How to delete autocomplete entries in Firefox and Chrome

Martin Brinkmann
Aug 23, 2018
Firefox, Google Chrome
|
19

Firefox and Chrome record what users type in the address bar, search bar, and in web forms to a local database of autocomplete entries by default.

When a user uses the same form field or browser element again at a later point in time and starts to type characters that match saved records, suggestions are displayed to speed up the process.

All it takes is to activate one of the suggestions, by mouse, touch or keyboard to load it; this speeds up the process since you don't have to type the whole word, phrase or character set anymore.

Tip: if you just want to delete autocomplete entries from Firefox's or Chromes address bar, check out this guide for details.

Removing autocomplete suggestions

It happens, however, that you encounter suggestions that are not useful anymore. Maybe you miss-typed a word or phrase and it appears all the time in the list of suggestions. Or you used a phrase in the past but don't have any use for it anymore.

chrome autocomplete

You may have tried to remove these entries in the past, for instance by right-clicking on them or looking through the provided settings to find management interfaces.

Problem is, no browser displays a list of all autocomplete entries in its interface and it may not be obvious how to delete individual entries either as the browser's don't provide tips or suggestions on how to do so.

Note: The following guide focuses on Firefox and Google Chrome. The method described in the article should work in Firefox or Chromium-based browsers such as Pale Moon, Waterfox, Vivaldi, or Opera as well.

You have two options to deal with the issue:

  1. Delete suggestions individually.
  2. Clear browsing data and make sure form data is included when you purge it.

Delete Suggestions individually

All you need to do to delete individual suggestions from Firefox's or Chrome's address bar, search bar, or other form fields displayed on sites open in the browsers is the following

Firefox

  1. Use the up and down keys on the keyboard to mark the entry that you want to delete.
  2. Hit the Delete-key on your keyboard. If Delete does not work, use Shift-Delete instead.

Chrome

  1. Use the up and down arrow keys to select an autocomplete suggestion.
  2. Use Shift-Delete to remove it from Chrome's memory.

Note that you can activate form fields without typing anything by activating the field and pressing the Down-key on the keyboard.

The Page Up and Page Down keys should work as well to browse the selection of autocomplete entries.

I suggest you verify that entries have indeed been removed by repeating the steps.

Clear the Form History

If you clear the form history anything that you entered in the past is removed. You start again with an empty database that will get filled as you use the Web.

Firefox

  1. Load about:preferences#privacy in the browser's address bar.
  2. Select the Clear History button on the page.
  3. Make sure "Form & Search History is checked". Make sure you uncheck other entries other data sets that you don't want deleted.
  4. Verify that the "time range to clear" is set to everything.
  5. Click on the Clear Now button.

Chrome

chrome delete form data

Google changed the clear browsing data dialog recently.

  1. Load chrome://settings/clearBrowserData in the browser's address bar.
  2. Switch to the Advanced tab.
  3. Make sure Autofill form data is checked. Make sure data that you don't want deleted is unchecked.
  4. Click on Clear Data to remove it.

Check out this guide on clearing browsing data in Chrome.

Blocking the form history

Web browsers include options to block the recording of form entries that you type. Some Internet users may prefer to disable the recording entirely in the browser of choice:

Mozilla Firefox

remember search form history

  1. Load about:preferences#privacy in the Firefox address bar.
  2. Scroll down to History.
  3. Set the History option to "Use custom setting for".
  4. Remove the checkmark from "Remember search and form history".

Google Chrome

chrome disable autofill form

  1. Load chrome://settings/autofill in the browser's address bar.
  2. Toggle the Autofill forms option on the page so that the entry is displayed in gray (inactive).

Closing Words

Suggestions that web browsers display in the address bar, search forms, and other form fields can be useful as they may speed up the process of repeating certain actions without having to type the whole request manually each time.

Options to delete unused form records older than 30 days or so would be useful in my opinion as it would remove older entries from the database which most likely are not needed anymore.

Now You: How do you handle autofill in your browser?

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Summary
How to delete autocomplete entries in Firefox and Chrome
Article Name
How to delete autocomplete entries in Firefox and Chrome
Description
The guide explains how you can delete individual form suggestions or address bar locations from Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Marcela said on April 14, 2021 at 10:00 pm
    Reply

    This REALLY helped! Thanks!

  2. Bill said on September 1, 2020 at 10:34 pm
    Reply

    This does not work on Firefox – when I hit DELETE or SHIFT-DELETE when the problematic website address is displayed, the address IS deleted, but only until I type those same characters again…then it reappears.

    1. Anonymous said on August 25, 2021 at 12:24 am
      Reply

      Through trial and error, I found that pressing and holding down the Enter key when highlighting an autocomplete entry, and then pressing the Delete key, will remove the item.

