How can I turn off suggestions & auto-completion?

[Mark Filipak]

Hi All,

== I'm reconstructing this message from memory because, just when I finished it
a couple of minutes ago, and just before I could send it, TBird crashed
suddenly - that's happening at least once a day lately and it's getting to be a
drag. ==

Okay, back to Firefox...

I've noticed more and more that whenever I fill out a text box on a web site, a
drop-down of suggested completions appears as though the text box was a
drop-down combo box. Well, it is really irritating, I'll tell you.

I thought that sites were doing the pseudo drop-down via javascript, but lately
I've begun to suspect Firefox of doing it all on its own. It's getting to be
more than an irritation. It's getting to be a hazard.

True Example:

I log into a site as username:
'markfili...@gmail.com'.
As I'm typing that into the text box, Firefox is suggesting:
'MarkFili...@gmail.com' - note the capitalization.
As soon as I've finished typing and the text box loses focus, Firefox changes
'markfili...@gmail.com' (what I actually typed in) to
'MarkFili...@gmail.com' (what Firefox suggested).

When I submit the log-in, it fails because of the capitalization. And every
time I change 'MarkFilipak' back to 'markfilipak', Firefox changes it back to
'MarkFilipak' when the text box loses focus and the log-in fails again.

#1, How can I get Firefox to stop trying to 'help' me with those f-ing suggestions?

#2, How can I get Firefox developers to stop trying to 'help' me in the future?

Thanks in advance (because I may have lost my mind and may therefore fail to
give a proper 'Thank you' by the time #1 has been answered).

Mark.
--
The Insect Hall of Fame:
Thunderbird Bug 121947 - 11 years and counting.

[0'Grady]

You can generally remove superfluous suggestions from the dropdown lists
on forms by highlighting and deleting them individually. I like to use
the arrow keys and Delete key on my keyboard for this cleanup operation.

If it's a username/password, open the Firefox Tools menu, Options,
Security, Saved Passwords where you can remove various items individually.

You might also want to go into the Firefox Tools menu, Options, Privacy,
Use custom settings for history, and uncheck some of the boxes such as
Remember my browsing and download history and Remember search and form
history.

If that's too much to deal with, and to help preserve your sanity, I
suggest periodically using a cleanup utility such as Ccleaner which can
clear out unwanted browser junk selectively and quickly.

Alas there seems to be no way to solve your #2 question, and I'm equally
as perplexed..

--
0'Grady

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <K-udnTYy78vxZRjM...@mozilla.org>, 0'Grady

<ogr...@Kilbally.owen> writes:
>On 5/5/2013 00:17, Mark Filipak wrote:
>> Hi All,

[]

>> I've noticed more and more that whenever I fill out a text box on a web
>> site, a drop-down of suggested completions appears as though the text
>> box was a drop-down combo box. Well, it is really irritating, I'll tell
>> you.
[]

>> I log into a site as username:
>> 'markfili...@gmail.com'.
>> As I'm typing that into the text box, Firefox is suggesting:
>> 'MarkFili...@gmail.com' - note the capitalization.
>> As soon as I've finished typing and the text box loses focus, Firefox

How are you "moving on" (telling it you've finished, so that it loses
focus) - with the tab key, or the mouse? (I'm not saying either of these
will solve the problem, but they might be worth looking into. I
generally use tab FWIW.)

>> changes
>> 'markfili...@gmail.com' (what I actually typed in) to
>> 'MarkFili...@gmail.com' (what Firefox suggested).
>>
>> When I submit the log-in, it fails because of the capitalization. And
>> every time I change 'MarkFilipak' back to 'markfilipak', Firefox changes
>> it back to 'MarkFilipak' when the text box loses focus and the log-in
>> fails again.
>>
>> #1, How can I get Firefox to stop trying to 'help' me with those f-ing
>> suggestions?

As O'Grady explains below, you can usually delete individual suggestions
from this sort of list.

>>
>> #2, How can I get Firefox developers to stop trying to 'help' me in the
>> future?

[]

>> Mark.
>
>You can generally remove superfluous suggestions from the dropdown
>lists on forms by highlighting and deleting them individually. I like
>to use the arrow keys and Delete key on my keyboard for this cleanup
>operation.

[]

>Alas there seems to be no way to solve your #2 question, and I'm
>equally as perplexed..
>

Turn off upgrades )-:. [And see the recent discussion of the ESR
channel.] Not that these will stop "helpfulness" already present in the
version you've got now ... (-:
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Dictionary: Opinion presented as truth in alphabetical order. -John Ralston
Saul, essayist, novelist, and critic (1947- )

[Mark Filipak]

Thanks, 0'Grady.

