1614133 - Some previously visited URIs do not autocomplete

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: Address Bar, defect, P5)

Description

[Jerry Baker]

Attachment: FF sees freetaxusa.com in the history but refuses to autocomplete it in the Address Bar

This has to be a dup, but I can't find it.

Firefox 72.0.2 is not completing URIs of some sites that are visited in the past, although it "knows" about them as evidenced by appearing in the Address Bar dropdown.

Comment 1

[Jerry Baker]

Attachment: More..

Comment 2

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

We changed the autofill algorithm several releases back. There's a frecency threshold that domains must reach in order for them to be autofilled. Each time you visit the domain, its frecency will increase, and if you visit it often enough compared to the average frecency of all your history, it will start autofilling. It shouldn't take long.

Comment 3

[Jerry Baker]

Is there any way to change that? I would prefer autocomplete apply to all sites I have manually typed, not just based on visit count.

Comment 4

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

The threshold is a fundamental part of autofill, but you can lower it by setting the hidden preference browser.urlbar.autoFill.stddevMultiplier to a value below zero. For example, if you set it to -1, then domains whose frecencies are one standard deviation below the mean frecency will start to autofill. By default, that pref doesn't exist and its value is assumed to be zero.

Since you seem to be seeing the intended behavior in this case, I'll go ahead and close this bug.

Comment 5

[Jerry Baker]

Just so I understand, sites only autocomplete if you have visited them more than the mean frequency of all site visits by default? If so, that's really odd behavior, like into bizarro territory. How would a user reasonably expect that the more they visit foo.com (shifting the mean frequency higher) that bar.com will no longer autocomplete as it did prior to visiting foo.com?

Comment 6

[Drew Willcoxon :adw]

The intention is to autofill sites you visit more frecently than others and to not autofill sites you visit less frecently than others. It adapts to your history.