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User profile for user: Peter Kieselbach
Peter Kieselbach Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

A Fix for Safari 3.2.1 Not Responding

Like many Safari 3.2.1 stopped responding every time it was launched, starting immediately after the update. It would hang loading pages shortly after launching and I had to Force Quit it to exit. I did all the rubber chicken voodoo with repairing permissions, etc. without avail but found that removing all internet plug-ins and Safari Enhancer seems to have fixed it. I'm reinstalling them one by one now and so far Safari hasn't crashed.

I can't say whether this will fix the problem for others. In any case, this is the first time a Safari update has caused this problem for me. It would appear that the updater does not properly handle the plug-ins. I hope Apple learns how this problem came to be pushed out to us and prevents its reoccurrence. I don't like wasting time fixing these kinds of problems and am starting to test Firefox back to back against Safari to see if I like it as much (or more).

1 GHz TiBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 9, 2008 7:50 PM

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15 replies
User profile for user: Mulder
Mulder
User level: Level 6
8,990 points

Dec 9, 2008 8:40 PM in response to Peter Kieselbach

I did all the rubber chicken voodoo with repairing permissions, etc.


Rubber chicken voodoo? Never heard of that.

I can't say whether this will fix the problem for others.


It won't; the cause of the problem varies for everyone, and removing Internet Plug-ins aren't necessarily the solution. Input Managers are much more problematic.

It would appear that the updater does not properly handle the plug-ins.


That's just not true; the problem is that the Input Managers haven't been updated to work with the latest version of Safari. Apple has no control over that and they don't test for it either, because Input Managers are unsupported hacks to the OS.

Mulder
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User profile for user: Peter Kieselbach
Peter Kieselbach Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Dec 14, 2008 12:26 PM in response to Mulder

Mulder wrote:
That's just not true; the problem is that the Input Managers haven't been updated to work with the latest version of Safari. Apple has no control over that and they don't test for it either, because Input Managers are unsupported hacks to the OS.

Nice theory (which may be true for some others) but there are no Input Managers in my System Library - just an empty folder.

It turns out that Safari worked fine for a couple of days and then started crashing again, without any system changes that I'm aware of. It may be triggered by loading specific sites, but I don't feel like wasting my time tracking it down any further so I switched to Firefox.

Maybe I'll try Safari again when Apple pushes out a fix for this problem.
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User profile for user: Mulder
Mulder
User level: Level 6
8,990 points

Dec 14, 2008 12:42 PM in response to Peter Kieselbach

but there are no Input Managers in my System Library - just an empty folder.


In which case it would be a plugin that is incompatible, or some other issue that we don't have enough information to formulate a solution at this point. There is no evidence to support your hypothesis that this is a bug. Either way, if you're not willing to work on solving the problem, what's the point of asking for help in the forums?

Mulder
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User profile for user: Peter Kieselbach
Peter Kieselbach Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Dec 26, 2008 8:57 PM in response to Mulder

Why did I post this if I'm "not willing to work on solving the problem?" - because I've used (and supported the use of) Safari since I installed OS 10.2, had thought that I had found a solution (on my system, at least, though it turned out to be short-lived) and am quite disappointed that Apple chose to push out this update that was either a) buggy or b) incompatible with two commonly-used plug-ins (Shockwave Flash & Flip4Mac - the only ones installed right now). If you wish to spend your time tracking down their problem, fine, but I choose to spend mine elsewhere.
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User profile for user: Mulder
Mulder
User level: Level 6
8,990 points

Dec 26, 2008 9:08 PM in response to Peter Kieselbach

If you wish to spend your time tracking down their problem, fine, but I choose to spend mine elsewhere.


The flaw in your logic is blaming Apple for not knowing which third-party applications or plug-ins are incompatible with an OS X update, which they have neither the time nor resources to do. Since most other users have no problem with Flash, that indicates it's not the problem, but something on your system is the problem. Flip4Mac is known to be incompatible with the current version of QuickTime, so you and everyone else who uses it must wait for them to issue an update.

Again, neither of those are the fault of Apple, so if you don't want to solve your problem, that's your choice, but don't be surprised when other problems show up as a result.

Mulder
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User profile for user: Lovin' Life
Lovin' Life
User level: Level 1
50 points

Dec 28, 2008 8:25 PM in response to Peter Kieselbach

I haven't really had the problem of Safari not responding. But what I do have is a memory leak. And it can slow things down a bit. The solutions I use are quit Safari or a complete total power down of the computer. Nothing "fixes" it like a shut down.

I know. My computer is old. (7 years) But until it dies I will continue doing the back ups and the above steps to keep chugging along. My only real gripe is it doesn't handle video very well, if at all. We bought a digital camcorder which the salesman assured me was Mac compatible and he was right. To a point. One needs the iLife '08 for it to work.

Anyway, I've grown really accustom to using Safari. I've just learned to live with it's bugs. Thanks for the information. I'll try it if there ever comes a time.
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User profile for user: Adam Getliff
Adam Getliff
User level: Level 3
822 points

Dec 29, 2008 2:57 AM in response to Lovin' Life

This was driving me mad.

I removed Safari using AppZapper, removed prefs, cache. etc. etc.

The Shift key on launch did not help me as it still was stuck when starting. However, by chance I double clicked an html doc on my hard drive while investigating the contents of the plug-ins folder.

This launched Safari OK.

I took the opportunity to access prefs, disable the phishing option, and clear the cache.

Now all is OK.

A
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User profile for user: towniebiker
towniebiker
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 29, 2008 8:38 AM in response to Adam Getliff

My head spins at reading the "fixes" for the 3.2.1 version of Safari. I always appreciated the fact that if I downloaded and installed an Apple update, it worked perfectly. No screwing around with uninstall this and reload that.

All I know is until I loaded up this version of Safari I never, ever had a problem.

In the meantime, my default browser is Firefox. No fuss, no muss. Just like Safari used to be.

Take care.
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User profile for user: Luke Christian
Luke Christian
User level: Level 1
37 points

Jan 1, 2009 8:53 AM in response to towniebiker

I agree!

I was a reasonably happy Safari user until v 3.2, which not only proved hopelessly unstable, but also prevented the use of the AcidSearch plug-in that opened-up the choice of search engines (Firefox-style). The easiest way to uninstall 3.2 was to go back in the Time machine a couple of hours then restore the previous application.

Having said that, although I always admired Safari's elegance and simplicity, the Safari problems caused me to re-evaluate Firefox and I was absolutely amazed at how far Firefox 3 has moved the game on. In fact, once I had re-familiarized myself with Firefox, Safari felt strangely quaint and inadequate.

Unless Safari 4 is a quantum leap forward I can't imagine ever wanting to go back. Apple needs to try a lot harder than this if it wants to hold on to browser customers.
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User profile for user: iBod
iBod
User level: Level 7
29,351 points

Jan 1, 2009 9:01 AM in response to Luke Christian

I was a reasonably happy Safari user until v 3.2, which not only proved hopelessly unstable, but also prevented the use of the AcidSearch plug-in that opened-up the choice of search engines (Firefox-style)


There always seems to be a bit of a miscomprehension with Safari 'preventing' the use of some extensions. These type of extensions use undocumented interfaces to insert themselves into the running code of Safari.

The whole reason these interfaces are undocumented is that they are liable to change, which they periodically do as to the whims of the Apple developers.

Apple don't provide any public hooks to allow extensions like these to work across all versions, and never have. Maybe they should, but they don't. 🙂
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A Fix for Safari 3.2.1 Not Responding

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