How do I clear recent searches from Safari and Google?I'm darn concerned! Every time I start up my Apple Safari browser, I find that the program has remembered every search I've done, whether from the Google search box or when I'm actually on the Google home page. What the heck? How can I disable this "feature" and regain my privacy? You're not the first person to be concerned about the extraordinary memory that a Web browser has in terms of search fields, the Google toolbar box, and similar. Indeed, when I glance at the Google box in my version of Safari (that I'm using to write this very blog entry), I find:  Notice the very last entry, however: "Clear Recent Searches". That'll solve that particular problem (earlier versions of Safari might not have that feature, however, in which case it's yet another reason to consider upgrading to the very latest version of Mac OS X). On the other hand, when I go to the Google home page, you'd think I'd be safe, right? But watch what happens if I type in an 'm' to the search box and wait just a fraction of a second:  You might jump to the conclusion that Google knows all, but in fact it's not Google offering this autocompletion / history service, but your Web browser. Yes, that's another feature of Safari. To clear this you need to tweak your Autofill preferences. Go to Safari --> Preferences and click on the Autofill tab. You'll see this:  It's the "Other forms" that you want to check out. Click on "Edit..." next to that field and you'll find a long list of different domain names that have forms your browser is sneakily tracking:  You can see that I've highlighted "google.com": to clear my Google search cache history from Safari, all I'd need to do is select "google.com" and press the "Remove" button. Or, if you want to clear all your cache, choose "Remove All". Easily done. One more step: Your browser also has a cache (history) of actual pages you visit. If you want to get rid of those too, then you can't be selective, you'll have to erase all of your browser cache. That can be pretty easily done by choosing Safari --> Clear Cache.... You'll get a warning dialog, as usual:  Proceed with this action and you should be clear. Having explained all of this,, I'd also like to draw your attention to the darn useful Private Browsing capability of Safari. Simply choose Safari --> Private Browsing. You'll get a warning dialog that pretty much tells you what will happen:  Cool feature, eh? Makes worrying about histories, caches, and similar all moot. I'd recommend you clear your old cache through the methods outlined above, then remember to switch to Private Browsing whenever you want to explore the net without leaving any sort of trail behind you. Tip: If you're trying to duplicate this on your PC, I strongly encourage you to read the terrific writeup that my pal Leo Notenboom has on his site: How to delete history items from your Google toolbar.
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Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader. Thanks for this information, but even after clearing my cache and switching to privacy mode, Safari still wants to autofill the url tab based on sites I have visited. Posted by: Tim at July 31, 2006 12:05 AMThank you for your very helpful advice. I have spent so much time trying to find what your have presented right here. Posted by: PD at November 13, 2006 7:39 PMwant web searches deleted, from popping up, every time a new search is entered Posted by: eddie at December 1, 2006 6:41 PMThank you! I really appreciate you!!! Posted by: Stephen at February 24, 2007 2:40 PMGreat info been looking at finding how to do this fo a while on the mac and ticks the box for me. Thanks Posted by: mark at February 25, 2007 3:54 PMthaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 :) Posted by: ERIN c. at March 4, 2007 2:07 AMAs previous comment Thanks for this information, but even after clearing my cache and switching to privacy mode, Safari still wants to autofill the url tab based on sites I have visited. awesome! its works thxxx Posted by: sagaa at March 31, 2007 8:42 PMOMG ThaNK you SO MUCH!!!! YOU sAVED MY LifE! i was searching so stuff that i didnt want my mom sister or even friends to see. (ehem....nude people and sex and other things) but thank god for you!!!!!! i was up all night searching and searching but no luck until you cam alon! you have no idea how happy i am and i couldnt be more grateful. Thanksk again and i hops yoour life brings wealth and happiness because you SO deserve it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Posted by: llyla