Facebook Messenger GIFs Not Displaying on All Browsers 2018 Mac Mini

… And with regards to using migration assistant, among the many files transferred are old preference files for applications. Preference files can often become corrupt. It would behove you to go in and trash the preferences for your web browsing applications and see if that fixes the problem as well.

Ok, well we know that the problem is a user account one. You have a few options:

• make a new account and manually migrate your files in. Aka start over. This would eliminate all of the old and unnecessary preferences and potential cache/application support files/etc that you have been carrying around from upgrade to upgrade.
• As the "Reset Safari" option is no longer available, you can try and get things in safari back to “new” for your user by going to Safari —> Preferences --> Privacy --> Remove all website data. Then, while your Preferences pane is open, go to the Advanced tab and click on "Show Develop menu in menu bar." Once you see it, click on Develop --> Empty Caches. Go back to your Preferences, click on Security, and make sure "Allow Plug-ins" is unchecked. You can then go in and uninstall all your extensions, clear all your bookmarks, and anything else you've added to it.
• or continue to dig through the user library to try to find the exact problem preference file or cache file that is causing the browser to behave this way.

One way to test out the corrupt preference theory is to create a test user and see if the same problem exists for that user. If it doesn’t, then we know that it is a user account issue and probably is related to preference files. If the problem persists, then it is probably something deeper.

So glad I was able to help! Ok, so to delete preference files, you need to find them first. Preference files are located in your user's library folder (which is hidden by default.):

Start off by closing Safari. (Command Q)

From the menu bar in the finder -> Go > (hold down the option key and hit) Library

In the finder window that opens navigate to this file:

Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari (in 11.1 this will appear as a folder just called Safari)/Data/Library/Preferences/

Delete the file called: com.apple.Safari.plist

Restart the computer.

Let us know how it goes.

Hey there FrenchCelt,

We'd like to help get your Mac working right in Safari with those GIFs on the Facebook website.

As Facebook is the only website you're having this issue, you may need to reach out to their support. First, we'd like to rule out some basics:

1. We see you have macOS 10.14 installed, but the latest for that OS is version 10.14.6. While it's not necessary to upgrade to the latest compatible macOS for your Mac mini, we do recommend at least having the latest updates for the currently installed OS. You can verify which version number is installed by clicking on the Apple logo at the top left corner of the screen, then on ‘About This Mac’. Here's how to first Back up your Mac with Time Machine, and afterwards, here's How to update the software on your Mac.
2. If you already have macOS 10.14.6 installed, we recommend a restart. Check out the section 'Restart' here: Log out, sleep, wake, restart, or shut down your Mac
3. This link shows how to Update apps or use automatic downloads.
4. These steps show how to Clear your browsing history in Safari on Mac.

If you need more help, we recommend reaching out to Apple Support here: Get Support

Take care!

*******

Happy to help! If any of the information that I provided was helpful or “solved” your problem, please mark it as such on the discussion thread. I would appreciate it!

Something to also check out would be the autoplay feature. Safari > Preferences > Websites > For Facebook.com allow all autoplay. When autoplay is turned off, gifs don't automatically play. I've tested this out. These settings are website specific, so that would be why it works on some sites but not others.