automatically. The Mac App Store has a very strict sand boxing policy which doesn't allow for automatic installation. You can download the scripts from the link below:
https://sweetpproductions.com/products/cookie5/safari.htm
This is the same issue as above, and similar to the previous issue - only affects the Mac App Store version of Cookie. You can download the scripts from the link below:
https://sweetpproductions.com/products/cookie5/safari.htm
Not all cookies are created equal, and many cookies stored in your browser will in fact be what is known as session cookies. Cookie doesn't see these, and can't delete them. However, they are all removed when you restart your browser - hence the name session cookies, ie. they are only valid for the current browsing session. Cache cookies are similar, although they are removed when you remove cache via Cookie - they will still show in your browser as being present until a restart of the browser. The final discrepancy you may encounter may be localStorage cookies. Cookie can and does see all these cookies, and can also remove them - however they may still appear in your browser until after a browser restart
It is recommended to only remove cookies after your browser is quit to avoid any problems while browsing. Timers and removal ability whilst the browser is open are included for convenience - but they can have unintended results.
This can occur when using custom History settings in Firefox. You can fix the problem like so:
You now have 2 options :
or if you prefer using custom settings:
This scenario will occur if you have checked Run Cookie in the background on the Advanced Preference tab. You can access Cookie's window by double clicking the app icon which will most likely be in the Applications folder (or by global hotkey). Likewise, the only way to access preferences will be by the system global preferences hotkey of once you have Cookie's window open.
If you can open Preferences:
Otherwise you need to reset Cookie:
10. Make you are looking in your User Library. It's actually hidden by default... but you can easily show it. If you are running macOS High Sierra, you enable it like so:
or if running on an older operating system, you can download and use my free DesktopUtility app to show the User Library. (Scroll down to More Awesome Apps - expand it, then scroll to near the bottom where you will find a download link for DesktopUtility)
Please email me at support@sweetpproductions.com any crash logs you have so I can look for a fix. You will find any crash logs in the following 10folder:
~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports
For all other issues, or any problems - please check out the support forums or send me an email me at support@sweetpproductions.com