FB21703301: the Address bar in Safari sometimes autocomplete a URL but alsos sometimes not, with the same typing

[godbout]

Submission Date

2026-01-21

Status

Open

Area

Safari

Operating System Version

macOS 26.2

Type

Incorrect/Unexpected Behavior

Description

a clear description of the problem

typing the exact same thing in the Address Bar sometimes get Safari to autocomplete to a website used in the past, but sometimes it doesn't. this makes for a very poor UX. many times i start typing a site and press enter but instead of sending me to the site i get send to google with my few characters typed. sometimes i get send to the site. so it requires to be slow and wait for Safari to do its stuff. sometimes it starts autocomplete a site and removes the autocomplete. it's very frustrating. please use the previous behavior that was working perfectly, not this random thing.

a step by step set of instructions to reproduce the problem

1. go to a website in Safari
2. open a new tab and type the website previously visited
3. sometimes typing the first few letters will autocomplete, sometimes not

what results you expected

i would expect at least some consistency. maybe a website should only be autocompleted after 3 characters? i don't know. it can be up to Apple to decide. but at least when i do the same thing over and over, i shouldn't get different results.

what results you actually saw

sometimes typing three letters will autocomplete the website, sometimes no. two letters same. one letter same. four letters same.

ScreenFlow.mp4

Keywords

safari, address bar, url, autocomplete

Prerequisites

• The title follows the format FB<number>: <title>
• I will keep this issue updated with Apple's responses