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delete a web address from address bar drop-down list - old instructions don't work

  • 5 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Shift+Delete no longer works to clear items from the dropdown search bar. It *seems* to work, the unwanted item disappears when you highlight it (using down arrow, don't just mouse over it) and press shift+delete, but the item is back again the next time you use the search bar. I notice a lot of other people are reporting this.

Shift+Delete no longer works to clear items from the dropdown search bar. It *seems* to work, the unwanted item disappears when you highlight it (using down arrow, don't just mouse over it) and press shift+delete, but the item is back again the next time you use the search bar. I notice a lot of other people are reporting this.

All Replies (5)

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I'm unable to reproduce the issue. Make sure you are updated to Firefox version 70.0. If this doesn't work, restart your Firefox instance.

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Thank you, I have updated and restarted, but unfortunately this did not fix it.

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Shift + Delete should work for removing a history item. It won't work for bookmarked pages (i.e. items that have a star) and for suggestions.

You can check for problems with the places.sqlite and favicons.sqlite files in the Firefox profile folder.

  • use "Verify Integrity" button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page

In case errors are reported with "Verify Integrity" close and restart Firefox and retry.

See also:

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Okay, I'm not sure what I did, but it seems to be fixed! Thank you. What do I do if I want to clear out all of the history from the search bar dropdown?

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This about using the location bar for doing the searches (i.e. not the separate search bar on the Navigation Toolbar)?

If you have a lot of history to clear then you can remove places.sqlite with Firefox closed and let Firefox rebuild the bookmarks from a backup in the bookmarkbackups folder.

You can use the button on the "Help -> Troubleshooting Information" (about:support) page to go to the current Firefox profile folder or use the about:profiles page (root location).