Trackers Not Completely Cleaned and Rising

[Cblendad]

How do I get all the trackers removed?  When I first started using CCleaner a while back, all trackers were removed.  Now (it has built over time, so that maybe only 1 or 2 get removed) there 59 trackers still remaining that will not get removed when I click "make it better"..

[Cblendad]

Here's screen shots

[nukecad]

Have a read of this about 'Trackers' - what they actually are, where they come from, why some of them will come back after cleaning, and what you can do about it:

https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/52668-tracking-files-not-cleaned-or-coming-back-solvedexplained/?tab=comments#comment-300043

Looking at your screenshots Health Check is finding some things to be cleaned but for some reason can't clean them.
(They may be still open or may be protected).

If you can do the same again but before clicking 'Make it better' click on 'Privacy'; the screen should change to tell you if they are cookies or temporary internet files.
(If you can post a screen shot of that screen so that we can see it too).

Custom Clean might tell us more, we can go into that later, but read that link above first to see if you can work out for yourself what may be causing it.

 

[Cblendad]

 

here are all the screen's screenshots, for overkill.

CCleaner Issues 2-22-21.docx

[nukecad]

The 'Space', Temporary System files, is nothing to worry about, there will always be something found there.
(Windows remakes some of those as soon as they are cleaned, CCleaner itself puts a couple of files there each time you open it).

The 'Privacy' (trackers) is just showing Temporary Internet files to remove, it's not showing any cookies (which is interesting).

The Temporary Internet files are things like your browser history, browser cache(s), etc.
The fact that there are no cookies there is interesting though, you would expect some cookies to be there if you had been browsing.

My first thought is that the explanation for what you are seeing is that your browser is either pre-loading or it is synced, or both.
(Pre-loading makes the most sense for what you are seeing).
So it is remaking the caches again as soon as CCleaner removes them. (or not letting CCleane remove them in the first place because it is pre-loaded in the background).

What browser(s) are you using, and is it synced?

See that link above for how to stop browsers doing that - if you want to stop them doing that.
If you want your browser synced across devices (and/or preloaded) then you just have to accept that it will always remake those temporary internet files if/when CCleaner clears them, so Health Check will always see them everytime.

[Cblendad]

I use duckduckgo on chrome 

[nukecad]

Is your Chrome synced?

Is it pre-loading? (With Chrome closed check in Task Manager to see if anything related to Chrome is running in the background).

If you go to Custom Clean instead of Health Check and do an Ananlze what does it say it is finding for Chrome? Does it say 'Skipped'?

[Cblendad]

Google crash handler and Google crash handler (32bit) are the only things running.  0.1mb and 0.2mb.

Custom clean shows 60 files and 0KB

[Cblendad]

When I run cleaner the chrome is Not in the advanced report as cleaned

[Andavari]

One thing to try is this:
https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/40285-ccleaner-not-deleting-google-chrome-history-fix/

May seem unrelated and old but can fix issues with CCleaner being unable to clean Google Chrome due to it being resident and running in the background.

[nukecad]

Try that from Andavari.

It could well be those running crash handlers that are causing what you are seeing. They create reports about how Chrome is working and send them back to Google.
https://www.file.net/process/googlecrashhandler.exe.html
 

Quote

The genuine GoogleCrashHandler.exe file is a software component of Google Updater by Google.
GoogleCrashHandler.exe is an executable file that belongs to Google Updater, a package management system that downloads, installs, removes and automatically updates Google applications. This file sends crash reports back to Google for analysis. This is not a critical Windows component and should be removed if known to cause problems.

 

Going back to that link I gave at first (you did read it didn't you?) do you have any 'Live Tiles' on your Start menu?

[Cblendad]

Great,  thanks.  I'll give it a go when I get back to the office and advise.

[Cblendad]

 

The PC Repair didn't show anything internet related except that I evidently gave it access to my saved passwords, which is kind of scary.

here's what show for Startup

[Cblendad]

And, yes, I read the link on tracking files.  It is intersting to me that when I first downloaded CCleaner, it removed all trackers.  Then, over time - probably 3 or 4 months?, the Trackers remaining began to slowly build up and be resistent to cleaning.  In other words, the number of trackers remaining has never gone down, it has always gone up.  Today, there were 64 trackers, only 4 were removed and 60 remain.

[nukecad]

I still suspect those crash handlers.

With Chrome closed open Task Manager, right click on those two google crash hadlers in turn and 'End Task'.

Then run CCleaner and see if it now removes those entries.

If it does then it shows that it is indeed the crash handlers that are keeping those files open so that CCleaner can't clean them.

Just in case it's something else though I'll ask again: Do you have any 'Live Tiles' on your Start menu?
By that I mean any any tile that shows video, animation, or updates what it shows, eg. news, weather, etc.

Let us know if 'End Task' on the crash handlers then running CCleaner works, if not we'll try something else to track down just what isn't being cleaned.

[Cblendad]

Ended both, ran cleaner, same result. 60 remaining.  I have zero live tiles on start menu.  I use Norton and have forever, I use CCleaner, I use Duckduckgo, haven't watched netflix in a year or more - or any other streaming service, kids don't play games on this laptop, no FB, Twit, etc.

 

[nukecad]

Quote

the Trackers remaining began to slowly build up and be resistent to cleaning.  In other words, the number of trackers remaining has never gone down, it has always gone up.

That sounds as if something is opening a new file everytime you launch Chrome but not closing them when you leave Chrome, so something is opening more and more files and leaving them open.
(Some browser extensions can do things like that if poorly written).

So, time to roll our sleeves up.
PS. We seem to be on opposite sides of the Atlantic, it's gone midnight here (and I may fall asleep), so let's do a couple at once.
(Don't mind if I give too simple instructions, they are for others who may be reading this in months to come).

