Is that history the shows if you click the down arrow at the far right of the location/address bar that shows URLs that you have entered yourself (type/paste)?

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Clearing+Location+bar+history
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Cannot+clear+Location+bar+history

You can delete the places.sqlite file in cases like this when there is a problem with deleting the location bar history.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Bookmarks_history_and_toolbar_buttons_not_working_-_Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Bookmarks+not+saved#w_fix-the-bookmarks-file

See also:

• Places Maintenance: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/places-maintenance/

I'm not clear on what your settings are here:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Privacy

• Do you have "Firefox will: Never remember history"?

• Or do you have "Firefox will: Use custom settings for history" with one or both of these:
  • Remember by browsing and download history unchecked
  • Clear history when Firefox closes checked and history selected for purging

Also, at the bottom of that pane, do you have the Location Bar set to show bookmarks?

Now I am torqued as all I typed just got lost following a link above. Please don't bother telling me about settings of what FF should do open a tab or a new window options. Let me try to recreate this in answer to your response questions. I really don't have time for this. I have wasted the better part of 2 hours this morning now trying to fix this and answer your questions when I have something more pressing to do today.

First of the 3bar menu is bad substitute to me to a standard menu system. It makes me think they are trying to be like Chrome. Perhaps the concept is to fit on 7" tabs or phones. Like many windows products have multiple ways to get to a location or screen like Pause/Break key + Windows Flag key brings up all Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items\ System rather clicking through with a mouse which is no where in windows 8, I am not surprised. Anyway perhaps I just don't like change particularly when I find one I don't like such as having to use Classic Theme Restorer to hide the URL if want too.

Yes in Options on the Privacy Tab

1) It was set for firefox will : Never remember history

   I changed this to :   Use custom settings for history.

I had to use custom settings to alter the various options to check or put a switch on below this.

This had to be done to get too the Settings window to the right of Clear history when FF closes.

In the Settings for Clearing History Window there is a switch as we called it back in the day most people would call a check box that was unchecked for Form&Search History. My understanding is from following other posts on how to delete URL history is this must be checked.

Now the funny thing is somewhere in there others had the same problem with this window I believe it was the Form&Search History checkbox or switch was grayed out. The fix was to go into Safemode with cntrl+ start FF and then change this box. I could be wrong it may have been on the Options privacy tab where a separate check box exists first titled Remember search and form history. They may have been the one grayed out.

I have tried it both ways and now succeeded in graying out the same box on the Options Privacy Tab.

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Privacy

   Do you have "Firefox will: Never remember history"? 

Yes I did originally until I noticed the URL history was never going away and still wonder if there is an auto complete function to windows 8 that needs to be turned off or cleared. I use Linux too.

Or do you have "Firefox will: Use custom settings for history" with one or both of these:

       Remember by browsing and download history unchecked
       Clear history when Firefox closes checked and history selected for purging 

Yes after going into Safemode to change the grayed out Settings button and the grayed out Remember search and form history It was necessary to change to "Use custom settings for history" . I set it up in the Settings window that comes up from the non grayed out Settings button which is now gray again with each switch as we used to call them Networking OS land known as a check box to rest of the world as checked or on to delete everything on closure of firefox.

Also, at the bottom of that pane, do you have the Location Bar set to show bookmarks?

The real issue here is the URL line history doesn't go away by changing that setting from what it had as "When using the location bar, suggest": History changed to Nothing does not delete the existing URL history. You can stop it from auto form filling the URL line by changing it to suggest :"Nothing" , but this doesn't remove the history and turning it back on will.

I will look at the places.sqlite deletion suggestion above.

Is that history the shows if you click the down arrow at the far right of the location/address bar that shows URLs that you have entered yourself (type/paste)? no it does not do that, it behaves like an auto complete as you type in the URL line. It does not remember the addresses by clicking on the arrow.

I got the impression that resetting FF and I have read on this before that when one resets it back to it default configuration it should remove addons which it does but apparently does not effect bookmarks or this URL history. I thought I recalled that one could also unreset it in someway back to the former configuration before the reset took place. Anyway I look at the places.sqlite file deletion next and get back too you about how that works.

I fixed a troublesome toolbar in the past not on this PC known as Babylon toolbar even after attempting many suggestions and even he developer of this adware supposed method to removal which did not work. Frankly I think they should be sued under class action lawsuit for being more insidious than AOL. I fixed it by using the about:config and changing the values of each of their entries. There should be an easier way. I guess its called uninstall.

