Getting rid of ALL "awesome" bar history.
I'm going to copy another users question because it wasn't answered. I've cleared my browsing history. I do this all the time, but the "awesome" bar still makes suggestions for sites I haven't visited for years. I know how to disable suggestions, but want to delete it. I've spent an hour trying to find how to do this, where the history is stored, etc. Can someone please help. I know I can disable suggestions, but use them sometimes. It's the old history. I don't want to completely remove firefox (after storing bookmarks), using CCleaner (or whatever) to clean residue, etc but if that's the only way I'll do it.
"first of all, i have been using this browser for a decade but this is turning to be a very annoying thing, i don't know if FF dev team thought about this, the aswome bar actually keep tracks of your old website even if you deleted your history completely, which in my books means a privacy breach !
every website i visited before i removed my browsing history is being suggested to me by this so called "awesome" bar,
it start with the word visit *****.com
hey dev team, you do understand that when people want to delete their history the main reason is not to visit some of the old websites! "
Chosen solution
Firefox has two tables in your places.sqlite database: one has full URLs of sites you have bookmarked or visited (places), and the second has just the top level address of the site (host name). Usually when the last URL on a particular host is removed from the first table, the host name will be removed from the second table after a short delay. But I think in the old days this deferred cleaning didn't always happen so some host names may have lingered.
There isn't a built-in feature to flush the host name table. If you want to delete all of your history, you can export your bookmarks, exit Firefox, then remove the places.sqlite database file. When Firefox starts up, it will try to auto-import your last bookmarks backup and rebuild the two tables with only that data. If necessary, you can import the export file you created.
If you do not want to lose all of your history, you can use the SQLite Manager add-on or another SQLite database editor to clear out the moz_hosts table in the places.sqlite database. Not sure that's worth the effort, but it is an option. Firefox may repopulate the table, but it should no longer list host names that aren't associated with a current bookmark or history entry.
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Chosen Solution
Firefox has two tables in your places.sqlite database: one has full URLs of sites you have bookmarked or visited (places), and the second has just the top level address of the site (host name). Usually when the last URL on a particular host is removed from the first table, the host name will be removed from the second table after a short delay. But I think in the old days this deferred cleaning didn't always happen so some host names may have lingered.
There isn't a built-in feature to flush the host name table. If you want to delete all of your history, you can export your bookmarks, exit Firefox, then remove the places.sqlite database file. When Firefox starts up, it will try to auto-import your last bookmarks backup and rebuild the two tables with only that data. If necessary, you can import the export file you created.
If you do not want to lose all of your history, you can use the SQLite Manager add-on or another SQLite database editor to clear out the moz_hosts table in the places.sqlite database. Not sure that's worth the effort, but it is an option. Firefox may repopulate the table, but it should no longer list host names that aren't associated with a current bookmark or history entry.
Also, your Firefox identified itself to the forum as version 49. An update is available: this article describes how to get Firefox 54 using the "About Firefox" dialog on the help menu: Update Firefox to the latest release.
If something is holding you back from upgrading to Firefox 54, please let us know so we can suggest solutions or workarounds. Version 49 is not secure; Mozilla discloses security flaws after each new release.
Sometimes Firefox reports the wrong version because that information was saved in a preferences file. If the "About Firefox" dialog (see first article link) shows Firefox 54.0, you may need to clear out that incorrect information. See: How to reset the default user agent on Firefox.
Like posted above: Easiest to clear all history including history items in the location bar is to delete all places.sqlite files in the profile folder with Firefox closed.
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.
- Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> Profile Directory:
Windows: Show Folder; Linux: Open Directory; Mac: Show in Finder - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
Thanks for the responses. I'll try this within a couple days and let you know how it works.
I tried Firefox 52 and (think) I pulled it because it was loading web pages extremely slow, which went back as it was when I reverted to 49. I was having speed issues before that due to Malwarebytes using 100% CPU power, but recently fixed that by doing a complete MWB removal/clean install - did this about a week ago and it seems to be fine. So I will try FF 54 to see how it works now that MWB is okay.
This is the first time I've used this support forum. You all are great to help like this. Thanks again.
When multi-process windows in Firefox is enabled then Firefox will use more memory and may be less responsive. Try to disable multi-process windows in Firefox to see if that has effect.
You can disable multi-process windows in Firefox by setting these prefs to false on the about:config page.
- browser.tabs.remote.autostart = false
- browser.tabs.remote.autostart.2 = false
You can open the about:config page: via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.
It worked! very old sites don't show up now, but it also deleted all my "autocomplete" addresses, which I wanted to save - it was easy to make them show up by accessing them again (southwest, walmart, etc). I bookmarked these often used sites (thought I'd have to do this to make autocomplete work), and thought there would be a star to the left if they were bookmarked but there isn't. Read somewhere else "Items that have a blue star the the right end are bookmarked pages and you will have to delete such a bookmark." But that's not what I'm seeing (there's a grey star to the left of some sites that drop down). https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1099945 Seems not all sites I visit get autocompleted, but so far the ones I want are showing up (only tried 3 so far).
I updated Firefox to V54 and all works fine.
Thanks again for suggestions. I'll mark this SOLVED, but if it can still be addressed, I'm curious about 'autocomplete' (I haven't researched this yet and maybe I should start another thread if I can't find answers, but as said it seems like all is well now). FYI, I had 20MB in places.sqlite - I've been pleased that no bookmarks have been lost after years of updates (I think I started using Firefox with Version 2.xx)
Modified by chrisafdefadflkjasdf
You shouldn't have lost your bookmarks. Did they come back by now?
I think before Firefox 48 the star was on the right side. Unfortunately, old posts do not always age well.
Sorry to be confusing.
None of the bookmarks were lost, but often-used addresses didn't "autocomplete" anymore... e.g. walmart, southwest (airlines), etc as they did after I typed a couple/few letters. They come back now after I revisited the sites - and still autocomplete even after I clear history (the usual way using the dropdown History menu), close Firefox, restart computer, etc. I bookmarked them thinking this was needed to make them autocomplete, but that's not necessary.... I'm guessing this may have to do with what you wrote above "two tables in your places.sqlite database: one has full URLs of sites you have bookmarked or visited (places), and the second has just the top level address of the site (host name)."