# Firefox question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064 "2011-04-03T19:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/1 "2011-04-03T19:16:15Z")
How do you clear the drop down box on Firefox? I have deleted all history but this doesn’t clear the drop down. Thank you in advance. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/2 "2011-04-03T20:00:47Z")
Options/Clear Recent History/ now open the Details arrow dropdown box and you’ll see the option, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/3 "2011-04-03T21:00:12Z")
You can also delete them individually with shift+delete. ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/4 "2011-04-03T21:16:20Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Options/Clear Recent History/ now open the Details arrow dropdown box and you’ll see the option, I think. I don’t even see “options” ---
**Author:** ![koufax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@koufax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koufax)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/5 "2011-04-03T21:31:11Z")
> [@Renee](#): > > You can also delete them individually with shift+delete. They come right back when I hit the drop down arrow. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/6 "2011-04-03T21:32:17Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > I don’t even see “options” Under “tools.” These browsers should really just provide a “clear porn history” function that gets rid of caches, browser histories and search histories in one fell swoop. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/7 "2011-04-03T21:39:06Z")
Possibly you need to right-click on the search box. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/8 "2011-04-03T22:12:50Z")
> [@koufax](#): > > They come right back when I hit the drop down arrow. That’s strange. They don’t on mine. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/9 "2011-04-03T22:18:30Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Under “tools.” > > These browsers should really just provide a “clear porn history” function that gets rid of caches, browser histories and search histories in one fell swoop. They kinda do. You enter Private Browsing/InPrivate/Incognito mode before you start porning and when you’re done, it mostly goes away. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/10 "2011-04-04T04:59:45Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > They kinda do. You enter Private Browsing/InPrivate/Incognito mode before you start porning and when you’re done, it mostly goes away. Yip. The only way they could be more blatant about it is to call it “porn mode” BTW, if you are using Firefox 4, OP, and you have the orange Firefox button showing, you can also get to options by just going Firefox -\> Options. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefox-question/577064/11 "2011-04-04T18:42:25Z")
Which drop down box? If it’s the search box to the right, you just start typing in the field and when the suggestions pop up just mouse down until the one you want to remove is highlighted and then hit the delete button. This also works for input fields on webpages like Google or Yahoo. If it’s the Awesome bar, aka Location bar, then you need to clear your history. this bar’s suggestions are pulled from either your bookmarks, history or both. You can adjust that setting, in order to not have history suggestions pop up you need to clear your history. You can set Firefox to not use autocomplete which will turn off suggestions when you type entirely as an alternative. Using Private mode is typically more practical than that though.