Reset used to clear more data, but at some point it was changed to preserve your history and last session windows and tabs. So the older articles and posts you saw saying it clears history are obsolete now. This article is your most up-to-date resource on this feature: Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings.

I got confused between the normal mode and the Safe Mode. When you call up Options/Privacy in normal mode, which do you see selected (before changing anything on the tab):

• Firefox will: Never remember history
• Firefox will: Use custom settings for history

If the dialog opens set up to Never remember history, in order to effectively switch to custom settings (see attached screen shot with grayed out items), you need to uncheck the automatic private browsing option.

Is this history remembered across a session or only during the current session?

When you are in Private Browsing mode ("Always use Private Browsing mode"; Never Remember History") then data shouldn't be stored in the places.sqlite file, but may be available during the current session.

Its remembered permanently if the "When using location bar, suggest: blank Blank being History. If that is set to suggest History then it will remember a location since the day it was installed. New locations may get cleared by history deletion. I think they do. I will have to investigate more but someone suggested in another thread that when history is setup to not remember anything that it will remember the original sites visited in the URL history and not delete them because it cannot see them.

That is the problem I would like to be able to delete history and if per session use that feature. I just don't want URL history to be permanently there. As I said Slim Cleaner with all eraseable options on does not remove this URL history either.

I looked at finding places.sqlite in FF30 and it doesn't seem to exist in any appdata file. I know the moved some files outside of appdata too but it doesn't seem to exist. There is an index.sqlite in a folder in appdata and I did get a tool to edit it but haven't had much luck yet just to open it and look at it.

Ok a search shows 5 places a file named places.sqlite exists in appdata Odd as I have hidden files unattributed to see them. There is also places.sqlite-shm and -wal files of similar name. I will see if deleting and rebuilding them fixes the problem hah. Ok then get back to you again.

Ok searching C:\ for the occurrences of the file places.sqlite and going to each file location starting with just that file name alone made other other - htm and -wal files disappear etc. I believe I had to delete 3 locations and it appears to have solved the problem.

Thank you for your suggestions. I was beginning to believe they had changed FF enough that file no long existed.

So fix for URL history that does not go away when history is deleted is to search for and delete places.sqlite and the problem goes away.

BTW if you never tried Backtrack linux you might want too.  Its probably no longer available so  jump forward to Kali Linux.   kali.org
FF comes pre-installed in those OS along with a lot of other tools and it already has NoScript installed too atleast in Backtrack5 it does.   Actually FF is known as IceWeasel in Kali.   Funny huh?  geticeweasel.org

Hi Packet, you can always find the most relevant Firefox settings files, the ones in your current profile folder, using this method. Either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
• (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
• Type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, click the "Show Folder" button

To avoid crashing Firefox, before deleting any files, please switch back over to Firefox and exit out completely using either:

• "3-bar" menu button > "power" button
• (menu bar) File > Exit

You will know that Firefox is finished with its post-shutdown cleanup when those temporary files associated with places.sqlite are deleted.

thank you jscher I had never seen about:support before or the power button

OK similar damn problem. Forms at search engines being offered suggestions from the search engine. I don't want to see this. Its is most annoying , Gee I go through the entire mozilla site and cannot find this most simple feature that should not be turned on by default as it is so horribly annoying. This must be how it gets fixed. Why is this so impossible to find here?

http://www.dkszone.net/how-to-disable-search-suggestions-in

I find just a right click on the toolbar and a press S as you might type changes it . This is almost entirely too easy to have happen when in a hurry so it can probably be turned on very easily. But really do want these search suggestions such as Toyota Forums 4x4 22re signs your _____ _____ _____ filled in with 1) signs your ovulating, 2) pregnant, 3) husband, 4) wife .... while looking for info on a truck engine problem? How stupid the web has become. Data centers in cloud delivering horse pucky like that. Its just absurd from what it once was. All those computer scientist brains and this is what they come up with.... wtf?

Hi Packet, the suggestions that appear in web pages on Yahoo and Google are generated by the site internally and this is not affected by your Firefox settings.

I looked in Yahoo help briefly and didn't see any obvious way to turn off search suggestions. Perhaps it is an option if you are logged in. But maybe it's easier to ignore it. Or you could switch to a search site that works in a way you prefer.