Safari 5.0 AutoFill for Forms not working

Question

Safari 5.0 has broken the way AutoFill for forms works. I couldn't figure out why it kept entering inaccurate data on forms that I had previously filled out. I have the checkbox next to Other Forms checked (as well as the other two boxes for Address Book and User Names/Passwords). But it seemed to be pulling data from my Address Book INSTEAD of from forms I had previously filled out. To test it, I turned off the Address Book checkbox which resulted in it not AutoFilling anything at all.
In 4.0 and previous versions, From Forms took priority over from Address Book. That's no longer the case and, in fact, From Forms doesn't seem to be working at all.
Is there some cache file I should trash, or is this just another 5.0 bug?
Other observations about 5.0:
It's visibly slower than 4.0 (on a Mac Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.5.8).
Some pages refuse to load at all (http://www.radaronline.com/giveaways crashes every time; http://freebieswamp.com/game/index.php and http://tlc.discovery.com/sweepstakes/style-getaway/entryform.html load but their forms don't work; a few other pages just hang)
Haven't noticed any improvements (and wish I had stuck with 4.0).

Answer 1

HI,
Haven't noticed any improvements (and wish I had stuck with 4.0).
The first link you provided is outdated as far as web standards go. I checked the site with W3C Validator and it came up with numerous errors: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radaronline.com%2Fgiveaways&c harset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
As an aside. Sites with "giveaways" are notorious for malware.
If it were me, in this case, I would keep Safari 5 for the security and privacy it provides. Reverting to a prior version merely for accessing sweepstakes sites in my opinion is a total waste of time.
*You can revert to 4.0.5 if you wish but definitely try troubleshooting Safari 5 first.*
First, go to ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and move the "cache.db" file to the Trash. ~ (Tilde) represents your Home Folder. Relaunch Safari. *That may make the difference*, if not....
From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari / Reset Safari. Select the top 7 buttons and click Reset.
Relaunch Safari. If it functions as it should, great but if not...
Go here for trouble shooting 3rd party plugins or input managers which might be causing the problem. Safari: Add-ons may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or have performance issues
If it isn't third party plugins, troubleshoot the Safari .plist file.
Go to the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Preferences. Make note of all the preferences under each tab. Quit Safari. Now go to ~/Library/Preferences and move this file com.apple.safari.plist to the Desktop.
Relaunch Safari and see if that makes a difference. If not, move the .plist file back to the Preferences folder. If Safari functions as it should, move that .plist file to the Trash.
And if you didn't repair disk permissions after the update was installed, try that.
Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac.
Now if you still want to revert to Safari 4.0.5, that's entirely up to you. Go here for instructions. http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/downgrade-from-safari-5-0-to-safari-4-0-5/
If you decide to revert to a prior version of Safari, make sure and backup all your important data first.
Carolyn