"Improve search suggestions" cannot be disabled

Brave Browser Desktop Support
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1

Description of the issue: Search engine autocomplete results always show up in the address box when text is inputted, even when the usual setting for it has been disabled.

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Have “Appearance->Show autocomplete suggestions in address bar” enabled

  2. Attempt to disable “Search Engines->Improve search suggestions”

  3. Simply use the browser and realize that nothing has changed, or open the same panel again even seconds later to realize the option has been re-enabled.

Expected result: Inputs to the address box should show history and bookmarks, but not Search Engine autocomplete suggestions.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
Brave Origin
Brave 1.95.102 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Chromium: 153.0.8010.48

Additional Information:
Tested on Windows 11 and Mac OS Golden Gate 27.0, with the exact same symptoms in both.

Stable build of Brave Origin (not Nightly or Beta).

Temporary Workaround for Windows Users:

  1. Open Regedit
  2. Head to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\
  3. If not present create key named “BraveSoftware” in “Policies”, then another Key called “Brave” in “BraveSoftware”
  4. Create a DWORD called “SearchSuggestEnabled” and set it to 0
  5. Restart Brave
2

Not sure if you are the one who opened this or not but looks like this was filed recently. I’ve added this report and my own findings to the thread for developers to review.

3

Thanks for the reply. I am not the person who opened that issue, but it is certainly 100% the exact same problem.

It might be worth noting that both times I experienced it (on Windows and Mac) were on fresh OS installs with Brave being newly installed. I had the same version of Brave installed prior to the OS reinstallations and the issue seemed to not occur, or at the very least, the setting was not retroactively re-enabled by the current version.