Flash Cookies - Anyone Else Having Problems With Them?

[kantuckyII]

I've been having a problem for the last couple of weeks. My browser will crawl and then I have to run my spyware program to remove them and reboot. My PC is immediately restored but it's a pain in the rear. You CANNOT delete them by simply deleting your cookies in your browser as they're in a different location.

Here's some info on them:

Flash cookies are a new way of tracing your movement and storing a lot more information about you than with normal cookies. One major disadvantage of flash cookies is that you can’t locate them in your browser. They are not shown in the list of cookies that you can see when you take a look at the cookies that are currently saved in your web browser. Normal HTTP cookies can’t save more than 4 Kilobyte of data while Flash cookies can save up to 100 Kilobyte. If you want to try out how they work you could do the following.

Go to Youtube, increase or decrease the volume of the videos and delete all cookies afterwards. You will notice that the volume level is still at the same level when you close your browser and open it again. This is done with so called Local Shared Objects, better known as Flash cookies. The main question is of course how a computer can be checked for Flash cookies and how it would be possible to delete those cookies again.

This is actually a very tricky thing. I was searching for a way to check them on my computer but could not find it. After reading some information on the Adobe Flash Player website I was able to realize that the only possibility to check them was to open a page on the Adobe site which would show them.

Rest here with charts..I'm going to try this solution and see what it does for me

[Runner]

With all of the flash that is installed on the majority of the websites, I keep mine deleted on a regular basis, at least once a week, maybe more depending on what I am doing. Its very easy to do. Just need to delete the folders for them. Thats all there is to it.

Gaming and watching online videos that use the flash player is really bad for adding to the cookies. Even though the file size is very small, it can get monotonous at times.

[kantuckyII]

Now, you did understand that deleting your cookies in your browser will NOT remove the flash cookies? They are hidden and they are not accessed in the same way as other cookies.

[henrysteele]

Thanks kantucky for that highly informative link. I deleted the flash cookies being stored, but I did not disable the storage of flash cookies.

I will probably just keep that link in my favorites and clean out the flash cookies every day or so.

Again....great info!

[Runner]

Now, you did understand that deleting your cookies in your browser will NOT remove the flash cookies? They are hidden and they are not accessed in the same way as other cookies.

Yes I know the flash player cookies are not the same as the browser cookies.

Not sure which OS you are using but in XP, they are very accessible. You may have to go your folders and allow the hidden files to be shown, but I don't think that is the case for the flash player. The flash player cookies in XP are in the...

Documents and Settings\User Name\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\ folder

There is a folder with letters and/or numbers, inside the #SharedObjects folder that holds ALL of the flash players cookie folders. Inside those folders are .SOL file, which are the cookies. I simply open up the folder with the letters and/or numbers and delete ALL of the individual folders which will remove any and all cookies once a week.

I also placed the folder with letters and/or numbers on my desktop so all I have to do is click it and delete the contents instead of going through all of the folders

The site that you linked shows how to disable all third party flash player cookies, but that is not a very good option unless you very seldom use the flash players as it will prevent you from seeing certain things that you would want to see and you would have to go to Adobe each time to allow or disallow it.

[kantuckyII]

Well, so far, I've logged into here, Facebook and my YouTube account and had no problem after stipulating that Flash Cookies be not allowed. I just don't see any reason why they need to get that information from me. I'd hope that this hidden cookie source will be outed soon and the browsers themselves will stop or at least let you delete them!

Now, I don't know where I was picking up the bad cookie but it sure was driving me nuts!

[kantuckyII]

Runner? I don't understand, are you saying that I no longer could look at a site built with flash? I'm trying one now and it's working just fine.

I am using XP sp3 by the way..will do so until I'm absolutely forced to switch

[Runner]

No I am not saying that at all.

There are sites that you can view without a problem. But for me for example, I play some of the flash games through Facebook and by having it disabled, I found that some of the games will not load because the cookies NEED to be able to enter your computer to work along side all other items that are needed for them, like your normal cookies and temporary internet files.

There are some sites that have the flash or animation that requires the flash player cookies. All of them are not set up that way, but many are.

[vids4ckcrash]

Each day you learn something, it is a better day. Thanks for this. I will spend some time researching this.

But, what if you do a global search of *.sol, and then delete all of these files in the search window? Highlighting the files and holding shift while pressing delete and they are gone for good.

[Runner]

Getting rid of the .sol files is what you want to do. They should all be located in the folder I described if you are running XP.

I just went to Start--->Search and typed in .sol and none came up, yet I have some in that folder after checking it. I don't know why the search would not find them unless it because they are part of the program so they can't be accidentally deleted since they are in the Application Data folder.

I removed all of mine earlier and went to the Adobe site to the manager and they were still listed in there. NOT because they were still in use, but because they had previously been accessed. It keeps a running record of all sites/links that you have visited in the pat that uses Flash. But actually once they are removed from your computer, they are gone......until you visit those sites again.

[vids4ckcrash]

This computer has XP Home and they were found using *.sol as a global search.

I have laptops with XP Pro, Vista (soon to go to 7) and Win 7, so I will check them when I have time.

Desktops with 7 and XP-Pro and will check them. I have found that computer with the same OS do not always work the same way.

I have a bad habit of holding shift while deleting and sometimes it gets me in trouble. But it keeps the Recycle bin a little cleaner.