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Level 1

11 points

Google Images not working in Safari on Iphone

Since a while back the "images"-tab in google does'nt work on the iPhone in any of the browsers I've tried. I've searched the net to find others with the same problem but with little luck. Here's a description of the problem.

For example I search for "dog" in google in the Safari browser, this works just fine.
Then I press the "images"-tab and get a thumbnail view with pictures of dogs, of course.

But this is where it all goes wrong, when touching one of the images I get an enlarged view of an image next to it. The "back to the results" and "full image" buttons dim out (without being touchable) and swiping does not work. I don't know what has caused this to stop working properly, I know its not the new iOS version though.

HERE is a youtube video I prepared that explains the problem.

First, is there anyone else out there with this problem?

Second, this is what I've tried:
- Other iPhone web browser applications, for example "Mercury", "Opera Mini", "Skyfire" and none of them works except "Dolphin" (good work).

- Resetting any of the settings in the phone, clearing cache and such have no effect.

- Resetting the iPhone totally, factory settings. No effect.

- Using someone elses iPhone. I've tried on an iPhone 4 and iPhone 3S, same problems (with iOS 5.01).

- Trying out all of the settings in google, no change.

- Setting the google view to "classic" instead of "mobile" works of course, but that makes the site look just like on a PC or Mac and is not what I'm after.

Third, this problem seems to just affect Swedish users from what I can tell. There would be thousands of posts about this if everyone in the world was affected by it, but so far I've seen no posts on this matter. But after searching a while I found a swedish forum site on the subject. Link (in swedish).Also, when visiting google from Sweden some form of script automatically changes the url from .com to .se. I don't know if this has something to do with it?

Anyone know what causes this problem and how It might be resolved?

Best Regard
Stefan, Sweden

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Feb 7, 2012 4:28 PM

58 replies

May 10, 2012 6:35 PM in response to naruyume

Doesn't seem any one has mentioned this so here it is.

At the bottom of the Google Images page is a link to the 'classic' page. Here too the javascript is a little buggy. So again I clicked the 'basic version' link at the bottom and then the page worked fine.

So it seems to be the javascript on Safari that is causing the problem.

Can anybody verify this solution works on their iPhone?

May 10, 2012 6:40 PM in response to signature103

For now yes this works for me. I click on 'classic' version, then basic and i can actually navigate image pages and click on an image and see it full size..

works great for now and i dont have to use Bing or Yahoo.. FFS.

Thanks

Craigll

Level 1

0 points

May 10, 2012 6:46 PM in response to naruyume

I was also struck by this today. I updated to 5.1.1 and obviously that didn't help. The Classic > Basic view is working. Is it too much to ask that the Mobile version works on my mobile phone?

May 10, 2012 6:54 PM in response to Craigll

The problem seems then is not iPhone or Safari (because the javascript works for Bing and Yahoo!) but with Googles scripting for it here. The problem then should be addressed to Google and not to Apple.

May 10, 2012 8:40 PM in response to jeff243

EXACT same problem here. Google Safari image thumbnails yes, trying to expand them, no. Opened up the debug console and that's reporting numerous JavaScript errors, all AFTER 5.1.1. 😟 UGH. I don't want to have to use the other search engines!

Zed.kee

Level 1

0 points

May 10, 2012 9:23 PM in response to naruyume

Hi Guys, Have you tried this:

1. Closing the browser

2. Clearing History and Cookies

3. Turning On debug console

4. Opening browser, go to Google > Images

5. Closing the browser

6. and Turning off Debug Console

It worked for me the 2nd time I did this. It's bloody annoying if I have to do this every time it doesn't work. Hope this helps!

May 10, 2012 9:35 PM in response to Zed.kee

Wow. That worked! I'll see if it holds up, or if it's a temporary fix, and report back in. How'd you come up with that combination?

Zed.kee

Level 1

0 points

May 10, 2012 9:46 PM in response to The Kwamster

Glad it worked for you! I was just trying everything to get it working.I think being a technical support guy helps?? Lol. Hope it works for the others too.

May 10, 2012 10:58 PM in response to jeff243

I instale mercury browser and google still no working on images there as safari, then I change to yahoo search and there yes work mages.

May 11, 2012 6:39 AM in response to Zed.kee

Worked for me! ill post again in a couple days after further use to see how it holds up.

Thanks.

Zed.kee wrote:

Hi Guys, Have you tried this:

1. Closing the browser

2. Clearing History and Cookies

3. Turning On debug console

4. Opening browser, go to Google > Images

5. Closing the browser

6. and Turning off Debug Console

It worked for me the 2nd time I did this. It's bloody annoying if I have to do this every time it doesn't work. Hope this helps!

realzzz

Level 1

0 points

May 11, 2012 8:25 PM in response to johnwisdom

For me it just started working again today .. Didnt have to do any manipulation because it wasnt working for android phones too my brother galaxy nexus had the same problem so i think that its from google website not from the phone ...

b-avery

Level 1

0 points

Jun 1, 2012 2:21 PM in response to naruyume

I was looking into the error message on the debug console and I think I understand what is happening. Remember that google paid apple like 1 billion dollars. Yes one billion dollars for iPhone to have google as default search engine. Well I did some reading and I learned that google search tracking is putting a tracking cookie on to the user iPohone illegal through some loop hole in the safari engine. Well Apple may have patched that looop hole breaking the Javascript engine and stopping that functionality. So, it could be Apple fault and really googles fault. But bring security and ensurance that things are now working right and google tha bad company need to get there S*&T together.

Mar 5, 2013 11:35 AM in response to naruyume

Ok here's what I did on my ip4 iOS 5.1.1:-

I closed all tabs in safari and exited it ensuring it was then removed from the multitask tray. Then I went into settings for safari and hit the two buttons to remove both history and browse data or whatever they say. I then went back to gimages and tried viewing one full sized. Still didn't work.

I then closed safari again the same way as before and went back to settings. There is a debug mode. I switched that to on then retried google images again. I had an irritating debug banner now but google images works great. Once again I closed safari back down and entered the settings. I switched the debug option back to off. Now google images seems to work as it did before and no ugly banner.

Google Images not working in Safari on Iphone