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I accidentally visited gist.gihub.com (note the missing t), and now that URL auto completes each time I start typing gist.…. How can I remove this URL?

I've tried removing it from my history, but that doesn't help:

enter image description here

(note the empty search results)

soandos
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David Wolever
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  • Did you remove all the history or just the last entry ? – Ioan Paul Pirau Aug 26 '11 at 21:11
  • Sry, don't have Chrome, but have you tried pressing `[del]` while targeting/hovering that entry? – ragnq Aug 26 '11 at 21:12
  • This question has been asked before, but heres the [answer][1]. [1]: http://superuser.com/questions/326531/removing-past-searches-from-google-chromes-omnibar/326537#326537 – Keltari Aug 26 '11 at 21:13
  • Yup, Keltari’s right; removing URLs is the same as removing titles (like in the other question). However, see my addendum to make it easier if you visited a while ago. – Synetech Aug 26 '11 at 21:19
  • I did not clear my history, I only removed the offending URLs. As you can see from the screenshot, searching the history for `gihub.com` doesn't return anything, but it still appears in the omnibar suggestions. – David Wolever Aug 26 '11 at 22:12
  • The History page is limited and does not always return correct/expected results. Use the extensions I indicated to do a proper search of the history. – Synetech Aug 26 '11 at 22:16
  • @Keltari: the question you linked to is not relevant: the solution there is to remove the offending site from my history, but I've already done that. – David Wolever Aug 26 '11 at 22:19
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    Well, this seems to be an [issue](http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=0b3c8fb6931aac4c&hl=en). – Chad Feller Aug 26 '11 at 22:30
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    i have the same problem when i accidentally typed `reddit.com/r/gonewild` when i meant `reddit.com/r/programming`. (note the extra g,n,e,w,l,d) – Ian Boyd Mar 25 '12 at 13:44

4 Answers4

262

Highlight the item (using your keyboard arrows) and use shift+delete

(Note that on the Mac you seem to need to also press fn, so fn+shift+delete)

NOTES

  • this won't work on URLs that have been bookmarked. For these you must first delete the bookmark, then delete it from the Omnibar history (you can tell it's a bookmark if there's a star next to it as you start typing)
  • you must select the entries in the Omnibar history using the arrow keys to select
slm
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Peter Smit
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    This works. Although it should be mentioned that rather "for example your keyboard", you **must** use your keyboard. You cannot leave an item highlighted with your mouse, and leaving the mouse-button down will prevent Shift+Delete from deleting. – Ian Boyd Mar 25 '12 at 13:48
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    Didn't work for me on 10.7.4, chrome 19.0.1084.52 – Heath Borders Jun 06 '12 at 13:25
  • +1 works for me on Lion 10.7.4 with Chrome 20.0.1132.47 – opyate Jun 29 '12 at 14:25
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    For, me my "delete" key didn't work, but my "Del" key did. – Mark Stosberg Nov 06 '12 at 20:21
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    Doesn't work for me. Chrome 27.0.1453.110. Macbook Pro, Snow Leopard. – Steve Bennett Jun 12 '13 at 00:19
  • My external keyboard didn't work, but the laptop keyboard worked perfectly. Weird. Macbook pro 10.8.5 – Allan Spreys Sep 28 '13 at 03:03
  • Actually, fn + shift + backspace did the job on a Macbook Pro, Mountain Lion. – yagooar Oct 17 '13 at 18:19
  • MBP osx10.9 and Chrome 31.0.1650.63 the addition of the `fn` key did the trick. +1 – Jacksonkr Jan 03 '14 at 16:09
  • If you have a full keyboard, you need to press the delete that is over with home and end and page up and page down. If you have a smaller keyboard that doesn't have those (such as a laptop) then you need to press fn+shift+delete. And if you do the wrong thing and modify the url by deleting a letter from the address bar, then it won't work and you have to start over. – jeffamaphone Apr 17 '14 at 15:39
  • Doesn't work in Chrome 36.0.1985.143 for Windows. – Brent Faust Sep 17 '14 at 18:19
  • Didn't work for my in chrome 37.0.2062.124 – WSK Oct 13 '14 at 16:20
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    this answer is no longer valid, 38.0.2125.122. I tried combinations of command, shift, fn, and delete on my mac book pro and the entry doesn't go away. We recently changed domain name and I have a history full of now broken urls, so very annoying. – Jilles van Gurp Nov 17 '14 at 17:48
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    I just tested on Ubuntu, 38.0.2125.122 (64-bit) and it still works. Maybe on windows or mac it is different. – Peter Smit Nov 18 '14 at 05:08
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    worked for me on chrome 39, OSX 10.10, macbook pro. Also verified that it synced to my iPhone Chrome. I used to type "wea" and it would complete to "weather.com" which I didn't want. So, typed "wea", saw it complete, pressed shift+fn+del, then cleared the omnibar bar and typed "wea" again, no more "weather.com". Tried it on iOS a few minutes later. At first it did complete to "weather.com" but a few moments later it stopped. YEA! – gman Dec 18 '14 at 22:38
  • Works on 39.0.2171.95 m Windows 8.1 x64. – Micah Zoltu Dec 23 '14 at 22:27
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    @techaddict On my machine (arch) it still works in 40.0.2214.94 (64-bit). There seem to be conflicting reports, but this method is absolutely not obsolete yet. – Peter Smit Feb 09 '15 at 06:50
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    This will NOT WORK if the URL is in your bookmarks. Instead, delete from your bookmarks. – William Entriken Feb 22 '15 at 19:06
  • I've deleted twitter using this, and from my bookmarks but it still pops up and I can't get it away. – API-Beast Mar 03 '15 at 11:34
  • Been needing to address this for ages :) Worked for me. Regarding some of the comments `backspace !== delete/del`. – ficuscr Oct 08 '15 at 16:12
  • This worked for me just now, so the answer is still valid, at least for the latest chrome build as of this date – Ravendarksky Mar 29 '16 at 16:30
  • On my macbook I have to hit `⌘`+`delete`. – ShadSterling Aug 12 '16 at 22:42
  • worked fine deleting gmail.com, and giving priority back to google.com when typing "g". Thanks a lot. – skyrail Sep 18 '16 at 18:50
  • @LexPodgorny Works for me on mac – Dessa Simpson Oct 29 '16 at 23:11
  • Wonderful, thank you! Works all the way up to chrome v63.0.3239.108 :) –  Dec 23 '17 at 17:20
  • This solution looks like not working anymore since Chrome 70 (Mac). – cadavre Nov 05 '18 at 08:44
  • THANK YOU for mentioning the bookmark bit. Wasted 20 mins trying to figure out why I cannot remove a single URL. – e_x_p Mar 10 '19 at 19:43
32

