No sound from Safari

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account. Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up a guest account” (without the quotes) in the search box. Don't use the Safari-only Guest login created by "Find My Mac."

While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.

Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem(s)?

After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.

*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault in Mac OS X 10.7 or later, then you can’t enable the Guest account. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.

If any Safari extensions are installed, disable them and test.

Select Help ▹ Installed Plug-ins from the Safari menu bar. Besides the following, what plugins are listed?

iPhotoPhotocast

Java

QuickTime

Shockwave Flash

WebKit built-in PDF

I know that the Amazon plugin can cause strange problems. I've never heard of "Motive KickStart." I suggest you remove both of those, relaunch Safari, and test.

Back up all data.

Quit Safari. In the Finder, select Go ▹ Go to Folder... from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-G. Copy the line of text below into the box that opens, and press return:

/Library/Internet Plug-ins

From the folder that opens, remove any items that have a name matching the above. You may be prompted for your login password. Then launch Safari and test.

If you still have the issue, repeat with this line:

~/Library/Internet Plug-ins

If you don’t like the results of this procedure, restore the items from the backup you made before you started. Relaunch Safari again.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.

These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.

Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.

Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.

Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.

When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” (without the quotes) and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.

Step 1

Copy or drag — do not type — the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:

kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'

Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.) You can omit the final line ending in “$”.

Step 2

Repeat with this line:

sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|edu\.mit|org\.(amavis|apache|cups|isc|ntp|postfix|x)/{print $3}'

This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.

Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.

Step 3

launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|edu\.mit|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'

Step 4

ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null

Important: If you synchronize with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.

Step 5

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null

Remember, steps 1-5 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.

You can then quit Terminal.

Uninstall SIMBL as follows.

Select Go ▹ Go to Folder… from the Finder menu bar, then enter the following text in the box that opens:

/Library

A folder will open. From that folder, delete the items listed below (some may be absent.) You may be prompted for your administrator login password.

Application Support/SIMBL

InputManagers/SIMBL.bundle

LaunchAgents/net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist

ScriptingAdditions/SIMBL.osax

Log out and log back in.

Make sure you never reinstall SIMBL. It’s likely to come bundled with another third-party system modfication that depends on it. If you want trouble-free computing, avoid software that makes miraculous changes to other software, especially built-in applications. The only real exception to that rule is Safari extensions, which are mostly safe, and are easy to get rid of when they don’t work. SIMBL and its dependents are not Safari extensions.

Read this whole message before doing anything.

Back up all data if you haven’t already done so. Before proceeding, you must be sure you can restore your system to the state it’s in now.

Quit Safari if it’s running. Then select ▹ Force Quit... from the menu bar. A small window will open with a list of running applications. Safari may appear in that list, even though you quit it. If so, select it and press return. Close the window.

Step 1

In the Finder, press the key combination shift-command-A to open the Applications folder. Select the Safari icon in that folder and press the key combination command-I to open the Info window. There’s a checkbox in the Info window labeled Open in 32-bit mode. Uncheck it, if checked. Close the Info window and the Applications folder.

Open the Library folder in your home folder as follows:

☞ If running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, hold down the option key and select Go ▹ Library from the Finder menu bar.

☞ If running an older version of Mac OS X, select Go ▹ Go to Folder… from the Finder menu bar and enter “~/Library” (without the quotes) in the text box that opens.

Delete the following items from the Library folder (some may not exist):

Caches/com.apple.Safari

Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess

Caches/Metadata/Safari

Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginHost.plist

Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess.plist

Saved Application State/com.apple.Safari.savedState

Leave the Library folder open. Try Safari again. If it works now, stop here. Close the Library folder.

Step 2

If Safari still doesn’t work right, quit, go back to the Finder and move the following items from the open Library folder to the Desktop (some may not exist):

Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies

Preferences/com.apple.Safari.LSSharedFileList.plist

Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist

Preferences/com.apple.WebFoundation.plist

PubSub/Database

Safari

(Note: you are not moving the Safari application. You’re moving a folder named “Safari.”)

Try again. This time Safari should perform normally, but your settings and bookmarks will be lost.

If the issue is still not resolved, quit Safari again and put all the items you moved to the Desktop back where they were, overwriting the newer ones that will have been created in their place. You don’t need to replace the files you deleted in step 1. Stop here and post again.

If Safari is now working normally (apart from the lost settings), look inside the “Safari” folder on the Desktop for a file named “Bookmarks.plist”. Select File ▹ Import Bookmarks from the Safari menu bar. Import from that file. Recreate the rest of your Safari settings. You can then delete the items you moved to the Desktop.

Note: This step will remove your Safari Extensions, if any, and their settings. If you choose to restore them, do so one at a time, testing after each step to make sure you haven’t restored the problem.

If you don’t like the results of step 2, you can undo it completely by quitting Safari and restoring the items you moved or deleted in that step from your backup, overwriting any that were created in their place.

I'm guessing you meant for me to look for these files and folders in ~/Library.

Yes, and that's what I wrote above. Was there any change?