clearing address bar history in firefox

HI

I have firefox 3.6.13. I want to clear the address bar history. I looked up online and was told to go to "Tools/Clear Private Data" but this does not exist on the tools sub menu. When I press shift/delete on particular address I want deleteting, it goes but then comes back again when I reload firefox:confused
How do I clear address bar history?

Thanks

Mastermiaow

 

I don't see any way to do this.

 

Are you seeing your Bookmarks?
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Cannot clear Location bar history

Cheers..

 

Greetings, mastermiaow.

With Firefox 3.6.13, click Tools > Options > Privacy. Select 'Never remember history', and click 'Ok'. On the same Privacy page, you may also click 'clear all current history'.

Running a good files cleaner, such as CCleaner, will also usually accomplish the same task.

 

I think this is overkill for what the user wants to do, which is just stop the listing of sites in the address field drop-down.

 

Just trying to answer the question.

 

Despite following Caliban's suggestions and also running CC cleaner, the history is still showing in the tool bar. There is no history showing when I click History on the top Menu. Even after changing to Never Remember History on the privacy menu, it has reverted to "use custom settings for history" the next time I look at the privacy setting

 

See if this is available (I'm using FF4.0 beta so I can't test)

A;so look at the following to try to clear the current list:

 

Thanks I was able to disable the location bar history so nothing is showing. However my version of firefox does not give me option of tools/ clear private data and so I still unable to clear history from location bar. So when I reenable the location bar history, the same web addresses are showing. Perhaps I should download firefox 3.5? :confused

 

This is what I did in Firefox 3.6: http://www.ehow.com/how_4843682_firefox-smart-search-address-bar.html

Type "about:config" (without the quotes) in the address bar and press "Enter." This will lead you to a warning page from Mozilla, stating that any actions may void your warranty. This is designed to warn you about any changes you may make, so proceed through the dialog.

In the "Filter" bar that appears under your address bar, type "urlbar" without quotations. This will search for he value that you will need to change.

Locate the "browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped" entry and change its entry to "True" by clicking on the "False" value once. A drop-down list will appear to allow you to change it. Do the same with the "browser.urlbar.maxRichResults" entry to "0."

Close the browser and restart your computer to ensure the changes took effect. After the reboot, try typing onto your address bar to see if it worked.

 

Oma's about:config instructions are the manual way of doing it and should over-ride any other settings. You should give them a try.

****
Otherwise, I believe FF3.6 would say "Clear Recent History" instead of "Clear Private Data". So my quote above would change to:

 

Wonder why the 'Stop Private Browsing' and 'Clear Recent History' settings are disabled (they're there, but grayed out)? I'm also running 3.6.13 - never noticed it before.

 

Hi again everybody

I tried Oma's instructions but don't get "browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped" - various browser.urlbar.match categories but no "onlytyped".
Second is that the "clear recent history" under tools is greyed out - perhaps the root of the problem :confused

 

Could the profile be corrupted? Create a new one, don't delete the old. Read through this.
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows

Copy paste to notepad as Fx needs to be closed when you run the command.
Let us know how the new profile works.

Cheers..

 

HI Sikvik

I followed your link and created a new profile. I now no longer have the address history showing in tool bar and clear recent history is not greyed out but although I did not delete my old profile I don't know how to import bookmarks from my old profile :confused Unfortunately I didn't back up or export bookmarks from the old profile... I tried Run/firefox -P but it just opens a new window of firefox rather than giving me the opportunity to choose my old profile...

 

Hi mastermiaow, remember to shut down FF when running the firefox -P. Else it will simply launch another instance of FF.
While creating a new profile, the default setting is Don't ask at startup.
1. shut down FF
2.Run firefox -P
3. The Choose profile window opens.
4. Select default The earlier profile.
5. Start FF

FF will launch the old profile.
Click on Bookmarks>> Organise bookmarks>> In the left pane highlight All bookmarks.>> Import and backup>> Click Export HTML.
Select desktop to save to and hit save.
You will now have a FF icon named bookmarks on desktop.
Shut down FF.
Run the firefox -P
Select your newprofile>> start FF.
Once in your new profile, click on Bookmarks>> Organise Bookmarks>> Import and backup, click on Import HTML
In the window navigate to desktop and the FF bookmarks icon, click on it icon and hit open.

Your bookmarks will now be available.
Keep the old profile. The issues their may get resolved.

Cheers..

 

Thanks for your help sikvik. Finally there on this one. Have deleted old profile as worried that something corrupted. Computer running very slow again but that's for another thread