On 2013/5/5 2:12 AM, 0'Grady replied:
> You can generally remove superfluous suggestions from the dropdown lists...
-snip-

Above: The text boxes to which I'm referring look like drop-down lists but
they're not drop-down lists, they are ordinary text boxes. The
pseudo-drop-downs look a bit like tool tips - I've created such
pseudo-drop-downs (as fly-out menus) myself using javascript.

> If it's a username/password, open the Firefox Tools menu, Options, Security,
> Saved Passwords where you can remove various items individually.

Above: I did that when I first encountered the problem, but
'MarkFili...@gmail.com' persisted past that. What you suggested works for
passwords but I don't think it works for 'remembered' user names.

> You might also want to go into the Firefox Tools menu, Options, Privacy, Use
> custom settings for history, and uncheck some of the boxes such as Remember my
> browsing and download history and Remember search and form history.

Above: I don't understand why you suggest this. Oh, wait! Yes I do know... I
had 'Remember search and form history' checked -- but no longer.

That 'History' pane in the 'Privacy' ...um ...tab (?), is very poorly designed.
The 4 check boxes that appear to be subordinate to 'Always use private browsing
mode' are not really subordinate. You see, I had no idea what 'private
browsing' was, but since I didn't have it checked, I figured that the 4 check
boxes didn't matter because they are subordinate to 'private browsing'.
Instead, they matter only if 'private browsing' is NOT checked - that's
backwards - so they aren't subordinate to 'private browsing', but are
equivalent to 'private browsing'. In fact, if the first 2 are checked, that
*IS* 'private browsing' regardless of whether you have 'private browsing'
checked or unchecked. Regarding cookies, I don't see what they have to do with
'private browsing', and I don't know to what 'history' the last check box
refers - The panel has
'browsing and download history',
'search and form history', and then just
'history' <<-- what's that?

When an application strays so far from conventional GUI design, it just invites
problems for users and questions for user-forums.

> If that's too much to deal with, and to help preserve your sanity, I suggest
> periodically using a cleanup utility such as Ccleaner which can clear out
> unwanted browser junk selectively and quickly.
>
> Alas there seems to be no way to solve your #2 question, and I'm equally as
> perplexed..

I'm currently investigating how to dump TBird. Dumping Firefox would be harder,
but I'm seriously considering that too. Disabling the menus by default broke
the camel's back - 30 years of proven GUI design principles down the drain, for
what? for a whim? to keep up with Chrome? to keep up with Windows 8? It is
...just ...plain ...stupid.

The devs are obviously running willy-nilly and not focus testing anything.

[Christian Riechers]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-firefox-automatically-fills-in-forms

--
Christian

[Mark Filipak]

Thank you. I think I've got it working right now. - Mark.

[Mark Filipak]

On 2013/5/5 6:20 AM, Christian Riechers wrote:
> On 05/05/2013 07:17 AM, Mark Filipak wrote:

-snip-
> https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/control-firefox-automatically-fills-in-forms

Thanks, Christian. I looked at that page. I know what form fill-in is about.
That's not what I was experiencing.

From the page linked above: "the next time you visit that page, your previous
entry will be available to re-use".

This was happening on pages I'd never been to.

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

Mark Filipak wrote:

> From the page linked above: "the next time you visit that page, your
> previous entry will be available to re-use".
>
> This was happening on pages I'd never been to.

It is happening because Firefox remembers your data based on the actual
text field name used in the code. IOW, if you'd visited a site with a
login field named "email" and then later on you visit a new site that
*also* uses the field name "email", Firefox will present you with your
previous data.

Many sites use common words for IDing form field names: email, userid,
username, and so forth. Same applies to: firstname, lastname, address,
city ... well, you get the idea.

--
-bts
-This space for rent, but the price is high

[Chris Ilias]

On 2013-05-05 5:53 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
> Turn off upgrades )-:. [And see the recent discussion of the ESR
> channel.] Not that these will stop "helpfulness" already present in the
> version you've got now ... (-:

The same issue will appear in ESR. The bug goes back to version 3.5.

--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[Chris Ilias]

On 2013-05-05 6:15 AM, Mark Filipak wrote:
> On 2013/5/5 2:12 AM, 0'Grady replied:
>

>> If it's a username/password, open the Firefox Tools menu, Options,
>> Security,
>> Saved Passwords where you can remove various items individually.
>
> Above: I did that when I first encountered the problem, but
> 'MarkFili...@gmail.com' persisted past that. What you suggested
> works for passwords but I don't think it works for 'remembered' user names.

If Firefox automatically fills in a text field, and you're certain it's
on in the password manager, it's probably saved as a form. To delete it,
just use the arrow keys to scroll down the drop-down list and highlight
the entry you want to delete, then press <Del>.