How do I remove cookies when the browser is closed?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Clear cookies on browser close

When I close the browser, I want to remove cookies. How can I do this?

I think if you set the expiration date to one in the past, the cookies will be deleted once you close the browser. — JCOC611, Feb 13 '11 at 17:33
Have you thought of using a session cookie instead that automatically expires when the browser is closed? — Gumbo, Feb 13 '11 at 17:36
Please clarify your question. By "I" do you mean the user or the programmer? Either one can remove cookies when the browser closes. — John Pick, Feb 13 '11 at 18:35

score 48 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 28 '15 at 08:45

48

If you don't set an expiry date it defaults to expire at the end of the session . Refer this links -

jscookies

edited Jul 28 '15 at 08:45

Tejus Prasad

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answered Feb 13 '11 at 17:38

Nick

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+1 for the real way to do it ;) – Martin Jespersen Feb 13 '11 at 20:00
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Sorry, can you update the link? it's broken now... – miguelmpn Sep 11 '15 at 16:23
Suppose I do close the browser but just close that particular browser "tab", will the cookie for the application of that tab be deleted? Will this behavior be browser specific? – hagrawal7777 Mar 15 '17 at 14:17
@hagrawal when you close the tab, it will close the session and the session cookie will be removed from browser memory. – JacobRossDev Jun 15 '18 at 20:50
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@JacobRossDev Closing the browser tab will not clear the session cookie, it will only be cleared when browser is closed. – hagrawal7777 Jun 17 '18 at 15:27
@hagrawal you're right. when I tested this it worked as I described but this wasn't consistent thru more testing. – JacobRossDev Jun 20 '18 at 19:59
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The link is not accessible now! – MBB Aug 04 '21 at 06:47
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@Tejus Prasad Please update the link, its broken. – sanjeev shetty Oct 24 '21 at 01:55

ayush · Answer 2 · 2011-02-13T17:42:47.323

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taken from here

function del_cookie(name) {
    document.cookie = name +
    '=; expires=Thu, 01-Jan-70 00:00:01 GMT;';
    }

Now all you need to do is to call this del_cookie() function passing it the name of whatever cookie it is that we wish to delete. The function will update the expiry date on the cookie to one long in the past so that the cookie will be considered to be expired and will be ignored by the browser exactly the same as if it didn't exist

to be used something like

<body onload="SetCookie()" onunload="del_cookie()">

edited Feb 13 '11 at 17:42

answered Feb 13 '11 at 17:35

ayush

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you can call this function on "onunload" browser event, and it will detect browser close event and call the function. – GodFather Feb 13 '11 at 17:38
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@God it will also be called every page refresh, hopefully that won't ruin the OP plans.. – Shadow The GPT Wizard Feb 13 '11 at 21:11

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 13 '11 at 17:42

2

You are looking for session cookies.

A tutorial on hwo to create them in JavaScript is available here.

answered Feb 13 '11 at 17:42

Oddthinking

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How do I remove cookies when the browser is closed?

3 Answers3

Linked