  3. Anonymous said on July 23, 2020 at 2:15 am
    Reply

    thank you

  4. jelabarre said on February 11, 2020 at 11:39 pm
    Reply

    Not very useful if you’re not on the page with the “autofill” entries.

  5. Dan said on January 20, 2020 at 11:02 pm
    Reply

    Not sure if it was mentioned: On a Mac there is no Delete key (well there is, but it acts a Backspace). To simulate the normal Delete key, on a Mac you need to press Fn-Delete.

    So, to do Shift-Delete, as suggested above or in the comments, on a Mac, you need to do:
    Shift-Fn-Delete.

  6. Roland said on March 4, 2019 at 9:58 am
    Reply

    well, like discussed in many forums the deletion of auto-suggested URLs does not work.

    1. HM said on January 17, 2020 at 12:29 pm
      Reply

      As of now, it is shift+delete, see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/remove-websites-address-bar-suggestions. I am quite sure that it once was just delete.

    2. Dausuul said on April 4, 2019 at 6:44 pm
      Reply

      It works for me… temporarily. The bad URL disappears and stops being suggested. But after a week or two, it pops up again. I am quite certain that I am not typing it in by mistake–the bad URL consists of the correct URL with an underscore tacked onto the end, the correct URL ends with “com”, and the underscore key is nowhere near the “M” key. (And I almost never type out the full URL anyway.)

      I’m starting to suspect that it’s due to using Chrome on multiple computers. The bad URL hides on one computer when I delete it from another, and then Chrome syncs up and it reinfects the “cleaned” Chrome.

      I suppose I will have to make a concerted effort to remove it from all my computers at once.

  7. Dislike Firefox said on December 19, 2018 at 8:59 am
    Reply

    Does not work with latest Firefox 64.

    I just key in an alphabet and Firefox immediately shows a past Google search URL string in the URL field. Tried to delete it by all the ways and means, like clearing all data, everything…..and using keyboard to Shift-Delete….etc, etc.

    It is STILL there.

    1. Anonymous23 said on December 13, 2019 at 6:01 pm
      Reply

      You’re right. Unfortunately the only way to clean the auto-suggested URLs in Firefox address bar is to delete the file “places.sqlite” from your Firefox profile folder. The problem is that this file also contains your bookmarks and some other stuff, and Firefox won’t clean it even if you tell it to clear all history.

      Also, CCleaner won’t touch this file (even with winapp2.ini), and on my test machine (Windows 10 1909) Privazer and Bleachbit also failed to clean it.

  8. WorknMan said on August 24, 2018 at 12:29 am
    Reply

    How do you do this in Firefox with the URL bar? I hit the delete key and the entry disappears, but then it comes right back the next time :(

    1. TelV said on August 24, 2018 at 10:12 am
      Reply

      It’s held in cache. You can set FF and forks such Waterfox to delete the cache on exit. Go to about:preferences#privacy and then click the Settings button where it reads “Clear history when Firefox closes” and then checkmark the Cache box.

  9. Clairvaux said on August 23, 2018 at 7:25 pm
    Reply

    Auto-complete is very useful. It’s also frightening, as it has the potential for leaking personal info with disastrous consequences.

    I use Autocomplete heavily in sites such as this one, to fill-in my identifiers. I also periodically clean-up by hand.

    Autocomplete is also very useful in the address bar. I don’t really understand how it works. I don’t feel in control. Firefox (and other browsers) do things for you, while telling you mummy knows best. This is unnerving, especially for a program which is supposed to be privacy-conscious.

  10. Anonymous said on August 23, 2018 at 3:12 pm
    Reply

    Firefox users should configure the browser to not keep local databases with private information (for example browsing history) every time it’s not really necessary, because Mozilla gets money for using them to send the user personalized advertising, even if he opted out of data collection. Some of those local databases may not yet be used for that purpose, but for how long ?

    1. Anonymous said on August 23, 2018 at 6:00 pm
      Reply

      History is useful if you often open a site, just type the site name and it will show on the auto complete.

      Firefox used to have option to keep history fox xx days. I set auto delete history for about 3 months, so it will auto delete if I don’t open the site again in 3 months. I’m sad sad It’s not possible anymore.

      1. Anonymous said on August 24, 2018 at 7:25 am
        Reply

        >Firefox used to have option to keep history fox xx days.

        The Historia add-on can do this.
        https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/historia/

  11. John G. said on August 23, 2018 at 3:03 pm
    Reply

    Very nice and helpful information about form-filling! Thanks! :)
    * I will sign as @John G. because there were two @John users.

  12. TelV said on August 23, 2018 at 2:19 pm
    Reply

    An addition to Firefox, Waterfox, Basilisk and similar is to set about:config?filter=browser.urlbar.maxRichResults to a smaller number than the default 10. I have mine set to 4 which restricts the results to a list of 3 below the one in the location bar.

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