Opera doesn't clean history

Opera doesn't clean history

When I manually clean my history and restart opera it doesn't work - history is still full. This problem occurs only in Opera 12.00. Is there any solution to this problem? Thank you!

Your first have to turn on "private browsing"
"Sometimes we visit pages that we would rather forget. For this, Opera has a private browsing mode. When you close a private tab or private window, Opera will erase browsing history, cookies, any login information and cache related to the tab or window. To open a new private tab, simply right-click on the New tab button or use the Opera menu (File menu on Mac)."
http://www.opera.com/press/resources/campaign/opera12/

Thanks, but how to clean existing history?

Did you try tools > delete private data? Select 'more' to check boxes.

I had same problem and deleting private data was the solution

It really helps, thanks!

Ok, but what if you don't want to erase all history through "delete private data", instead I want to erase some of the entries in the History, just some certain pages? You could do that in previous versions, now you can't in Opera 12..Ok, there is delete private browsing and private tabs, but this was working perfectly fine and this is the way i want do to do it in the future, and you seriously need to solve this problem..

You can go in the history, r-click an item and select delete.

Another user here supporting the observation that Opera12 will not allow you to SELECTIVELY delete history items.

The comments by Iopera re: private mode browsing and deleting private data, or even r-click and delete, are missing the point being made:

Prior version: Go into Tools - History, delete a history item - it is gone. Close Opera, then Open Opera, it is still gone.

Opera12: Go into Tools - History, delete a history item - it is gone. Close Opera, the Open Opera, it has re-appeared.

Conclusion: A bug in Opera12 that needs to be fixed - or a new default parameter setting/value that prevents one from modifying history as many users have done in the past.

Other posts also seem to indicate a widespread issue with cleaning history in total, not just selectively. Does anybody have an acknowledgement of this from the developers?

OK - having looked at a couple of posts elsewhere, I decided to experiment with some of the files.

After renaming the "vlink4.dat" file, I was able to delete history (selectively) again.

The data in "global_history.dat" and "vlink4.dat" seem similar. I don't know for sure, but I believe that Opera12 copied the contents of "vlink4.dat" to the more specific filename of "global_history.dat".

However, when you start an Opera12 session, it appears to read the contents of both files in when loading, but only operate on the data in global_history.dat (when deleting). By renaming the vlink4.dat I was able to delete history and not have it come back.

Here's the bad news: As soon as you start browsing again, an empty "vlink4.dat" file is recreated, and the problem starts all over again.

Here's to hoping the developers can close in on the snippets of code related to this and get an update issued.

I have exactly the same problem with Opera 12 as vivid3d and have come to a similar conclusion.
In previous versions it was possible to open history, highlight an item and press the delete key or right click->delete and that item was gone forever.
In Opera 12 deleting either individual items or even the full history by the normal methods appears to remove them but they simply reappear when Opera is re-launched.
The complete history can be permanently removed by deleting both vlink4.dat and global_history.dat (which I think used to be called global.dat in earlier versions) but the issue of irremovable items re-appears once more browsing has been done.
I'm afraid Opera 12 is a retrograde step (especially the removal of Unite)

Possible Workaround...

I do not know the long term effects of this but it is what I've done:

there are mutiple "vlink4.dat" files all but one are 1kb in size and they contain only a few unprintable characters.
Just do not pick one associated with a Widget.
The other file will contain the last history remembered by Opera.
Rename this file and copy one of the other files into its folder.
Then make it Read Only.

I used to depend on Tools > Preferences > Advanced > History, Delete on Exit... that no longer seems to work in version 12.
Also I do not believe Delete Private Data affects the History.

spryteLy has nailed it with the old "read-only" permission trick.

Now if I only knew the purpose in life held by the vlink4.dat file in the profile root directory I would know what I was locking out and why ...

Is it the vestigial tail of Opera?

Originally posted by vivid3d:

spryteLy has nailed it with the old "read-only" permission trick.

Now if I only knew the purpose in life held by the vlink4.dat file in the profile root directory I would know what I was locking out and why ...

