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.
There’s a privacy issue involved, as you surmise, but there’s also a convenience factor, and it’s that tradeoff that makes it hard to just say “this shouldn’t happen”. Then again, a lot of teens have found out the hard way that mom or dad can easily ascertain what they’ve been searching for on the ‘net by checking this recent search box.
(but then again, most teens are darn tech savvy and probably already know to go into private browsing mode or otherwise delete the search cache)
When I glance at the Google box in my version of Safari (that I’m using to write this very blog entry), I find all sorts of previous searches, as you can see:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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?
thanks dave
I a new to much. This helped me a lot.
Thanks
I 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
thank you for your help
Same as everyone else! Amazing thankyou!!
How can i improve my browsers speed
Oh, thanks for all the help.
I’ve read other people’s comments too, and I’m understanding that the history from the url toolbar is still showing up.
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!
Thank YOu sooo much!!
oh dear me once more, yes ive got rid of the google autofilling
but the url list is still there even after cache clear, reset, etc
so.. back to any ideas?!!
many thanks
Storme Watson
me again & oops!
there were two google entries in that list, got 2nd one this time and it worked!
THANKYOU!
Storme Watson uk
Hi, many thanks for your info but unfortunately its not working for me.
i do understand it and have followed carefully,
ive done clear cache, history etc
ive even reset safari but still i get loads of searches when entering anything into google.
and ive repaired permissions too
any ideas?
osx 10.4.11
safari 3.1.2
many thanks for your time
Storme Watson UK
You are a champion!! Thanks mate
THAAANNNKK YOU!!!!!!!! i ‘ve been trying this for a month
my name is spelled wromg in my autofill it is shirley and my e mail is sc.charity@yahoo.com please change thank you
Thank you – I’ve been trying to do this for ages : )
WOW 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!!
Thank 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!
holy cow, that’s awesome! i used to be a pc guy but i see why lots of people like mac
I 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:
Click on Safari > Reset Safari >
and you’ll get a list of 9 choices you can select to “edit”, like “clear history”, “empty the cache”, “remove all cookies”, etc.
I selected lines 1,2,4,7 &8, and so I don’t know which one really did it, but I got rid of all the unmentionables (just in time before my Kids came home for the 4th).
Oddly enough, Safari still retains NPR.org, all the http://www.Mac & http://www.apple addresses, and other innocent sites!
Thanks, Dave, and everybody!
K
PS, I don’t know why anyone would’ve advised that Safari “is a poor browser”, this whole Mac think is so much better than the PC world!
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.
Dear Dave,
Thanks for the clear description on removing autofill from the google search box. No wonder your so successful in life.
David
Santa Cruz, CA
This is great! You are the best! 🙂
Dear Dave – how do you make it all so simple? You are surely the eighth wonder of the world! Thank you –
Pat
Thanks 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.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! i always wondered how i could disable the autofill.
thaaaaaank you! 😉
thanks alot i had no idea it was that complicated
Thank You so much!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I don’t have to worry about anything
wow thanks for the graphic info
thank you very much. you are so great!!!
This is great but is it possible to delete some items from the Google search box and not others?
god bless you
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? 🙁
Thanks for this helpful tip! I was going crazy on google trying to figure it out by pressing
“delete”
Thanks, Dave. You made it easy to do something that other web sites made so complicated it was impossible.
Your site is so helpful!!! thank you so much!
THANK YOU. I use my computer for teaching, and what may be totally appropriate everywhere else may still not be suitable for the classroom overhead.
hi,
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.
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 ?
Gday Dave,
I downloaded the Safari beta when it was first released and think its great, however I cannot clear the autofill form. The edit button is greyed-out and unclickable, and the previous form entries keep appearing even after I empty the cache and reset all features of Safari. I’m going to re-download and reinstall, but for reference, do you know where Safari stores the autofill info? I’m on XP.
Cheers,
Dash
i want to clear all sex search history
OMG 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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
awesome! its works thxxx
As 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.
thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 🙂
Great info been looking at finding how to do this fo a while on the mac and ticks the box for me. Thanks
Thank you! I really appreciate you!!!
want web searches deleted, from popping up, every time a new search is entered
Thank you for your very helpful advice. I have spent so much time trying to find what your have presented right here.
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.