Address bar autocomplete suggestions in Firefox

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  • Revision id: 199931
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  • Creator: Franz_von_Suppe
  • Comment: Changing results on the fly
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The Firefox address bar displays the URL for the web page that you are visiting. When you type in this field, Firefox remembers the pages that you have visited to show autocomplete page suggestions. This article explains how the address bar autocomplete feature works.

The address bar can also be used for Web searches. See these articles for more information:

History, bookmarks, open tabs and sync'ed tabs, sync'ed tabs and Top Sites

Just start typing in the address bar and the autocomplete drop-down will display matching results for:

  • Page titles and web addresses from your history.
  • Page titles, web addresses and tags from your bookmarks.
  • Pages you currently have open in other tabs (see below under Switch to tab).
  • Sync'ed tabs from other devices.
Note: If you click on the address bar (instead of typing into it), a drop-down of your Top Sites will be displayed.

Icons will indicate whether a matching result is an open tab or a bookmark. When you see the page you want, just click on it or use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to highlight it and then press EnterReturn.

Firefox will also suggest popular search suggestions from the default search engine. See Search suggestions in Firefox for more information.

The address bar suggestions adjust based on your browsing behavior, such as how frequently and recently you visited a web page and what result you chose based on what was typed. This way pages you visit all the time will show up at the top of the list, often after typing only one character.

URL autocomplete

In addition to the autocomplete drop-down list for pages you've been to before, Firefox will also complete the URL in the address bar. For example, if you type "aw", Firefox may fill in "esomefoundation.org/" to complete the address "awesomefoundation.org" if you've visited that site before. Pressing EnterReturn in this case would take you directly to that address.

URLAutocomplete75

Switch to tab

The address bar also searches through your open tabs, displaying results with a tab icon and the text "Switch to tab". Selecting these results will switch you to the already open tab instead of creating a duplicate.

SwitchToTab75
To turn off the "Switch to tab" option temporarily, press the ALT key while clicking on the page in the autocomplete list that appears below your address bar. This will open your page in a new tab instead of switching to an existing one.

Search the Web

Beyond searching your history, bookmarks or tags, you can also search the Web right from the address bar.

To learn more, see Search with the Firefox address bar.

Change search settings

You can change the way Web search works in the address bar.

Visit Manage Firefox search settings to learn more.

What can I do to get the best results?

  • When you want to go to a web page you've visited before, type a few letters from its web address or page title. Scroll through the autocomplete entries and find the page in the list (type in another letter if you don't see it listed). Press EnterReturn to go to the selected web address. Firefox will give this entry/result combination higher weight in the future.
  • Do not clear the browsing history - usually the richest source of autocomplete entries is from the title/web address combination. Clearing browsing history will remove these entries from the results.
  • Bookmark and tag frequently used pages. The address bar will match on the name you give the bookmark and also tags associated with the bookmark. See the Bookmarks in Firefox article for more information on how to use bookmarks in Firefox. You can improve your autocomplete results by tagging pages with easily-typed tag names.

How can I control what results the address bar shows me?

Changing your address bar settings

You can turn off the address bar autocomplete feature or restrict the results to exclude your open tabs, bookmarks or browsing history:

  1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and select Settings (select Preferences on older macOS versions).Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings.
  2. Select the Privacy & Security panel.
  3. Below Address Bar, select any of the following:
    address bar settings 57
    • Browsing history: suggests pages that you've previously visited.
    • Bookmarks: suggests pages that you've bookmarked.
    • Open tabs: suggests pages that you have open in another tab.
    • Change preferences for search engine suggestions: To enable or disable search engine suggestions, click this link to be taken to the Search settings panel. Click here to learn more about changing these settings.

Removing autocomplete results

If you want to remove an entry from the autocomplete list:

  1. In the address bar, use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight the entry.
  2. Press DeleteShift+DeleteShift+Delete to remove the item from the list.

If you want to remove all the history results from the autocomplete list, clear Firefox's browsing history.

Note: Autocomplete items from bookmarks will not be removed from the results if you attempt to delete them or clear the browsing history. These items have a star. To remove these items, delete the associated bookmark, or exclude bookmarks in the address bar settings.

Changing results on the fly

By default, when you type search terms in the address bar, the list under it shows search suggestions from the default search engine, and pages (bookmarks, history, open tabs) where every search term is part of the title, part of a tag or part of the web address (URL).

If you are looking for a specific type of result, like a bookmark or open tab, you can speed up the process of finding it by typing in special characters in the address bar separated by spaces:

  • Add ^ to show only matches in your browsing history.
  • Add * to show only matches in your bookmarks.
  • Add + to show only matches in bookmarks you've tagged.
  • Add % to show only matches in your currently open tabs.
  • Add # to show only matches where every search term is part of the title or part of a tag.
  • Add $ to show only matches where every search term is part of the web address (URL). The text "https://" or "http://" in the URL is ignored but not "file:///".
  • Add ? to show only search suggestions.
  • Add ^ to search for matches in your browsing history.
  • Add * to search for matches in your bookmarks.
  • Add + to search for matches in bookmarks you've tagged.
  • Add % to search for matches in your currently open tabs.
  • Add ~ to search for matches in pages you've typed.
  • Add # to search for matches in page titles and tags.
  • Add @ to search for matches in web addresses (URLs).
  • Add $ to search for matches in suggestions.

For example, if you're looking for a page you bookmarked called Mozilla Firefox Support, you might type mozilla. The autocomplete results appear, but might not show the page you want.

You can narrow your results down to bookmarks only by making your search string mozilla * or * mozilla.