Suffering Safari

May 2, 2010 7:06 PM

I have a new iMac, and common web content that displays fine in Firefox isn't working for me in Safari.

In youtube, i have problems like the pause button not working, and blank popups, in google analytics, blank popups that should show information, trying to watch Ted Talks I hear audio, but no video.

(all links to screencaps of the problems described)


Here's what my safari settings look like.

I have the latest safari running on a brand new iMac, and have reinstalled the newest versions of safari and flash. Someone suggested installing flip4Mac, i did that, no change.

What setting do I have wrong that is causing these problems?

posted by bonsai forest to computers & internet (16 answers total)

The Firefox working and Safari not working could be a couple of things.
Here is my suggestion: create a new user on your mac & see if this user's Safari is also broken. If it is then you know it isn't a system problem, but something wrong with your particular user account.
The next question I would have is how your account that you are using on the Mac was originally set up - was it a migration from another machine? Were the programs migrated over from another mac? Finally, when Flip4Mac breaks it will sometimes do things similar (or this) to what you are describing, and you'll have to remove it completely.
posted by zenon at 7:30 PM on May 2, 2010

Hi Zenon,

I did your test - Safari works fine with the new user account, so I guess there is something wrong with my particular user account.

In answer to your second question, yes, my current account was a migration from another mac, including the programs.

So, what next? As I mentioned, I had already tried reinstalling the newest versions of safari and flash, and I had tried flip4mac.

(I've now removed it completely, but that didn't fix the problem in my main user account.)

Thanks for your advice so far.
posted by bonsai forest at 8:07 PM on May 2, 2010

Are all these programs running flash?
posted by Pants! at 8:19 PM on May 2, 2010

I don't know Pants!
posted by bonsai forest at 9:33 PM on May 2, 2010

Quit Safari. Move the file "com.apple.Safari.plist" in your home folder's Library>Preferences folder to some other folder. Safari will generate a new preference file, and this one will be saved in case you need it back down the line. See if that helps.
posted by thejoshu at 9:51 PM on May 2, 2010

Thanks for the suggestion thejoshu but no dice. I tried it, and it did not work.
posted by bonsai forest at 10:42 PM on May 2, 2010

Go into Applications folder, select Safari and hit commad+i (or right click on safari and select 'get info')
Under the General heading, verify that 'Open in 32-bit mode' and 'Open using Rosetta' are unchecked.

If that doesn't work, the other thing I would suggest is completely removing flash and all supporting files and doing a clean install of it.
posted by hummercash at 12:48 AM on May 3, 2010

I'd try installing flash again.
posted by backwards guitar at 4:19 AM on May 3, 2010

I'd bet almost anything it's a Flash problem. Try downloading and installing the Flash beta (google for it). I have this problem from time to time on my iMac in both Firefox and Safari. It hasn't seemed to be a problem with the latest Flash beta, though.
posted by paanta at 6:38 AM on May 3, 2010

Thanks so much for the further advice - I won't be able to try the latest suggestions out for a several days, I will report back!
posted by bonsai forest at 5:07 PM on May 3, 2010

My guess is also that it is a plug in for Safari - likely Flash. If the re-install fails you'll need to check in two locations:

First in the finder go to:
Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
You can get there through whatever you harddrive is called - this library folder in in the root directory.
Inside this folder you will find magic little do-dads that enable Safari to do all sorts of stuff - and this is where the problem likely is: there is likely a couple of things label flash player - trash both. Empty trash & restart Safari. Generally you can't break safari or your system if you remove files from here- but you will need to re-install flash

Second almost the same as the first but this one lives in your user/account folder:
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
The library folder should be in with your desktop and downloads and music folders.
If it is empty, that is totally normal. If this folder has anything labeled flash player, trash em. Empty Trash & restart Safari. Once again, if you got rid of the plug in you'll need to go get a new one from the fine folks at adobe.

It may be another plug in so let us know if that didn't do it.
posted by zenon at 9:27 PM on May 4, 2010

Thanks, and sorry I have been away so long. If anyone is still checking this thread, it still doesn't work. Cleared all flash plug-ins per zenon's advice, and I installed the latest Flash beta (Gala) per paanta's advice. Flash works, but I am experiencing all the same problems described initially.

Any other ideas?
posted by bonsai forest at 7:19 PM on May 16, 2010

Did you verify that it wasn't running in 32bit mode or under Rosetta? Both of those things could cause conflicts if you're trying to run 64bit flash player within 32bit or emulated PPC Safari.
posted by hummercash at 2:37 PM on May 18, 2010

How do I check what you are asking hummercash? I am running safari 4.05 on my imac.
posted by bonsai forest at 7:25 AM on May 19, 2010

Go into your Applications folder, select Safari and hit commad+i (or right click on safari and select 'get info')
Under the General heading, verify that 'Open in 32-bit mode' and 'Open using Rosetta' are unchecked.
posted by hummercash at 6:37 AM on May 20, 2010

Ok, did that. Open in 32-bit mode and open using Rosetta were both unchecked (open using rosetta was greyed out as well).
posted by bonsai forest at 7:05 AM on May 20, 2010