at April 23, 2007 4:58 PMi want to clear all sex search history Posted by: roxanne at April 26, 2007 5:56 AMGday Dave, Hi Dave, i tried to use your suggestion to clear all the words which i have put into the google site which are unwanted but keep poppoing up...it doesnt seem to work, in the auto fill "other forms" section it only lists site which i have typed in and been too, it does not show nor give me the option to delete words which i have searched...any advice ? Posted by: James at July 23, 2007 4:16 AMhi, If you have a url in your bookmarks it will come up when you type in the address bar something starting with the same letters. s. Posted by: mr.steevo at July 23, 2007 11:31 PMTHANK YOU. I use my computer for teaching, and what may be totally appropriate everywhere else may still not be suitable for the classroom overhead. Posted by: jason Nolan at August 25, 2007 4:21 PMYour site is so helpful!!! thank you so much! Posted by: Kenny at October 8, 2007 7:15 PMThanks, Dave. You made it easy to do something that other web sites made so complicated it was impossible. Posted by: Tom at October 28, 2007 4:26 AMThanks for this helpful tip! I was going crazy on google trying to figure it out by pressing This is a great tutorial! Only problem for me is after this step: "To clear this you need to tweak your Autofill preferences. Go to Safari --> Preferences and click on the Autofill tab." My stupid computer won't even let me see ANY Safari preferences, let alone the ones for autofill. I've tried re-downloading Safari and everything, and one website I went to said to delete the com.apple.Safari.plist file that's in my library. Do you have any suggestions? :( Posted by: lucy at January 14, 2008 2:19 PMgod bless you Posted by: kjkjd at January 18, 2008 3:34 PMThis is great but is it possible to delete some items from the Google search box and not others? Posted by: richard at February 12, 2008 1:22 PMthank you very much. you are so great!!! Posted by: jamie at February 22, 2008 12:50 PMwow thanks for the graphic info Posted by: Mary at February 26, 2008 12:30 PMThank You so much!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I don't have to worry about anything Posted by: Bob at March 6, 2008 3:25 PMthanks alot i had no idea it was that complicated Posted by: colin Copp at March 25, 2008 9:20 PMthaaaaaank you! ;) Posted by: Ale at April 1, 2008 8:54 PMTHANK YOU SO MUCH! i always wondered how i could disable the autofill. Posted by: Danica at April 17, 2008 8:18 AMThanks for trying, but your advice does not work. It is not possible to turn off the Safari URL autofill function or to delete the URL already stored "somewhere" which pop into the URL window uninvited. Neither the "geniuses" at the apple stores or their on-line consultants are able to fix this annoying problem. After spending several hours on the phone with one of apple's consultants some time ago, he gave up and told me "Safari is really poor browser anyway; just use Firefox if you want to avoid this problem." If you ever find a fix for this annoying behavior I would love to hear about it but clearing the cache, history, all the rest you have mentioned DO NOT WORK. Posted by: John Reves at May 24, 2008 3:20 PMDear Dave - how do you make it all so simple? You are surely the eighth wonder of the world! Thank you - Pat Posted by: Pat Tierney at May 29, 2008 8:19 AMThis is great! You are the best! :) Posted by: Yanira Torres at May 29, 2008 4:24 PMDear Dave, Thanks for the clear description on removing autofill from the google search box. No wonder your so successful in life. David Hello Dave ... as JOHN REEVES above (24 May 2008 at 3:20 PM) points out, your suggestion (which I'd actually found out myself and tried before seeing your recommendation) seems to only PARTIALLY work, at best. EVEN AFTER doing the "Safari-Preferences-Autofill-Other Forms-Remove" etc. etc. ... you will still find that Safari Autofills URLs if you begin manually typing them in after the http:// ... It's almost as if Safari does not "want" to clear sites that you have manually typed in. That's just a guess ... I don't know for sure ... I DO KNOW that the suggestion provided does not FULLY work. Just thought I'd put this out there in case someone knows why ... or has a workaround solution. Posted by: Wayne at June 21, 2008 8:07 PMI also had the problem, that after trying your methods, the various pages continued to pop up in the safari browser. So, I went one more step that Dave hadn't mentioned: holy cow, that's awesome! i used to be a pc guy but i see why lots of people like mac Posted by: Jon at July 