Jan 14, '09 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: Kevvin7
For most of the history of Safari, although the browser did not provide a way of erasing all cookies at shutdown, the facility could be emulated by setting one's ~/Library » Cookies » cookies.plist file to "read only" (see this hint). Since cookies are stored in memory until the browser shuts down, the result was a perfectly normal browser session with no cookies carried to the next session.
This ability went away with 10.5, as a read-only cookie file caused random issues at most sites requiring a login cookie. There was no option but to reset the cookie.plist file to read/write, and delete them by hand every now and then.
The problem has been resolved in 10.5.6, but the technique for achieving it is slightly different -- you now must set the containing folder to read-only, not the file. Read on for a detailed walkthrough, if you need it...
The complete recipe is:
- Launch Safari, then open its Preferences and select the Security tab.
- Click the Show Cookies button, then click Remove All. (Alternatively, keep any cookies you really want), then click Done.
- Quit Safari.
- In the Finder, navigate to ~/Library.
- Select the folder Cookies and press Command-I to open the Get Info window.
- Under Sharing and Permissions, authenticate by clicking the padlock icon.
- Set the privilege next to your username to Read Only, and make sure it is No Access for all other users.
- Close the Get Info window.