Low level answer, if you want to know the whole list:

This is stored in an sqlite3 database in Google Chrome's userprofile folder, on Linux it's located in

~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Top Sites

You can use SQLite3 to have a look at it:

me@local~/.config/google-chrome/Default$ cp Top\ Sites ts.sqlite
me@local~/.config/google-chrome/Default$ sqlite3 ts.sqlite ...
sqlite> .schema
...
CREATE TABLE thumbnails (url LONGVARCHAR PRIMARY KEY,url_rank INTEGER ,...
sqlite> select url_rank,url from thumbnails order by url_rank;
0|https://android.stackexchange.com/
...
21|http://archive.org/
23|https://android.googlesource.com/
24|https://android.meta.stackexchange.com/

To answer your question:
You can delete or edit an entry using regular SQL commands, but be sure that Chrome is not running, i.e. the file is not opened (by Chrome). Also note that I did all actions on a copy because of that (was only looking).

Community
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ce4
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  • this would be a really great answer if you could fill in the missing parts currently hidden by "...". What is the delete statement? and ... why don't show tables or .tables work? – Abe Jan 25 '13 at 19:50
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    The "..." just just hide the standard login prompt from sqlite3, my *Top Sites* ranked 1-20 which I didn't want to disclose and parts of the schema that are not necessary for the answer. SQLite uses standard SQL statements, so just write the statement yourself if you're familiar with it. I didn't include that delete statement on purpose. Type *.help* to get help on SQLite usage or see the man page here: http://linux.die.net/man/1/sqlite3 – ce4 Jan 25 '13 at 20:14
  • Sorry, I had two errors; first was misspelling the file extension .sqlite (so .schema returned nothing; so I thought that your `create` statement was a command to be issued ...) and then assuming that familiar mysql commands like `show tables;` must be standard. But now that I am over those hurdles I should be okay. – Abe Jan 25 '13 at 23:06
  • so, after doing `sqlite3 Top\ Sites; delete from thumbnnails where url = "http://www.example.com";`, I still see the unwanted site. Also, for the record, the README says "Google Chrome settings and storage represent user-selected preferences and information and MUST not be extracted, overwritten or modified except through Google Chrome defined APIs.". In any case, thanks for getting me a chance to check out sqlite. – Abe Jan 25 '13 at 23:18
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    :-) Yeah, "show tables" is not SQL really, it's a little different in sqlite, I also have to use .help each time I use it to get it right... – ce4 Jan 25 '13 at 23:19
  • Chrome's **not** running while you do that, right? – ce4 Jan 25 '13 at 23:20
  • okay. it looks like I deleted the website, but it still comes up as an autocomplete in search. But I am super happy to have learned a new trick. 50 bonus points are on their way... – Abe Jan 25 '13 at 23:39
  • Thanks! The history may also be used, just check that it's clean of the site you don't want to see any more ( via chrome://history/ ) – ce4 Jan 26 '13 at 04:33
  • I don't see a `Top Sites` folder in my `~/.config/google-chrome/Default/` using Chrome 32.0.1700.107 on Linux. Has that changed in newer versions? I'd like to try this -- it sounds cool. – Drew Noakes Feb 05 '14 at 15:51
  • ce4, Thank you! The easier way of editing the file may be using the `sqlitebrowser` or any other GUI on top of sqlite. – osgx May 09 '14 at 18:16
  • I have a long list I want to _edit_ (domain name changed). If I update the entries here, then open chrome, they still appear as suggestions, and are added as new entries to this table. They are getting copied to this table from some other place. – Lee Jan 14 '16 at 17:22
7

I have found several places that mention Fn+Shift+Del for a mac and Shift+Delete for windows.
I do use windows, and from my experience I often needed to use Fn+Shift+Delete.

Matas Vaitkevicius
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jave
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-1

I found a solution.

Highlight the item in the address bar drop-down box by pressing the left mouse button over it, but don't release the mouse button, continue holding it. Then press shift with your other hand, hold it, then take the hand with your mouse up and while keeping the button pressed , press the delete button with your little finger on the right hand.

Raystafarian
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Groggo
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