Maclive.net:: How to Delete Autofill Options in Firefox

How to Delete Autofill Options in Firefox from General Posts
November 11, 2006

Mozilla recently released Firefox 2.0. While the esthetics of the changes were minimal, the browser has clearly come a long way. With 2.0, the interface icons are more refined and the tabs look a little more polished. Perhaps the most impressive and long overdue feature to be added is spellchecking. But for all of its refinements, sometimes Firefox still manages to leave me frustrated. In this case, the browsers autofill feature can be problematic.

Firefox’s autofill feature can make filling out web based forms a breeze. It can also drive one quite insane. Since filling out forms can sometimes be tedious, Firefox routinely caches recently used values specific to any given form field. This can be a real time saver for people who need to login to password protected areas of different web sites.

But what happens when mistype your username a single time? Suddenly you visit your login screen and Firefox no longer autofills in your login information. Clicking in the field reveals a list of possible user names where there had once only been your own. Now you must select either the correct login name from the list of options, or your typographical error. Why should you be forced to look at your typo every time you login? Isn’t there a way to deleted the incorrect value?

Search Firefox all you like… you simply won’t find a place to clean up the values stored in the autofill for forms. But if you know the trick, its actually very easy to remove the unneeded autofill options from any given field.

When clicking on the offending field (or sometimes double clicking), a list of autofill options will appear. Simply use the keyboards arrow keys to travel down the list until the erroneous value is highlighted. Then, just hold down the Shift key and strike the Delete key. That value will no longer appear in the form field as an autofill option.

This a simple and powerful feature that is simply not well documented. Autofill options are great time savers, but they can also be the source of great frustration. This simple tip can prevent annoyance while restoring productivity.

--
Steve

By smanke at 3:34 PM

Comments: 17

By Anonymous on February 6, 2007 at 7:41 AM

Hey good article.. was searching the net for deleting stored autofill info.. very very valuable info...
Thnks..

By Pauline Ann Fudge on February 16, 2007 at 3:33 PM

Had not completed form before it disappeared from the screen.
How do I find it again?

By smanke on February 17, 2007 at 10:59 AM

If you double click on the field that has saved historic data in it, you will see a list of past entries.

By Rose on March 31, 2007 at 6:01 AM

Thank you, thank you! I have looked for this feature several times, to no avail. Now if we can just get the Mozilla guys to document this.

But I do love Firefox...

By Michael on May 9, 2007 at 12:27 PM

Some tips are simply priceless. This is one! BTW, tip works in Windows too.

By Anonymous on October 28, 2007 at 8:37 AM

Awesome. I'm looking for option
for autofill to remember only last 2 values for a field.

IS there a way to option to do so ?

By smanke on October 28, 2007 at 10:46 AM

Not that I'm aware of.

By bootcbeatz on December 6, 2007 at 6:16 AM

Fantastic explanation! This is the only place on the web I could find thorough information that was WELL WRITTEN! :)

By phobic9 on January 10, 2008 at 10:35 PM

Dude.... I just want to say THANKS... what a great tip!

By ericketeer on March 14, 2008 at 5:30 PM

Thanks a lot for the lists tips ... been wondering how to do that for a long time. First page I look for (this one) and bingo, right on the money

By Jacob on March 19, 2008 at 8:40 PM

Here's the Permanent Solution:
(1.) Click on the Firefox Menu.
(2.) Preferences
(3.) Privacy tab
(4.) Under the History title uncheck the box that reads 'Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar'

I hope this helps.

By Anonymous on December 30, 2008 at 5:04 PM

Thanks!

By Gareth on January 11, 2009 at 10:57 AM

Thank you Jacob, that feature annoyed the pants off me!

By Ben on March 3, 2009 at 3:05 AM

Wow!! - Fantastic. - I accidently wrote my password in the username field instead of the password field, and it's been bugging me for ages that this appears (unencrypted) everytime I log in. - A bit of a security nightmare really. - Your excellent tip saved my bacon. - Thanks!

By channelspace on April 18, 2009 at 9:27 AM

This is an excellent tip! How were you able to find this out?! Thanks a lot.

By Chris on May 18, 2009 at 11:40 PM

I tried to delete an autofill option by removing my it from the drop-down list using Ctrl + Delete. Now it is impossible to (actually) remove it using Shift + Delete, as it still automatically appears in the form but no longer appears in the drop-down list.

By jmc001 on May 28, 2009 at 8:29 AM

Thanks for the tip!
But why did I put up with this for years before searching for a solution?

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