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Why won't Safari quit on Lion?

This has happened twice now - White Macbook 13-inch, mid-2010. OS X 10.7 Lion installed, along with the most current version of Safari and latest software update. Safari has refused to quit. Command-Q won't work, and the Safari menu has the 'Quit Safari' button grayed out. Computer refuses to restart or shut down until Safari quits, which will not happen when you click 'Shut Down' or 'Restart'. The only way to quit safari is to hit Option-Command-Escape, which brings up the Force Quit menu. Took this problem to the Apple Store Genius Bar, and all they did was force quit it and report the problem to Apple - but something tells me that they're not going to do much about it. What can I do to avoid this happening?

Posted on Jul 23, 2011 1:14 PM

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26 replies

Jul 24, 2011 5:15 PM in response to thisnamestaken

Please tell me Apple is aware of this problem and has a bug fix in the works! I have the exact same problem and it is VERY SERIOUS. On my 13" MacBook running OS X 10.7 Lion now, using Safari 5.1, the option to Quit Safari is intermittantly greyed out there is no way to quit the application. Command - Q only beeps at me. Trying to shut down or restart brings up the dialogue "Safari has cancelled Shut Down". But, that is not the worst of it. I didn't try command + option + escape, but I did do a hard reboot. After the hard reboot, Safari reopens AND REOPENS A WINDOW FOR EVERY PAGE I HAVE VISITED IN THE HISTORY. Several times now this has happened, but not every time. Sometimes Quit Safari is available and works fine. But, what I am most worried about is that one of these times I may have purchased something on line, and when Safari reopens my entire browser history in hundreds of windows, I may end up putting financial transactions through again. Very very serious bug indeed! It must be fixed and put into the next Auto Update.


Please note if you are having this same problem I found another helpful stopgap measure. Besides command + option + escape, which I will try next time, you can also go to Safari > Reset Safari and click on the Close All Open Windows checkbox to get rid of the reopen browser history. But, this only gets Safari back to a usable state, it won't solve the worry I have that financial transactions might be put through again.


Thanks.

JeffreySoCal

Jul 26, 2011 7:24 AM in response to jhwalker

Mine fixed itself, which I was going to write off to "mystery" until I read the above post. I had concidentally just updated the icons in my dock with my preferred custom icons using Candybar. And after that icon update Safari was able to Quit agian. Reading the above post, just wanted to offer further support for the idea that overwriting the icon overwrites/corrects the source of the problem. My 2c.

Aug 1, 2011 7:12 AM in response to Eric Muehlmatt

Same problems here with 2007 macbook since downloading Lion-nothing but trouble. Mine fixes itself eventually, but each time I shut down, it happens again. I get no responses from anything under safari & my home page won't open. If I go to history, eventually one of the web pages open & I have to type in google home page. Exasperating!

Sep 20, 2011 1:52 AM in response to thisnamestaken

Don't know how to avoid the main Problem, but here's a tip to avoid the side-effect of many windows:


To avoid the problem of Safari reopening all the windows again, try deleting the Safari Saved application state (AFTER killing safari but BEFORE you restart it):


  1. Kill Safari, as explained above
  2. Go to the com.apple.Safari.savedState Folder in the Saved Application State folder in your Library Folder:
    1. In Finder
    2. Menu Go To > Folder (or Command+Shift+G)
    3. Enter ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Safari.savedState
  3. Delete all the files there (data.data, windows.plist)

    If you have problems with permissions see http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/17/delete-specific-application-saved-states-from-mac -os-x-10-7-lion-resume/

  4. Start Safari


And if you don't want Safari to reopen windows ever again see http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/31/disable-resume-specific-applications-mac-os-x-lio n/


Good luck!


And don't forget that lions are dangerous animals not to be played with!

Oct 16, 2011 4:11 PM in response to thisnamestaken

Switching out of 32 bit mode also fixed this problem for me. In applications find the Safari Icon, Click Command + I to get info. Unselect the 32 Bit flag and close the window. Force quit Safari if necessary. For good measure I removed the icon from the dock and then restarted and selected to keep the icon in the dock again. Problem seems to be gone.

Why won't Safari quit on Lion?

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