Firefox form auto-fill

#firefox #browser #mozilla #ux

Problem

One of the trivial, yet crucial UX issues I have with the Firefox web browser is that the other browsers do absolutely smashing job in auto-filling addresses.

Basically I just fill my address in once, the browser remembers and then I can select the remembered option in any web page and 90% of the form will be filled in correctly.

It sounds trivial, but filling in my physical address is surprisingly common workflow on contemporary web.

Research

I tried to follow the Automatically fill in your address on web forms in Firefox for Android from Mozilla, but mentioned settings options are not even available in my version (118.0b6).

After a bit of research I found out that Firefox/Features/Form Autofill contains the answer. Important: Since this article will inevitably go out of date, please refer to the linked official documentation for the correct way.

Solution

In the address bar type in about:config and press enter.
Search for extensions.formautofill.addresses
extensions.formautofill.addresses.capture.enabled = true
extensions.formautofill.addresses.capture.v2.enabled = true
- Not exactly sure what is the difference between this and the previous one, but can't hurt?
extensions.formautofill.addresses.supported = on
extensions.formautofill.addresses.supportedCountries = US,CA,CH,CZ,GB
- My country is Switzerland, therefore I added CH to this list. List of country codes follows the ISO 3166 aplha-2 code standard.
Restart browser
Now you should see in the Settings new item in Forms and Autofill

Now you can use try on websites like fill.dev to see if it works:

Conclusion

Firefox can fill in addresses in forms and does it reasonably well even in countries that are not officially supported. One just need to know where/how to enable it in settings.

Image generated via Midjourney prompt: firefox as a delivery man --ar 16:9