Is it the vestigial tail of Opera?

Thanx
Hopefully someone will enlighten us...

Update on

Possible Workaround...

CleanAfterMe by Nirsoft Software seems to effectively clear Opera's History without having to go through the trouble of finding the vlink4.dat file and setting permissions to Read Only.

Note some of Nirsoft's software may trigger False Positive with some anti-virus software. See his Blog for details.

The one sure way I have found to delete history from Opera 12, is to use CCleaner. This will leave your bookmarks intact and only delete the history.

Doesn't it cross your mind guys that vlink4.dat is Opera way to trace user browsing habits, since it can be uploaded by Opera periodically without your knowledge to their DB, and used to improve speed of some services like Opera Turbo. After all, Opera Turbo is one of main tools allowing Opera Software to generate profit from Smart Device operations like Smart Phones etc.

This data about you can also be sold to web advertisers like Google to place targeted ads on the webpages you're opening from any website using such services. Not to mention, Opera Software might friendly share your web browsing history with "authorities" upon request. Don't you see, they decided to ignore this thread, giving no answers what vlink4.dat is used for, and why it doesn't allow to permanently delete history.

vlink.dat was used in the far past to store the 'visited links' history, but in recent versions there was just a 12 byte file hanging around without use. I've no idea what exactly changed, but there is indeed a problem that some (not all) people see. We've got a prioritized bug on it: CORE-47137

Just to add another voice to this bug report. You cannot permanently delete individual items from the "history." Delete an item, close/reopen Opera, and the item is back. "Workarounds" may or may not work. But we shouldn't have to work around this kind of problem. (Yesterday I was searching for a particular piece of video equipment. After looking at dozens of pages, I found what I was looking for. I deleted the history for "Today," reloaded the page and then checked history again. Sure enough, that one page that wanted to keep a reference to was there all by itself.....Until I close/reopened the browser. This is just an example of why this bug matters.)

A smart colleague found out: this happens with pages with use "Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store" headers. Which is rather ironic in a sense.

If this header means to block caching the page or storing its address, your colleague's conclusion might not be correct. Because ALL history comes back regardless of page headers.

On relevant note, when using Delete Private Data command, it may took several minutes for Opera 12.50 B1497 to erase or it loops - and hangs eventually. I can stop this looping by clicking Erase Cache custom button. What's interesting, I can see the same cache content in opera:cache after clicking that button - it doesn't change now, but always worked before.

Not sure if relevant or not, when dragging a link of an open active (visible at the moment) page in Windows Panel from one window to another, Opera closes. It happens every time, in particular if the open page is a PDF file open in Acrobat plugin inside Opera window. More generally, talking about Opera 12 release, it appears to be a certain built of Opera Next picked randomly and named Opera 12. Its full of bugs (like dragging pages inside Windows Panel btw windows always closes Opera), and contains numerous bugs already fixed in Opera Next. I tried using it for 2 days, and reverted to Opera Next. Why name such buggy package a Release?

Actually bro there is a very easy way to remove this problem first

1. Delete vlink4.dat that can be found in C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Opera\Opera. (user is account name)
if not here you can just search for it.

2. Now start opera a new vlink4.dat will get generated as you exit opera

3. Now go in properties for vlink4.dat and change to Read Only

4. Now you the problem is solved for good.

Your cure, Zorro, worked for two days, but the problem has now returned. As I remarked earlier, CCleaner is the only cure I have found that will permanently erase the history.

With version 12.01 this bug is fixed ... works well now

Originally posted by streunerx:

With version 12.01 this bug is fixed ... works well now

Liar... 12.50 - Opera Next, Fresh Install and it still isn't fixed :@ This bug is driving me crazy!!!

12.50 is not 12.01...

Originally posted by HipHopBlond:

Liar... 12.50 - Opera Next, Fresh Install and it still isn't fixed

Opera 12.01 snapshot build 1520 - From the changelog-

• CORE-47137 Pages with "Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store" not possible to delete from history

In short, this fix would be arriving in 12.50 soon - until then use the stable 12.01 release if this small problem is really so annoying to you.