Chrome "clear cookies on exit" feature does not work

I'd like to remove cookies when I close Chrome, but only for a certain site. Chrome can do this, or says it can, but it doesn't work. When I restart Chrome the cookie for the site is still there. I thought maybe a chrome process was sticking around and keeping the cookie alive, but I checked in the task manager and there were no Chrome processes left.

1. Settings->Advanced->Privacy and Security->Content Settings->Cookies->Clear on Exit

However if I visit the site, then close Chrome and restart, there is still a cookie there from the site. You can see the cookie in "See all cookies and site data" (Settings->Advanced->Privacy and Security->Content Settings->Cookies->See all cookies and site data).

UPDATE after disabling all extensions, the 1 cookie still remains.

Solution 1:

I see that you first posted this issue around 12 months ago (FEB 18). Fast forward 12 months later to FEB 19 and it is still an issue. This feature to 'Clear on exit' in the Chrome/Privacy and security/Content settings/Cookies area is not working. Cookies are still retained for any added sites after Chrome restarts.

I have a feeling that this has something to do with not interfering with subscription paywalls, but I digress...

There is a manual workaround for this. While not fully automated (or ideal!), it barely takes a few seconds to do.

One-off step In the Chrome browser URL bar, directly input the path 'chrome://settings/siteData' then save a bookmark to it. If - like me - you don't mind having the Chrome bookmarks bar always visible, it gives you instant access to manually clear cookies by site.

At the start of every session (only if you will be visiting the site in question)

1. Click on the bookmark
2. Search for the cookie(s) in question
3. Click on the trash icon to clear them

Note: you don't need to restart the browser after the above steps.

Hope this helps.

Solution 2:

I think this may be because your cookie says www.reddit.com but your rule says reddit.com. When adding a site, the example shows [*.] at the start:

Try changing it to [*.]reddit.com.

Solution 3:

This is definitely a bug, I noticed it recently, imagine my horror when I had thousands of cookies, even though I had set chrome to clear cookies on exit several months ago. Didn't have any such issue on Firefox.