One problem is that Health Check will not tell us exactly what it is finding, so in step 2 if it's needed we'll try to see if Custom Clean will give us any clues.

1: Restart your computer. (Start menu>Power Button>Restart).
That's 'Restart' not Shutdown, on Windows 10 a Shutdown is not a full Restart.
Once it's restarted run CCleaner Health Check before doing anything else and see if it removes the annoyance now.

If that doesn't work then:

2: Using Custom Clean to check what CCleaner is finding:
In CCleaner go to Options>Advanced and set the results level to 'File list'.
Go to Custom Clean, Applications tab, and make a note of what you have ticked for Chrome, then right click on on the Chrome title.
Select 'Check All', it should give you a warning about Saved Passwords - say OK because we are not actually going to clean anything.
If you want to make sure then untick Saved passwords.
Right click the title again and select 'Analyze Chrome'.
Screenshot the Analyze results and post it in your reply. (It will only show 19 on the first page but that one will probably be enough to give us the idea if it's finding anything).
Put your ticks for Chrome back to how they were then close CCleaner using the 'X'.

EDIT- Forgot, you may want to set the report level back to Advanced Report rather than File List.

[Cblendad]

OK, so, nothing worked and we're up to 62 trackers remaining.  My Laptop is running extremely slow now, though, with "program not responding" notices at the top of the page for Word.  Screenshots are in order: Health Check 65 trackers, Privacy info, Space info, 3 trackers removed after running "make it better", The Analyze Google results pg 1, then Pg2, then Analyze everything but Google results Pg1, then Pg3, then re-ran the Health Check - now showing 62 trackers

CCLeaner Results 2-27-2021.pdf

[nukecad]

Looking at the Custom Clean results:
Tthose 20+ files at the start are coming from a CashBack extension in Chrome (They are all empty files).
You then have some other Chrome files.
Then 20 or so Microsoft Office files.
Then some more Chrome files.
And some more from the CashBack extension.

Overall it looks like Custom Clean had found around 80 files to be cleaned.
If 20 of those are the Office files that leaves around 60 'trackers' for Health Check to see.
(And the fact that the Office files are there is interesting in itself, and helps point to what the problem may be).

The main thing that jumps out is that all but one of the files in your screenshots are located in C:\Users\Debbie\AppData\Local\

The few that Health Check is cleaning are probably the very few that are not in C:\Users\Debbie\......

That suggests to me that it is a Windows permissions problem and Windows is not letting you delete anything from below \AppData\Local\
Possibly from even higher, and you may find that you can't delete anything below C:\Users\Debbie\

Are you logged in as Debbie when you are running CCleaner?
Are there any other admin accounts on the computer that you could run CCleaner from?

CCleaner Pro can clean all accounts on a computer when run from an admin account. Options>Users>All users.
So another admin account may be able to clean the 'Debbie\AppData\Local files.
But before you try that:

You can try testing that it's a permissions problem by trying to delete a file yourself in File Explorer.
Picking one from you results - navigate to C:Users\Debbie\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Session Storage and try to delete 000003.log

Note that AppData is a hidden folder so to navigate to it you'll have to have set file explorer to show hidden items (view menu) if it isn't set already.

I'm guessing that you won't be able to delete that file.

If I'm right then that's because something has changed debbies permissions, or Debbies profile has become corrupt. (Corrupt profiles sometimes happen).

So now try the CCleaner clean of  'all users' from a different admin account - if you have one.

This tells you about checking, and changing, a users permissions. You can use it to see what permissions Debbie to C:\Users\Debbie and downwards :
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-take-ownership-files-and-folders-windows-10

If it's a corrupted profile then the usual fix is to create a new user account and remove the corrupt one after copying files to the new one.
See 'My computer is in a Workgroup' in this Microsoft article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/fix-a-corrupted-user-profile-in-windows-1cf41c18-7ce3-12f9-8e1d-95896661c5c9

Hopefully something in all that will help.

 

[Cblendad]

In checking the session storage, it is empty. "Debbie" is the Admin. The ony other User is "Public"

[nukecad]

11 hours ago, Cblendad said:

In checking the session storage, it is empty. "Debbie" is the Admin. The ony other User is "Public"

Now that is very odd, because your Screenshots show that Custom Clean was finding files in there to be cleaned.
So something in Windows (probably the Master File Table) thinks that they are still there.

 

Just to double check; did you run Custom Clean following that Analyze which could have removed them? Does CCleaner Custom Clean still say that those files are there?
How about the Office files, are those files still found by Custom Clean but not actually there either?

PS. You can usually right-click any file in the Analyze results and 'Open containing folder' as a quick way to check the folder.
If the file isn't actually there then I'm not exactly sure what it will do in your case, I suspect that it won't show 'Open containing folder'.

If Custom Clean does still find those files to clean when they are not really there then it shows there is a disjoint somewhere in Windows.
There are a few thing you can do to try and fix that.

The first thing I would do, if you haven't already, is make a backup of your files, documents, pictures, etc. to an external disc or memory stick and then put it somewhere safe.
It's always a good idea to make regular backups of your important data, and especially before running any system tools..

Next I'd run the Windows Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) and the System File Checker (SFC) to check and fix errors.
These tools can take a bit of time, DISM in particular may look as if it's not even started for a few minutes, have patience.

This Microsoft article gives instructions (It's not difficult but you might want to write it down before starting) : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-system-file-checker-in-windows-10-365e0031-36b1-6031-f804-8fd86e0ef4ca

You could just try sfc /scannow without the DISM first, but if a jobs worth doing ....

Once those have done restart your machine and check to see if CCleaner is still finding those files.

[Cblendad]

I'll try all that. I always have everything backed up onto my portable SSD.  Once bitten...Thanks