Chrome's "save password" functionality places a username in an unrelated field

Question

I have a web application written in HTML/PHP with a login screen. If a Chrome user logs in and navigates to a home page, the browser gives them the option of saving the password:

Some of our users who have hit 'save' will then see their username appear in a field that bears no relation to the login functionality:

The input field should look like this. With no value whatsoever:

This is the code for the input field:

<input type="text" id="searchInput" autocomplete="disabled" placeholder="Search..." > 

And as per other questions, i have tried every single possible solution to disable any sort of auto-fill of this field via the autocomplete attribute but no luck..

Also, solutions like creating fake hidden fields didnt work either (this apparently used to work but Google discovered this practice and worked around it)

How can i stop Chrome from doing this?

Edit: I have been able to get around this issue by setting the field initially to read only:

<input type="text" id="searchInput" onfocus="this.removeAttribute('readonly');" readonly autocomplete="disabled" placeholder="Search...">

In reality i shouldn't have to do this for every single field. But according to this, Google Chrome doesnt so much care about the usability of complex web interfaces likes those of CRM systems:

The tricky part here is that somewhere along the journey of the web autocomplete=off become a default for many form fields, without any real thought being given as to whether or not that was good for users. This doesn't mean there aren't very valid cases where you don't want the browser autofilling data (e.g. on CRM systems), but by and large, we see those as the minority cases. And as a result, we started ignoring autocomplete=off for Chrome Autofill data.

So those of us who happen to be working on "minority cases", are we doomed to have to write hacks like the above to prevent Chrome from inserting the username in a random place?

Sustentation

I know you said you tried everything but it should definitely be autocomplete="off" not “disabled” – Inhospitable

@Inhospitable that doesnt work here. Chrome seems to ignore "off": https://mcmap.net/q/57902/-disabling-chrome-autofill – Sustentation

The answer with 571 upvotes has an interesting workaround however it is not what id call ideal – Sustentation

This isn't about configuring an individual field. Chrome looks for input patterns that seem like login forms. Show (or describe) the entirety of the form fields on the page. If your inputs aren't inside grouping form elements, make it so. – Marylinmarylinda

input type=search maybe? – Gawlas

Answer 1

Have you tried setting the auto-complete types for the login fields? The following might help Chrome handle those fields, which should, in turn, help with the search box:

<label for="username">Username</label>
<input type="text" name="username" id="username"
  placeholder="Username" required autocomplete="username">

<label for="password">Password</label>
<input type="password" name="password" id="password"
  placeholder="Password" required autocomplete="current-password">

This Google dev guide on forms has additional info about adding metadata to your input fields: https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/design-and-ux/input/forms/#use_metadata_to_enable_auto-complete

Phira