When you start typing a query into the unified search and address bar in the macOS Safari browser, Apple attempts to be helpful by pulling in “Safari Suggestions.” These are curated links to news articles, Wikipedia pages, iTunes store listings, and Maps locations that Apple thinks might match what you are typing, appearing before you even press Enter. While sometimes useful, these suggestions require your Mac to send every single keystroke to Apple’s servers in real-time. If you value your privacy, or if you simply find the cluttered list of suggestions distracting when you just want to search Google, you can turn this feature off.
How to Disable Safari Suggestions
You can stop this real-time data transmission in Safari’s main search settings.
- Open the Safari browser on your Mac.
- Click on Safari in the main menu bar at the very top-left of your screen.
- Select Settings… (or Preferences… on older macOS versions) from the drop-down menu.
- Click on the Search tab at the top of the Settings window (the icon looks like a magnifying glass).
- Look for the section titled “Smart Search Field.”
- Locate the checkbox labelled Include Safari Suggestions.
- Click the checkbox to uncheck it.
Safari will immediately stop sending your keystrokes to Apple’s suggestion servers. When you type in the address bar moving forward, you will only see suggestions generated from your own local bookmarks, your local browsing history, and standard autocomplete predictions from your chosen search engine (like Google or DuckDuckGo).