How can I uninstall Safari 4.0.3? The latest update causes me problems

Thanks to Golden Shoes for this. It worked for my Safari 4.0.3 beachballing upon opening.


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Greetings,

Sorry, but Safari 4, 4.0.1 and 4.0.2 are not available to download; you can't go back. If Safari is giving you trouble, reinstalling it won't help, because that's not the problem. Try this instead:

Quit Safari if it's running and open System Preferences>Network>Advanced.
In the DNS Server window, make sure IPv6 is turned off, and enter these two DNS servers to replace the ones you currently have:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

click Apply Now and quit System Preferences.

Next, do these things in order:

1. Go to Home/Library/Cookies and delete the Cookies.plist file.
2. Go to Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and delete the contents of that folder.
3. Go to Home/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Web Page Previews and delete the contents of that folder.
4. If you don't want to use the Top Sites feature, open Terminal and paste in this command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2

5. Go to Home/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari and delete the contents of that folder.
6. Go to Home/Library/Caches/Safari and delete the contents of that folder.
7. Go to Home/Library/Safari and delete these files (if you have them):

Downloads.plist
History.plist
Form Values
LastSession.plist
WebpageIcons.db

Then restart Safari and see if the speed is improved.

Message was edited by: Mike Stand

my safari is freezing too. - this is not good. 'freezing' is why i left windows.
it freezes on facebook.
it freezes on yahoo.
it freezes on google.
it freezes on youtube.
i always have to force quit every day - too me thats worse than a crash (a crash ends, and a report can be generated)
i just want safari 3 back. i dont like safari 4.0.3, and i dont want a fixed safari 4 either. i tried to downgrade to safaris 3 but, it wont allow-- i know there is a way around this. What is that way?

Our family is experiencing these Safari (4.0.3) freezes after upgrading to Snow Leopard, but only on a 15" MBP (Jan 09 purchased) on multiple websites. Doesn't seem to be occurring on other Macs owned (iMacs, MBP 13", etc.)

I haven't upgraded to Snow Leopard and this is happening all week since my latest software update which updated Safari. It's infuriating.

I can't use Safari 4.0.3 on one of my desktops - the owner/administrator one (me). This was only annoying until recently. Now I can't use iTunes!

Why does one have too be a computer genius to get things to work. I spent a poop load of money in iTunes & now can't access it. My son thinks it's linked to the Safari problem since I can access iTunes on the other desktop. I've been reading & writing in these forums for over a week.

I'll be shocked if someone has an answer I can understand - quite frankly I'd be afraid to mess with a long list of settings - I might end up with a commputer that doesn't work at all.

Getting back to the original question (or should I start a new thread?), is there a way to undo the Safari 4.0.3 update?

I had the same "pinwheels forever but doesn't ever actually load or crash" issue that Linda is having, and I resolved it with some advice I found in this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2048520&tstart=0

Hopefully that might help her as well. It's still a tad slower than it was before for page hopping within a single site, and noticeably slower when going from one site to another (it's really unhappy with Google, for some reason), but it's much better than it was.

However, there are two "features" to the update that I absolutely abhor, and I can't seem to find any option to turn them off.

So my question is the same as her original question:

How do I undo the Safari 4.0.3 upgrade? For the first time in my admittedly short use of an Apple product, I am completely dissatisfied with one of their products. 😟 The irony here is that Safari 4.0 was the first pack-in browser that I adored.

Oh-- and I am still on Leopard. After the Safari fiasco, I don't think I'll be updating to Snow Leopard unless absolutely forced to do so. While Vista ran me away from PCs, given the cost difference, at least PCs are somewhat disposable if you have a serious issue. This Mac is a different story, though. 😟

And one more oops--

I meant that Safari 3 was the first pack-in browser that I felt no need to replace. Mea culpa.

Try using your back-up in Time Machine and just replace with your old Ver.

I am having the same problems here as everyone else.
I am running Mac OS 10.4.11 on an old Powerbook G4 and I had been extremely happy with Safari version 3.2.3. After Updating to Safari 4.0.3, however, I am noticing extremely longer loading times. The new Safari is also much less stable, and will often freeze up, showing a spinning ball until you force quite the application. For some website, such as Kohls.com or Tirerack.com Safari won't even begin to load the page.

Because of the problems in Safari 4.0.3 I have been forced to switch over to Firefox, which is such a shame because I really prefer Safari over any other web browser. Right now I am so frustrated with Apple for making Safari 4.0.3 a program that cannot be uninstalled. Not only is that such a classic Windows move, but it is something Microsoft would probably be sued for too.

I have searched the internet but cannot figure out a way to go back to Safari 3.2.3 and yes I have found several suggestions but none of them have worked. I even called Apple about this and their only comment was that I will have to reinstall the operating system on my computer! So I guess I will just have to get used to using Firefox. I am definitely not a happy Mac person right now.

Same issue, webpages I used to be able to be on are now major headaches because of simple animated gif's, avatars and banners... I just wish I had read these reports before I updated to Safari 4, lame.

Hi:
You might try using your original CD/DVD, and use custom install for Safari only.
When it tells you a later Version is installed try " replace" this has worked for me sometimes.
Good Luck

I do not believe this issue is related to the Safari update as I am having the same problem on my Windows OS computer as well. Its got to be a bug of some kind that affects Apple and Windows alike...

this is not good!

Hello, I've finally done it, managed to get rid of safari 4 and get back to 3.2.3 while being on osx 10.5.8 which, as I'm sure you know, installs safari 4. I've just gotta try and install leopard now and if that installs safari 4 see if it works again. Here's how I managed to do it. Hope it works for everyone.

1st thing, you can't reinstall using the 3.2.3 installer. It simply says you have a newer version.

I have time machine enabled. I had a full back up of the system, including safari 3.2.3. (you'll need that).
I downloaded an app called AppZapper. You can use it 5 times free then you have to purchase it.
I allowed software updates to take my system up to osx 10.5.8. (which automatically gives you safari 4)
I opened safari 4 and as soon as it's on the welcome screen I closed it completley.
I then opened a finder pane with the applications in.
Open AppZapper and drag safari 4 from the open application pane into it. Delete everything it's ticked.
Then close AppZapper, it's done it's job. (and for it's a mighty one at that)
Don't use your time machine backup in the usual way. Simply open it as you would any other file on your desk top. I simply double click the icon.
Navigate to a backup which has the version of safari you want and simply drag it onto your desk top.
Close the time machine pane.
Open the safari safari you've dragged onto the desktop and hey-presto, it's now 3.2.3.
Close safari.

I had to do the next 2 stages as when I clicked the icon in the dock I got an error message that things were missing.

Drag it from your desktop into your application folder.
Open it from here and if you want you can keep it on the dock in the usual way.

I can't testify to the stability of this work-around but it's working for me with no problems. As always, insure you have an up to date backup in case things go wrong.

If this works for you then please pass it on. Once safari 4 is back up to speed for me then I'll consider installing it again but not until then, 37 seconds for the 1st page load and about 12 seconds to load the average page after that is a bit much for the 'worlds fastest browser'.