Email addresses being retained in private browsing

Using Firefox private browsing.

Went into a website yesterday for the first time. When I clicked into the 'Sign In' box, there was a dropdown list of several email addresses that have been used on this laptop at different times, but never with this site. These were hotmail and gmail addresses. I was not logged in to google at the time, nor to anything else. I tried to delete these email addresses from the 'Sign In' box but they will not delete.

This also happens on other sites including facebook. Only 2 emails have ever been used on the laptop to log in to facebook, yet it automatically offers four or five. All the ones offered are ones used by me, but I have never saved them on any website login.

I believe that private browsing should not save anything when a session ends, so I do not understand why these email addresses are showing. It seems that they are being stored somewhere on the laptop but I have no idea where to look for them to delete them.

A second laptop, that also uses private browsing on Firefox,does not have this same problem so it is something about the specific laptop.

Any suggestions welcomed

Hello @SaggyMaggyPoo,

I do NOT use Firefox, but have a look at this, it might be similar for Firefox . . .

> How to Turn On or Off Clear Browsing Data on Close in Microsoft Edge Chromium
> Delete Browsing, Search and Download History on Firefox

I hope this helps.

Paul Black said:

Hello @SaggyMaggyPoo,

I do NOT use Firefox, but have a look at this, it might be similar for Firefox . . .

> How to Turn On or Off Clear Browsing Data on Close in Microsoft Edge Chromium
> Delete Browsing, Search and Download History on Firefox

I hope this helps.

Thank you for this, but unfortunately it does not solve the problem.

Since permanent private browsing is used, there should be nothing to delete, Firefox should automatically do this when the browser is closed. And this is what happens for everything else (browsing history, cookies etc.) but for some reason these email addresses that have been used as logins are not deleted on this laptop, though they are on the other, which is set up in the same way.

Firefox is never asked to save login information, nor is any other website, so there is no logical reason why this information is being kept and where it is stored.

Not all of the email addresses are regularly used on the laptop either, so it is not offering the logins just fromthe current browser session.One or two have not been used for months on the laptop.

Paul Black said:

Hello @SaggyMaggyPoo,

I do NOT use Firefox, but have a look at this, it might be similar for Firefox . . .

> How to Turn On or Off Clear Browsing Data on Close in Microsoft Edge Chromium
> Delete Browsing, Search and Download History on Firefox

I hope this helps.

Though your suggestion wasn't the solution, it did prompt me to scour the Help files of Firefox more thoroughly, which has led to a solution (hopefully). Fortunately, someone else had already had this problem.

The login information was stored in Firefox files in File Explorer,which have now been renamed. And I have kept a link to the information in case it comes back again.

Thanks for your input anyway.

Hello @SaggyMaggyPoo,

SaggyMaggyPoo said:

Though your suggestion wasn't the solution, it did prompt me to scour the Help files of Firefox more thoroughly, which has led to a solution (hopefully).

Thanks for your input anyway.

You are VERY welcome.