Hi, I'm the Community Manager for AdBlock. We're getting reports from our users that AdBlock's settings (options, subscribed filter lists, and custom filters) aren't saved when they exit Edge. We've traced this to Ccleaner. AdBlock's settings are stored in Local Storage, specifically the path:
I noticed that the name of the XML file is the same as a cookie I find when I search for "adblock" in Ccleaner's cookies list.
I tried excluding %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\AC\#!003\MicrosoftEdge\User\Default\DOMStore\, but Ccleaner still resets all AdBlock settings to the default the next time I launch Edge.
I also tried excluding %LocalAppData%\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\AC; same result.
Finally, I tried moving the cookie EdgeExtension_BetaFishAdBlock_c1wakc4j0nefm to the Keep column. Again, same result.
What do we need to advise our users to exclude to prevent their AdBlock settings from being removed when Ccleaner is run?
In the path above, replace "{yourusername}" with your Windows username and "{yourprofilename}" with the name you gave your Chrome profile. If you didn't create a specific user profile, use "default"; for example, C:\Users\jane\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\default\Local Storage
A similar solution doesn't seem to be working for Edge, however, based on the test results I included in my original post.
I know about the Adblock settings being removed which was why I could never use it with SRWare Iron, it took me months to figure out what was causing the problem.
This is what we advise our Chrome users
Perhaps give my findings a look too as a possible workaround until there's an official solution:
Thanks, @andavari! So it looks as if you're advising folks to stay one level higher up than we advise them; that is, to exclude the entire Default folder, not just Local Storage?
The reason being when excluding the whole "Local Extension Settings" folder it will protect all installed extensions settings, since Adblock isn't the only extension that will have settings deleted for whatever reason.
When analysis is run on the local storage entry are no files identifiable as belonging to your specific software? Are you unaware what the software you represent places in local storage. This really seems a simple file exclude instead of the large sweeping folder excludes you and my cohort are suggesting
Not so simple because the settings are stored in a numbered .LOG file which changes everytime a Chrome/Chromium browser is started and closed, and if people install multiple extensions it wouldn't help. In my case when using Adblock for Chrome it out of nowhere stopped keeping settings (this was in early 2015) meaning I couldn't logically use it since I have allot of custom filters. Also when I tried Adblock Plus for Chrome it also wouldn't save settings, so that "large sweeping folder" exclusion in my opinion is the best approach, and also it makes zero sense to clean that folder since it only contains settings for extensions (no different than registry settings for installed programs in my opinion).
From my findings I think one of the reasons cleaning software in general (not just CCleaner in this case) is wiping out the settings because a folder with settings inside of it will contain a numbered .LOG file which is the actual settings that need to be kept and left alone - but most cleaning programs like to delete logs by default. Although I think a browser that saves settings into a .LOG file is ridiculous.
Folder contents example (Web of Trust):
...\000003.log
…\CURRENT
…\LOCK
…\LOG
…\LOG.old
…\MANIFEST-000001
Folder contents example (Adblock Plus for Chrome):
This one also stores settings in the .LDB files:
...\000005.ldb
…<strong>001533.ldb
…<strong>001535.ldb
…<strong>001537.ldb
…<strong>001539.log
…<strong>001540.ldb
…\CURRENT
…\LOCK
…\LOG
…\LOG.old
…\MANIFEST-000001
Edit:
In a Chrome/Chromium browser it's clear that the .LOG file is storing the settings by viewing it with a text editor. I've had about 1 1/2 years messing with this, and when I finally excluded the whole "Local Extension Settings" folder my extensions started retaining their settings again.
Edit 2:
Also something CCleaner cleans in Comodo Dragon (another Chrome/Chromium browser) corrupts the Profile for Dragon, well at least it did last year making it impossible to use Dragon and clean with CCleaner.
It happened when I did the full clean. I'm not that familiar with Ccleaner, if that wasn't already obvious.
Our developer says that with the latest update of CCleaner and with the proper files excluded, AdBlock on Edge is unaffected by running CCleaner on his machine. So it's definitely not you, it's me. I didn't have any files excluded when I tried it. D'oh!
In Ccleaner's Cleaner settings for Microsoft Edge, select Cookies only.
Click Analyze.
In the results panel, double-click Microsoft Edge - Cookies to open the results. Make sure the Ccleaner window is wide enough to see the entire file path.
Find the two files that contain the word "BetaFishAdBlock."
Right-click each of these files and select Add to Exclude list.
Easy-peasy!
Thanks so much for the quick response and all your help!