7, 2008 5:45 PMThank you!!! I spent a lot of time trying to figure this out... This was just what i was looking for and you couldn't have made it any simpler!!! Perfect! Thanks again! Posted by: Me at July 27, 2008 10:22 AMWOW this is so helpful !! i dont like prying into every option on my Mac, this was the best article on how to clear the history without me fumbling around with Mac options!! Thanks!! Posted by: Lee at September 9, 2008 8:45 AMThank you - I've been trying to do this for ages : ) Posted by: libbi roberts at September 9, 2008 9:14 AMmy name is spelled wromg in my autofill it is shirley and my e mail is sc.charity@yahoo.com please change thank you Posted by: shirley charity at September 19, 2008 12:13 PMTHAAANNNKK YOU!!!!!!!! i 've been trying this for a month Posted by: sean at September 20, 2008 2:11 AMYou are a champion!! Thanks mate Posted by: Jay at September 24, 2008 10:42 PMHi, many thanks for your info but unfortunately its not working for me. me again & oops! Storme Watson uk Posted by: storme Watson at October 11, 2008 7:39 AMoh dear me once more, yes ive got rid of the google autofilling
Thank YOu sooo much!! Posted by: Jake at November 14, 2008 4:29 PMOh, thanks for all the help. I have a solution for that: On the toolbar (the bookmarks toolbar, under the url toolbar) there's an icon next to "Apple" [on the left side] where a picture of a 'book' is shown (it is most likely the 1st icon from the left). Click on that, and then under 'Bookmarks' (on the left hand side), it says "Imported IE Favorites". Click it. Then on the right side, all the lists of website that you've visited will show up. Click on the website you want to delete, and then press the DELETE button on your keyboard! Posted by: Jessica at November 21, 2008 7:59 PMHow can i improve my browsers speed Posted by: Khizar at December 25, 2008 1:34 PMSame as everyone else! Amazing thankyou!! Posted by: Lawrence Stone at January 5, 2009 1:18 PMthank you for your help Posted by: ayush agrwal at January 26, 2009 4:07 AMI have the latest OS X and I'm able to make the searches disappear when i reset safari but they are "reconnected", usually within a day. In addition to the paid-for stuff, my actual searches reappear, sometimes in a couple of hours, sometimes in a couple of days. Anything else? Thanks Rob Posted by: Rob Byrne at January 30, 2009 2:36 PMI a new to much. This helped me a lot. Hi - In the new version of safari (version 4, beta), how do you clear recent searches in the google search toolbar box? I tried emptying the cache and removing google.com from the autofill menu. there is no option in the toolbar box to "clear recent searches" like there is in firefox. do i just have to live with this? I have clicked on Private Browsing on My Safari but it is not permanent. It seems to cancel itself. Posted by: Denis Gray at April 2, 2009 12:35 AMHi Dave I am using a shared Safari OS X 10.5.7 I have noticed that a particular site has regularly appeared in my cookies folder but not on the google browsing bar so I take it that the search has been done in Private Browsing as it still loads cookies unless the cookies have been disabled. The person denying having been into this site has told me that these cookies can appear without being in the site at all, ie. Thankyou in advance. Tiala, the other person is right. What a lot of sites do is have what are called iframes, essentially tiny windows that let them load content from unrelated sites as part of their design. You can, at the most simple, have a graphic come from another site (imagine that the coffee cup on this page were actually from a Starbucks.com server, for example) which would then show up as part of the traffic stream, but the more complex inclusions that have JavaScript or even programmatic objects included (like Google AdSense) can leave a trail behind even though you never explicitly go there. A common culprit for this is Doubleclick.net, an ad network. Posted by: Dave Taylor at June 10, 2009 8:12 AMYou can also consider using third party tools to make sure the info is cleaned from your browsers, something like History Killer Pro (http://www.historykillerpro.com) hi there....have followed all your instructions to clear google search box history but when i click on 'other forms ' in autofill tab there is no list of any web sites visited ! any other ways of deleting google search box history ? any suggestions most welcome thanx Posted by: michael at June 16, 2009 11:01 AMI have a lot to say, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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