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How to remove typed-in URLs from browser history in Firefox?

rated 0 times [ 5] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 16255 / 2 Years ago, fri, april 29, 2022, 11:01:49

I know I can remove visited pages from the history via History→Show all History, and simply mark the unwanted entries plus hit the Delete key. But this seems not to remove the URLs I've typed into the address bar when calling up those pages. So they are still used to predict the URLs I want to type in later. Especially with sites one heavily frequents (like here on the StackExchange network), this clutters up the list of suggested URLs.

Is there any way to remove the "typed URLs" from the browser history completely? Preferable with some easy clicks for the end-user -- but I wouldn't mind doing so via command-line if necessary (e.g. modifying Firefox's sqlite databases directly).

Edit: Thanks to Dan's answer a part of my issue is explained -- and I found out I missed to fully describe it. Until reading Dan's explanations, I didn't see some of the details.

So let's say I've visited http://readwrite.com/somearticle and http://readwrite.com/otherarticle. And of course a lot of other pages having an "r" somewhere in their URL. Now, on an empty urlbar, I type an "r". Immediately, auto-complete fills that up with "readwrite.com" (not one of the full URLs), and the drop-down shows a bunch of other pages (but none from readwrite.com).

Dan's first method doesn't work, as the auto-completed string is not contained in the dropdown

Dan's second suggestion (switching auto-complete off altogether) is no option for me, I just want to get rid of some specific "suggestions"

I have no matching bookmark (to be more specific: none for readwrite.com)

So how to get rid of that "readwrite.com" suggestion? I've checked the entire history and made sure there's no entry left for it. I've also checked my bookmarks, no traces there either.

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ainubt

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1 Year ago

answered 2 Years ago warrdel · Accepted Answer

As all things accessible via Firefox's default interface seemed to fail, I decided to take the "deep-dive" approach. So I installed the SQLite Manager plugin, opened the places.sqlite file from within my firefox user profile directory (Menü: Database → Connect Database), and checked the moz_places table (select it in the left pane of SQLite manager) via the search function (in the big right pane: Tab Browse and Search, there the "Search" button) for the "offending" url. The corresponding SQL-Statement (for the Execute SQL tab) would have been:

SELECT * FROM moz_places WHERE url LIKE '%readwrite.com%';

For users prefering the graphical way:

^{Screenshot of the search filter (click image to enlarge)}

As it turned out, there was exactly one hit with a full URL, which did not show up when filtering the browser history/bookmarks! So I took the freedom to delete that record, and tried my urlbar again: Yeah, looks like that solved the issue! But why so difficult, Mozilla?

EDIT: Keep in mind that "operating directly at the heart" you might "kill the cat". Be careful modifying Firefox' databases directly -- or you might end up with inconsistent bookmarks or worse! Always cross-check before deleting, for example.