Firefox doesn't save web form entries
Revision Information
- Revision id: 50383
- Created:
- Creator: Mike Cooper
- Comment: Remove support for Firefox 3.5
- Reviewed: No
- Ready for localization: No
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Revision Content
Firefox can remember what you've entered in forms on web pages, also known as text fields. After you've entered something into a form on a web page (such as a search box), the next time you visit that page, your previous entry should be available to re-use. If you find that you can't re-use your form entries, follow the instructions in this article.
- For more information on the form autocompletion feature, see the Control whether Firefox automatically fills in forms article.
Table of Contents
Autocomplete does not work on certain forms
Deliberate prevention from web sites editors
If you find that Firefox will save form entries for forms on only some websites, but not on others, the site might be telling Firefox to not save form history. This is especially common on email and banking websites.
Technical details: This is typically achieved by the web sites editors by using form entries of the form <input autocomplete="off"/>.
Form entries change over time
There is also another seldom seen possibility causing a form entry not to be remembered: a specific form entry might have been a password input in the past and then the web site editors changed it later on to be a plain text input. Thus Firefox may have stored the form entry as a password, typically with an empty user name. The solution to have the form entry to be remembered is to go to the Password Manager and to delete the remembered password which is erroneously associated with this form entry.
Autocomplete doesn't work on any forms
If you find that Firefox will not save any text you enter into forms, follow the instructions below.
Check Firefox settings
Make sure that Firefox is set to remember form entries and that saved form entries are not being automatically cleared:
- In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select .
- Select the panel.
- Set Firefox will: to Use custom settings for history.
- Make sure that Remember search and form history is selected.
- Enabling form autocomplete also makes Firefox store search history for the Search bar - add, change and manage search engines on Firefox in the Navigation Toolbar.
- Find Clear history when Firefox closes. If it is selected:
- Click on the button.
- Make sure that Form & Search History is not selected.
- Click .
- Close the page. Any changes you've made will automatically be saved.
If either of those options were not set properly, setting them as above should enable form autocomplete.
Check for conflicting extensions
If you find that Firefox's settings were correct, but autocomplete still doesn't work on any forms, check for conflicting extensions:
- Click the menu button , click and select .
- Look for one of these extensions known to conflict with form autocomplete and click on it to select it.
- RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin
- Click the button.
- Close the Add-ons Manager tab.
- Click the Firefox menu and select .Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select .Click the Firefox menu and select .
If a conflicting extension was present, form autocomplete should work again after disabling it and starting Firefox again.
Check other programs' settings
Some Internet security software (including antivirus, antispyware, firewall, and privacy programs) will clear Firefox's form history. Check the settings for these programs if you have one or more of them.