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I'm trying to get more control over the technology I use, and I would like to disable all the autocomplete activity that happens in the Firefox mobile browser for android.

There is a setting called browser.urlbar.autocomplete.enabled, but it doesn't seem to do anything when you set it to false - the urlbar still autocompletes with pages I have previously visited, favorites, previous searches etc.

I would like to completely prevent this behavior - a blank search bar that makes no suggestions and just searches for what you type, or if you type a URL it navigates to it.

This seems to be hard!

Any suggestions are appreciated.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

You could try to switch these settings to false on the about:config page:

  • browser.urlbar.suggest.bookmark
  • browser.urlbar.suggest.history
  • browser.urlbar.suggest.openpage
  • browser.urlbar.suggest.searches

I still get suggestions for bookmarks that have a keyword configured, but other than that it seems to work fine.

See also: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1173445

Note: This seems to work only on desktop versions of Firefox.

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  • I do not have those settings. Do I have to create them?
    – Roko Mijic
    Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 12:23
  • I suppose so. Although I already have them, and I'm sure I never created them. Using FF 70
    – Berend
    Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 12:27
  • I am on Firefox 68.1.1 Perhaps I should try updating it through the play store?
    – Roko Mijic
    Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 12:29
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    I see, you're on Android, I missed the tag, sorry. Maybe that's the difference. I have only tried on Windows 10.
    – Berend
    Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 12:31
  • you also missed the word "Android" in the Title ;-0
    – Roko Mijic
    Commented Oct 29, 2019 at 12:34
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An imperfect answer but it kind of works:

  1. Prevent Firefox from remembering any history by following this answer:

Go to about:config. Create a new boolean value (+ icon) called places.history.enabled and set to false.

  1. remove all your bookmarks; depending on how your homepage is set up, they might be quite hard to get at. I had to change my homepage by tapping menu > settings > general > home and then showing the bookmarks button, then going to the bookmarks page and manually deleting all bookmarks, and then hiding the bookmarks button again.
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