Clear item from Chrome address bar autocomplete

I use the address bar in Chrome to type in search engine queries.

Somehow at some stage, I have mistyped C# as C/#. This makes the browser think I am trying to enter an address on the C drive if think and ends up with a not found page.

So half the time while typing c# it automatically reverts during typing to c# even without typing the forward slash. I can see the c# in my addressbar autocomplete list. How can I remove the item? I dont want to clear my whole history.

I have tried the very popular superuser answers for using the cursor down key to highlight and either delete key or shift+delete key to remove the entry. it is not removing that entry or any other I test that method on. So I am wondering if my Chrome v37 does not support that remove method.

How can I remove c/#?!

enter image description here

Valamas

Posted 2014-09-25T22:24:41.620

Reputation: 1 275

Wow! I'm amazed to find that you had my exact same problem! I had the same thought process as well. – Johnny Kauffman – 2014-10-30T16:34:15.323

About Shift+Del not working, I didn't noticed the autocompleted result I was attempting to delete was bookmarked -__- Yes I feel silly, I didn't noticed the star icon! (A corporate website changed it's IP and I wanted to delete the old IP from results) Verify if this applies to you. – Metafaniel – 2017-04-20T17:17:42.633

Answers

I don't think you mistyped c#, I think this was a bug that was introduced recently. As I also just started getting this behaviour.

See https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=406029

I'm guessing that as #'s are used in url's more often now, chrome decides that anything with a # behind it should be considered a web address. For example if you type: "wdqwuuw#" it will auto-correct to "wdqwuuw/#", which you of course don't want.

Ertyui

Posted 2014-09-25T22:24:41.620

Reputation: 146

Wow, you figured it out. I will report the bug – Valamas – 2014-09-29T21:08:25.050

It's actually an older bug that apparenlty recently resurfaced. This is the new tracker: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=409845 I don't think there is any need to report a new bug, they're on it.

– Ertyui – 2014-09-30T08:38:20.220

Highlighting the entry+pressing Delete should work, but anyway an alternative would be to selectively delete the history instead:

Type chrome:history into the address bar.
Search for C/# in the search bar(top right corner).
Check all C/# entries and click Remove selected items.
Confirm removing items.

So next time you type C into the address bar you would get C#!

EDIT

I'm also using Chrome v37 (latest) and the method in your answer works for me?

I type C/ so that the incorrect one(C/#) shows up.
I move my mouse over the autocomplete so it is highlighted as in your picture.
I press Del- it gets deleted!

I can't think of any reason why it doesn't work for you though. Sorry I can't be of more help :(

Rsya Studios

Posted 2014-09-25T22:24:41.620

Reputation: 3 160

When searching history, it does not return any entries for c/#. I even went to the next (older) page of results. – Valamas – 2014-09-27T21:20:47.173

To clear the Omnibox from entries for which Shift+Delete doesn't seem to have an effect, I pieced together a way to do it. There is a db file that Chrome uses to store the Omnibox entries, called "History". Using a db editor, you can delete entries from this, restart Chrome, and voila! Works for me running Chrome on Windows 7, but the basic idea should work on MacOS and Linux, if necessary.

See http://ipoy.org/tech-tips/clearing-entries-in-google-chrome-omnibox

Dr. Tom Way

Posted 2014-09-25T22:24:41.620

Reputation: 1