Microsoft Edge — Autofill Not Working on a Specific Site

Category: Desktop Support / Browser
Applies To: Microsoft Edge on Windows 11 (also Windows 10)
Author: ManagedTech
Date: 2026-03-20

Problem

Microsoft Edge autofill (password dropdown) does not appear on a specific website login page, but works correctly on other sites.

Cause

The website has set autocomplete="off" in its HTML login form. This is an instruction from the site owner telling browsers not to autofill credentials. Edge respects this by default.

This is common on:

• Banking and financial sites
• Government portals
• Some business and HR systems

Note: The site owner has intentionally disabled autofill, sometimes for compliance or security reasons. Overriding this is the user’s choice and should be done with awareness of that intent.

Solution

None available. There are no settings to turn this functionality off as Microsoft have disabled over riding this setting.

Notes:

Why would we care if auto complete isn’t turned on? Here is one reason I can think of – it helps reduce security.  Here’s how.

Modern passwords are getting longer and more complex. The chance of having random complex passwords reduces the more complex a password is as people just cannot remember them: Add to that the effort of trying to type strings of random characters, letter, numbers, symbols etc, in correct case, every time gets lower with increased security.

So what do people do? They save passwords for use as autofill.  Now I will be the first to admit having auto filled passwords is less security than manual typing but I think there is a trade off:

Auto filled passwords only work on a machine you have already probably authenticated into. Then you have to get to the site before auto fill works. I use Firefox auto fill, which is password protected and saves the local passwords in an encrypted format. This means that I’ve already had to authenticate to the device, and to the password store. If I also have 2FA that’s another step.  How many steps do you need to be secure?

If I also have to type a long random string in, over and over again, I am more likely to make it simple to type, less random and possibly as short as possible. This reduced password is then transmitted and saved as a hash. We all know a shorter, less complex password’s hash is more likely to be known by bad actors, so easier to break.

I believe auto filled long complex passwords, filled from an encrypted store, and logged into at the beginning of the session, is more secure than short manually typed passwords transmitted publicaly.

It’s a trade off – but at the end of the day people need to be responsible for their own security and taking away one option to encourage more complex passwords seems to me a step backwards.