CCleaner is deleting Firefox History despite having Internet History unchecked

CCleaner for Windows CCleaner Windows Help Requests
1

Why?

This happened a few months ago and was so aggravating I started looking for a replacement. Then it stopped. And now it's started up again. A key page I need to retrieve - but hadn't bookmarked - is gone.

It's become a roll of the dice now - I have zero confidence that when I run it that CCleaner will behave the way it should.

Do I need to restart my search for an alternative that doesn't whimsically wipe out months of browsing history?

CCleaner erasing browser history.PNG

2

Can you let me know if you use the Health Check function? 

Health Check makes use of its own set of Cleaning Rules, so changes made in the Custom Clean section would not affect it. As such, that could be the reason that this is occurring. You can click the Privacy tile of the Health Check > uncheck "History" to prevent browser history from being cleaned during that Health Check run.

If you use Custom Check only, then I would recommend running an Analysis first before cleaning. You can double-click on the listed categories to see what files are being cleaned, and that should help ensure that nothing is cleaned that you don't want.

If problems persist, I'd recommend getting in contact with our support team directly via the Contact Us form located here: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=86507 or by emailing support@ccleaner.com so that we can collect debug logs that would aid in investigating this issue.

3

Good question. I have noticed that I've been getting greeted with, "It's time for your PC's Health Check" - which never used to happen. Not realizing that this was something different from the Custom Clean (I now see that it is), I simply proceeded, thinking I was doing a Custom Clean.

A few questions:

  1. What is Health Check - and why would I use it instead of Custom Clean?
  2. I see no way to change any setting for Health Check (i.e. unlike with Custom Clean, I see no way to access a Privacy tile - or anything else - in order to uncheck "History").
  3. If I see no value in Health Check (or if I don't want to have to always have to remember to bypass it and use Custom Clean instead), is there a way to set Custom Clean as the default cleaner when CCleaner launches? If not, is there a way to remove Health Check?

Thanks,

Craig

4

That sounds like the cause of the behavior, then; the Health Check was doing exactly what it was designed to, it's just that wasn't what you wanted.

In response to your questions specifically:

  1. Health Check is a simplified interface for CCleaner designed for less experienced users who want an 'do it for me button'; Custom Clean is the traditional, much more granular (and imposing to new users) interface for CCleaner.
  2. You should see the Privacy tile after clicking "Start" and allowing it to perform the initial scan; more details on how to use and configure Health Check here: https://support.piriform.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040324631
  3. You can set Custom Clean to be the default interface in Options > Settings, with the setting titled "CCleaner Home Screen"; it may not be removed from the CCleaner software, however.