How to view and clear download history in Mozilla Firefox

Firefox on Windows, Mac, and Linux keeps track of everything you download in its library – unless you're using private browsing mode and just close it. To clear your tracks in another way, you will need to do it manually. Here's how.

First, open Firefox. In any window of the Firefox browser, click on the menu button (three lines) and select "Downloads". Or you can press Ctrl + J (Command + J on Mac) on your keyboard.

The "Library" window will open in Firefox, focusing on the "Downloads" history in the sidebar on the left. You will see the list of downloads in progress or completed, and you can perform many actions here, such as clicking the small folder icon next to any entry in the list to see the current location of the downloaded file.

To remove a single downloaded file from the downloads history, right-click on the entry in the list and select "Remove from history" in the short menu that appears. This will not delete the file stored on your computer.

To clear the entire Firefox download history in the Library> Downloads window, click the "Clear Downloads" button on the toolbar.

WARNING: Clearing your download history in Firefox will not affect or delete files you have saved on your device. If you want to delete the files themselves, you will need to search for their download sites and delete them manually.

After clicking "Clear Downloads", the download history will disappear, and you can safely close the library window.

Private mode in Firefox temporarily records your download history while you are still using private mode, but once you close all private windows, the download history will be automatically cleared.

Just remember that the downloaded files will not be erased automatically: Firefox will forget that it downloaded them, but you will have to manually delete them from your computer's storage if you do not want to put them.