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Safari Helvetica font issues - Question marks

Since I upgraded to Big Sur, Safari (and Apple Mail) is having issues discplaying some fonts correctly on some websites. For instance, Helvetica is displayed as loads of questions marks.

What I did so far:

  • Cleared the font cache via Terminal
  • Cleared the font cache by booting in safe mode
  • I'm using Extensis Suitcase to manage my third party fonts, but even when I don't have Suitcase launched, the issue remains.
  • In Font book, I checked all the fonts, no issue found.
  • In Font Book, I cannot deactivate Helvetica, because in Big Sur the system fonts cannot be altered.


These question marks appear only in Safari, not in any other browser, and also only when I'm logged in as normal user. When logged in on my admin account, the fonts are shown correctly in Safari.


Any ideas how to fix this? Thank you for all your help!

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 10:39 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 26, 2021 9:21 AM

Strangely enough, I managed to solve the problem temporarely by clearing the System Font Cache in Terminal while being logged in as admin. When logging back in as standard user, the issues seamed solved as long as I had not launched Suitcase Fusion. As soon as I launched Suitcase Fusion, the questions marks returned. So there seems to be a conflict with this special Application, not sure if the problem is on Apple's or Suitcase's side...

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 26, 2021 9:21 AM in response to vjPulp

Strangely enough, I managed to solve the problem temporarely by clearing the System Font Cache in Terminal while being logged in as admin. When logging back in as standard user, the issues seamed solved as long as I had not launched Suitcase Fusion. As soon as I launched Suitcase Fusion, the questions marks returned. So there seems to be a conflict with this special Application, not sure if the problem is on Apple's or Suitcase's side...

Safari Helvetica font issues - Question marks

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