Disable Safari 5 Top Sites feature

Question

Arimathéia Author

Level 1

1 points

Disable Safari 5 Top Sites feature

How can I disable Safari 5 Top Sites feature? It takes a lot of memory and processor cycles.

Thanks in advance!

iMac 24" 2.8, Mac OS X (10.6), 4GB 320GB Twitter: @webmotiva

Posted on Aug 2, 2010 3:47 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 2, 2010 4:04 PM in response to Arimathéia

HI,

Not sure if you can disable it permanently but go to Safari/Preferences / Bookmarks and
deselect: Include TopSites

And try Google for a Terminal command to disable TopSites.

Try here: http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/12-tips-for-safari-4-beta.html

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

Arimathéia Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 2, 2010 4:05 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Thanks, but Safari continues generating lots of png and jpg files (almost 1GB) and this process is taking a lot ram and processor. I really would like to find a way to stop the entire process.

=)

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Answer 3

Arimathéia Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 2, 2010 4:12 PM in response to Arimathéia

Safari 5 with 7 tabs: http://twitpic.com/2b30kw/full

81.4% CPU and 404.4MB

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Answer 4

Arimathéia Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 2, 2010 4:23 PM in response to Arimathéia

Solution (CNET Forums):

"To completely disable Top Sites, go to Safari > Preferences > General

New windows open with: Top Sites
Change it to something else. Obviously, you can do the same for New Tabs.

(You'll also see Top Sites in the Show All Bookmarks window. Drag that up, don't stop when it first stops moving. It will be reduced to a thin bar.)

Now delete the Image Cache. Choose Safari > Reset Safari... and select Remove All Webpage Preview Images. Click Reset. Now go to YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and select the Webpage Previews folder. Press Cmd-I and click Locked. Now it won't accumulate a jpeg and png of every web page you visit. I saved over 500MB of disk space!"

...

The same 7 tabs with only 286MB.

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Answer 5

Aug 2, 2010 4:32 PM in response to Arimathéia

I should be giving you the star.

Thanks for taking the time to provide the feedback. I'm sure other Safari users will find it advantageous.

🙂

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Answer 6

steko

Level 2

270 points

Aug 2, 2010 5:06 PM in response to Arimathéia

Hi Arimathéia,

locking the "Webpage Previews" folder works, but your system.log will be hogged with error messages for every page you visit.

Best way to completely disable TopSites & Coverflow previews:

Quit Safari & unlock the "Webpage Previews" folder again.

Open Terminal (Applications/Utilities) & paste:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2

then hit return & quit Terminal.

To reactivate:

defaults delete com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy

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Answer 7

Arimathéia Author

Level 1

1 points

Aug 2, 2010 5:28 PM in response to steko

Very good! Thanks!

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Answer 8

Aug 2, 2010 5:28 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Now that was kind. How refreshing.

🙂

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Answer 9

steko

Level 2

270 points

Aug 2, 2010 5:41 PM in response to Arimathéia

You're welcome!

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Answer 10

Jul 13, 2011 9:28 PM in response to steko

steko wrote:

Hi Arimathéia,

locking the "Webpage Previews" folder works, but your system.log will be hogged with error messages for every page you visit.

Best way to completely disable TopSites & Coverflow previews:

Quit Safari & unlock the "Webpage Previews" folder again.

Open Terminal (Applications/Utilities) & paste:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2

then hit return & quit Terminal.

To reactivate:

defaults delete com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy

Excellent, thanks. But will keeping the Previews folder locked make any difference after this change?

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Answer 11

Aug 20, 2011 12:05 PM in response to steko

Has this been proven to work? Has anyone had any problems with this solution? Does it create any problems?

And why can't Apple just allow Top Sites to be easily deleted? I am about to switch to a new computer but I will NOT be installing Safari unless I can get word directly from Apple that Top SItes can be totally eradicated. I have finally gotten it not to pop up all the time, but it still randomly appears and wipes out what I am doing. I used to be a dedicated MAC fan, but have now switched to an Android phone and a PC computer due to problems such as Top Sites which Apple refuses to even acknowledge much less answer or address.

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Answer 12

steko

Level 2

270 points

Aug 20, 2011 7:39 PM in response to bradywestwater

@William Donelson: Shouldn't make a difference. But why not simply unlock it? ...

@bradywestwater: Doesn't create any problems. Works great here for a long time (now with Safari 5.1 on 10.6.8). It's Safari's own preferences, just hidden (Apple wants to keep it simple…).

Seems with Lion "Disable storage of preview images for web pages" is not working anymore:

http://www.bresink.de/osx/0TinkerTool/details.html

Can anybody running Lion confirm this?

Oddly, though I'm on 10.6.8, in TinkerTool 4.61 this option is checked, but greyed out (not available). Though the Terminal command still works.

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Answer 13

Nov 8, 2011 4:54 PM in response to Arimathéia

Okay, for the record, both command lines given in the above discussion did not seem to work. Safari is still generating pngs and jpgs of each page.

Ah well. If anyone has any further ideas, lemme know.

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Answer 14

steko

Level 2

270 points

Nov 9, 2011 9:08 AM in response to keraunoscopia

Still works here.

If you did both commands, you switched it off & then on again…

For those not comfortable using Terminal: download the free TinkerTool:

http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html

Since version 4.7 "disable storage of web page previews" is working again:

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Answer 15

Beren

Level 1

0 points

Jan 13, 2012 11:45 AM in response to steko

The latest version of Tinker Tool has restored the "Disable storage of preview images for web pages," at least for Snow Leopard, which is what I'm running on my computer. But curiously enough Safari still seems to be saving images for Top Sites.

I confess I'm a little wary about using the Terminal command. I don't want to do something that I cannot easily reverse.

I do not understand why Apply has not made it easy for users to turn Top Sites on and off.

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