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How can I make bookmarks auto-fill above advertisments for sites FireFox wants me to visit?

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I can't access any of my old questions and they haven't changed. Can I block the address bar auto-fill ads? Is it a hidden setting? FF is set to never save any history, I've cleared history manually, and FF clears it upon exit. Many suggestions are for websites I've never visited, which makes me think they are advertisements. I have turned off all suggestions and "helpful" settings to no avail. I just really miss being able to type the first 1-3 letters of a common bookmark and hit enter, now I have to scroll down through a list, starting with FF 62 if I remember correctly. Still hasn't been fixed by updates, wondering if anyone has a workaround that isn't a more user-friendly browser.

I can't access any of my old questions and they haven't changed. Can I block the address bar auto-fill ads? Is it a hidden setting? FF is set to never save any history, I've cleared history manually, and FF clears it upon exit. Many suggestions are for websites I've never visited, which makes me think they are advertisements. I have turned off all suggestions and "helpful" settings to no avail. I just really miss being able to type the first 1-3 letters of a common bookmark and hit enter, now I have to scroll down through a list, starting with FF 62 if I remember correctly. Still hasn't been fixed by updates, wondering if anyone has a workaround that isn't a more user-friendly browser.

All Replies (7)

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If you have no matching history, Firefox may show some popular website matches for the in-URL-bar autofill (for example, Facebook).

Since it sounds as though autofill would very seldom be useful for you, you can turn it off. That won't make it faster to access bookmarks, but could be less annoying. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button promising to be careful or accepting the risk.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste URLB and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the browser.urlbar.autoFill preference to switch the value from true to false

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Won't this also prevent my bookmarks from auto-filling? I just want to stop the ads for websites I haven't visited or saved. Could I use UBlock Origin or AdBlock to do this maybe?

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Turning off autofill prevents addresses from appearing automatically inside the address bar itself. It doesn't prevent bookmarks from appearing on the autocomplete drop-down.

If the problem is not with popular site addresses appearing in the address bar itself, could you post a screenshot of what you're seeing? This article has tips on capturing screenshots: How do I create a screenshot of my problem? Please cut out or blur any sensitive information before attaching the image to a reply (or sharing a link to it if you post it on an image hosting site).

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Is there any way to move the top bookmark suggestion back up to the address bar where it used to be? I only want my bookmarks to auto-fill, but it seems like the ads have to come first. Yes, the problem is the advertisement sites appearing in the address bar itself. Sounds like the best solution right now is another browser that doesn't sell ad space in the address bar.  :(

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Why do you think Mozilla sells ad space in the Firefox address bar? I'm certainly not aware of anything like that. What sites are getting listed?

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Your previous questions in this support forum can be found here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/search/advanced?a=1&asked_by=MyArrowKeysStink&sortby=1&w=2

And look to the top of this page, put the cursor over your username - MyArrowKeysStink - and then click on "My Questions". You'll see all your previous questions.

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Great, they're back. For a while I couldn't access any of them, which is why I posted again.

I'm seeing the suggested websites, and they aren't suggestions I asked for, that's an advertisement. BestBuy and YouTube are the ones I see most often. But I can start with any letter and it will advertise a website, not autofill bookmarks like it used to.