Core How-Tos

Cookies, storage and site data

Three tools under This page in DevTools+ by URLflows deal with what a site keeps in your browser: Cookies and storage to see and edit it, Clear site data to wipe it, and Site switches for Chrome's per-site settings.

See and edit cookies and storage

  1. Open the page, click the DevTools+ icon in the toolbar and click Cookies and storage.
  2. Choose Cookies, Local storage or Session storage. A line shows how many there are and roughly how much they hold.
  3. Type in Filter by name or value to narrow the list.
  4. Click an entry to open it. Change the value and press Save, or press Copy or Delete. A value that's JSON offers Format the JSON.

Cookies show their domain and path, when they expire (or Session), and whether they're Secure, HttpOnly, SameSite or Partitioned. HttpOnly cookies are included: the page's own scripts can't read them, but DevTools+ can. Changes apply to the page straight away.

Add, delete and copy

  • Press + (Add) for a new cookie or key: give it a name and a value and press Add.
  • Delete all deletes everything in the list; with a filter typed, it becomes Delete the … shown. You're asked first. Deleting cookies can sign you out of the site, and deleting storage can lose saved settings or drafts.
  • The copy button in the header (Copy all as JSON) copies what's shown as JSON.

Clear site data

Open Clear site data from the toolbar panel. It has three parts:

  • Reload: Hard reload skips the cache once; Empty cache and reload clears this site's cache first.
  • This site: tick Cookies (it shows how many), Cached files and Site storage (local storage, IndexedDB, Cache Storage, service workers and file systems), and choose whether to Reload the page afterwards. Press Clear for this site; you're told what will go and asked to confirm.
  • Every site: choose Last hour, Last 24 hours or All time and press Clear cookies and cache everywhere. It signs you out of most sites, but keeps your passwords, bookmarks, history and autofill. For anything else, the link opens Chrome's Clear browsing data.

Clearing can't be undone.

Switch site settings

  1. Open the site and click Site switches.
  2. For JavaScript, Images and Pop-ups and redirects, choose Allow or Block. For Notifications, Location, Camera and Microphone, choose Allow, Block or Ask.
  3. Press Reload to apply. Changes apply to new page loads.

These are Chrome's own site settings; the button in the header opens all of this site's settings in Chrome. Chrome only lets an extension undo its own changes, all at once: use Settings → Resets → Site switches. Settings you made in Chrome yourself stay.

Pages they can't reach

Chrome's own pages have no cookies or site settings, and Chrome keeps them and the Chrome Web Store off limits. A sandboxed page, or a site whose storage is blocked, can't use local or session storage, and the tool says so.

Related guides

Next, read Change requests with request rules, Encode, decode and other utilities or Privacy & permissions.