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Level 1

5 points

Safari goes to wrong website typed in URL

I have searched all over the internet for some information on the problem I'm having with Safari. It started when I downloaded Safari 5 (I'm running OSX 10.6.4). Sometimes when I type an address into my URL window or click an often used website from my home page "graph" Safari goes to a completely different website. For instance, I was trying to check the weather and clicked on the weather.com page on my "graph" and Safari went to Mapquest. So, I typed in weather.com into the url window and it still went to Mapquest. So, I opened up Firefox and checked the weather. On occasion, Firefox will pull the same trick as Safari after Safari has sent me to a wrong URL - sometimes it won't.

This past weekend, I was trying to go to Twitter and typed www.twitter.com in the URL window and Safari went to some AOL Realty site (that I have never been to) and even after the page loaded, it clearly said twitter.com on the URL window. Another time this weekend, again trying to go to Twitter and typing it in the URL window, Safari went to Chrysler's website (again twitter.com was what the URL window said after the page got done loading).

What the heck is up with this????? Safari was slow to load and getting 404 errors when I first updated it to 5, so I've done all of the cache and cooking clearing, reset Safari, reset permissions, etc.

Again, I use Safari as my default browser, so when this happens I will open Firefox and sometimes it will do the same thing that Safari is doing and sometimes it won't. So, not sure if it's a browser specific problem or an OSX problem. My Macbook Pro is about 6 months old and I don't visit sites that are spam or hack type sites at all.

I use my Macbook Pro both at home and at work, so it happens with both my home and work wireless routers.

Help!

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 7, 2010 3:27 PM

21 replies

Aug 11, 2011 12:22 PM in response to christena181

I am also experiencing this problem...

this is surely a bug... i even re-installed safari but still the problem exist!

I hope apple is getting this and fix it soon

Aug 23, 2011 12:27 AM in response to ebmontejo

I have the same issue - attempting to go to a URL takes browser to some random previously visited URL. This happens in Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Opera (all latest versions on Mac OS 10.6). When one browser starts doing it - others follow. So it is not a browser.

This usually starts happening some time after switching the computer on - between few hours and few days.

I changed from ISP DNS service to Google - no change.

I recently upgraded to Lion and haven't had this issue yet, but it hasn't been long enough to be sure.

I have a feeling that it might be a modem - can anyone confirm that modems can actually do something like this?

MicBook

Level 1

95 points

Nov 6, 2012 11:51 AM in response to christena181

I'm using a MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009) and it's running OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion.

I experienced this problem 2 days ago: when I was browsing Yahoo! HK and clicked on a news article link, Safari (version 6.0.2) directed me to a completely different website which I previously visited.

i.e. The news article link on Yahoo! HK was like 'http://hk.news.yahoo.com/abcabcabc...'. Safari directed me to 'http://www.macrumors.com/abcabcabc...' (Yahoo! HK and MacRumors are the websites I always visit)

I tried to:

(1) 'Remove All Website Data...' (in Safari Preferences -> Privacy)

(2) stop and reconnect my Internet connection (I use ADSL broadband.)

(3) go to '~/Library' and delete 'Safari' (I backed up that folder before doing that.)

— Doing the above was no use at all.

Somehow the issue disappeared itself. And now I don't have any problems when browsing the web using Safari.

PS I'm not sure whether this problem is related to my ISP, DNS settings (I haven't set anything about DNS) or Safari.

Nov 7, 2012 2:06 AM in response to MicBook

I have experienced this a long time ago when I check the connection thru terminal it really goes to a different site. One workaround is to flush your dns via terminal. Try it. And let us know if it works.

I still use snow leopard so this is how I do it.

dscacheutil -flushcache

Or the new version just google it.

Good luck!

MicBook

Level 1

95 points

Nov 10, 2012 10:23 AM in response to ebmontejo

I experienced this problem again about an hour ago: I couldn't go to 'hk.news.yahoo.com'. Safari said it couldn't find the server.

I wanted to find out what caused this issue. Apart from a home broadband service, I have got an iPhone 4 with data service as well. I connected my iPhone 4 with my Mac (tethering), and found that Safari could go to 'hk.news.yahoo.com' without any problems.

After the test, I switched back to my home broadband and followed your advice and reset the DNS cache (OS X: How to reset the DNS cache: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5343) and everything worked again. Thanks for the tip, ebmontejo!

So, it seems that it wasn't Safari's fault, it was my ISP's fault.

Feb 12, 2014 10:12 PM in response to christena181

I have a Macbook Pro late model 13 Inch with Mavericks on it and no problems with Safari.

Brand new Macbook Pro Retina and the problem no matter what I do sites on both firefox and Safari keep getting redirected some to Google, some to Pinterest, and it appears to be something with the function of what the last sites where in the look up from the address bar. Of course its also dropping or not completely applying CSS from a site. Its about the weirdest issues I have seen.

Flushing the DNS cache doesn't work, clearing the history, cookies, Reseting Safari, etc. doesn't work.

Its not a DNS issue being that both systems are using the same DNS settings.

This has to be a bug in Mavericks/webkit/Safari. Its **** irritating to have to keep resetting safari and clearing cookies. Its also weird that my Macbook Pro has no problems what so ever but the clean installed brand new Macbook Pro Retina has all the problems.

Safari goes to wrong website typed in URL