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Help How do I clear the default browser navigation history?

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plnelson

Well-Known Member
How do I clear the default browser navigation history? I'm referring to where you go when you tap the browser's "back" button. As far as i can tell, if I hit the back button enough I can go back to every website I've ever visited!

Here's what I've tried:
1. (menu) Settings > Privacy and security > Clear history, Clear cache . - this didn't seem to have any effect

2. Tap the "star" next to the URL box; tap History tab; (menu) Clear history. - this also didn't seem to have any effect

I've also tried stopping and restarting the "Internet" (browser) app and doing 1 and 2 before or after, with no results.

N.B. I'm NOT trying to get rid of bookmarks, just browser navigation history.

Thanks in advance.
 
GTWalling said:
Also to add, Clear Data.
Click to expand...

I think that would also clear bookmarks and other settings. I just want to clear the browser navigation history.

The browser menu > Privacy and security has a "Clear history" which SAYS that it clears the "browser navigation history" but it doesn't. Does anyone know what it really does?
 
funkylogik said:
Sorry man.
What browser is it? Most have "clear browsing history" under "privacy"
Click to expand...

It's the default browser - the one that's labelled Internet. And, yes, it DOES have a clear browsing history, and no it doesn't seem to do anything. (all this is in my original post at the top of this thread!)

I had this same problem on my previouis Android phone - an HTC Droid Incredible running 2.2 - and someone said it was reloading visited pages from bookmarks, so before anyone here suggests that I've deleted all but 2 bookmarks, and it had no effect.
 
plnelson said:
How do I clear the default browser navigation history? I'm referring to where you go when you tap the browser's "back" button. As far as i can tell, if I hit the back button enough I can go back to every website I've ever visited!
Click to expand...

Try this:
go to the google.com page

tap on your menu button
a settings menu should open
press privacy and security

there are clear cache and clear history selections there. try clearing history there.
Mine dumped all the histories.... today, this week, this month......

hope it will do for you too!
Aloha!
 
bobolinko said:
Try this:
go to the google.com page

tap on your menu button
a settings menu should open
press privacy and security

there are clear cache and clear history selections there. try clearing history there.
Mine dumped all the histories.... today, this week, this month......

hope it will do for you too!
Aloha!
Click to expand...

That will appear to clear all history, but as the OP states, pressing the move back one page button will still show all previously visited pages.
 
bobolinko said:
Try this:
go to the google.com page

tap on your menu button
a settings menu should open
press privacy and security

there are clear cache and clear history selections there. try clearing history there.
Mine dumped all the histories.... today, this week, this month......

hope it will do for you too!
Aloha!
Click to expand...

Isn't anybody reading the original post? I said I did that did that already! But when I tapped the browser's back button everything was still there. (N.B. - the browser's back button, not the phone's back button) After you did it was your back button grayed out?

BTW, I also downloaded the History Eraser app, which also did nothing.
 
Did you try what i suggested in second post?

Open up second tab. Close first tab.

as in hit menu then new window or the windows button by url and click add at top. Then open windows view and close original window and leave new window open. This effectively kills the back button history trail.
 
legalkill said:
Did you try what i suggested in second post?

Open up second tab. Close first tab.
Click to expand...

No because I had no idea what you meant by "tabs". I can see by this followup that you meant "new window"

( I'm an Android software developer. Tabs are those little affordances across the top or side of a screen that let you select different displays and layouts in a single screen. Here's a beginner's example of Android tabs http://tholix.com/blog/images/Untitled.jpg and here''s a real-world example http://www.simplydroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/site14.png They're called tabs because they are meant to simulate the tabs of pendaflex file folders in an old-fashioned file cabinet)

as in hit menu then new window or the windows button by url and click add at top. Then open windows view and close original window and leave new window open. This effectively kills the back button history trail.
Click to expand...
EXCELLENT! That seems to do the trick. I even power-cycled my phone to make sure the fix was persistent. Thank you.

Anyone have any idea what the ( menu>Privacy and security> ) "clear history" button is intended to do??
 
plnelson said:
It's the default browser - the one that's labelled Internet. And, yes, it DOES have a clear browsing history, and no it doesn't seem to do anything. (all this is in my original post at the top of this thread!)

I had this same problem on my previouis Android phone - an HTC Droid Incredible running 2.2 - and someone said it was reloading visited pages from bookmarks, so before anyone here suggests that I've deleted all but 2 bookmarks, and it had no effect.
Click to expand...

Sounded a bit disrespectful there dude.
i read a lot of threads, cant read them all in detail!
I think theres apps to clear all history

Or you could keep pressing "back" til u get to your very 1st page lol :P
 
plnelson said:
How do I clear the default browser navigation history? I'm referring to where you go when you tap the browser's "back" button. As far as i can tell, if I hit the back button enough I can go back to every website I've ever visited!

Here's what I've tried:
1. (menu) Settings > Privacy and security > Clear history, Clear cache . - this didn't seem to have any effect

2. Tap the "star" next to the URL box; tap History tab; (menu) Clear history. - this also didn't seem to have any effect

I've also tried stopping and restarting the "Internet" (browser) app and doing 1 and 2 before or after, with no results.

N.B. I'm NOT trying to get rid of bookmarks, just browser navigation history.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

yes yes yes.... I know, this thread is three years old, but #1 it is still an issue even on the latest CyanogenMod (CM13 on my GT-i9505 Galaxy S4, 20160208 Nightly) and #2, it comes high on a Google search for this issue ("unable to clear history in cyanogenmod browser").

Same as the original poster, the app I was using was the stock Cyanogenmod "Browser" (for the internet) - some people have confused this with Chrome / other browsers.... in CyanogenMod, this is now (quite confusingly) called "Browser".

As discussed above: "Settings > Privacy and security > Clear history, Clear cache . - this didn't seem to have any effect" - same issue that I saw.

SOLUTION:
I managed to do it by going into System Settings, Apps, then selecting the top right drop down and choosing "Show System"... then I could find "Browser" in the list, then I did the following:
1) Force Stop (this may not be required, but force of habit)
2) select storage
2a) clear cache
2b) clear data

Relaunched Browser and confirmed that all history was gone.

WARNING: I assume that this WILL also clear Bookmarks, but I have my Bookmarks on my Google account and this only clears the local data + cache, so I didn't concern myself about this.
 
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