jhndeere2
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Reset Safari Settings/Preferences

OSX Lion and Safari 5.1.7.  I use Outlook Web Access to connect to my work email.  I've done something and now I can no longer login to OWA.  By this I mean, the username/password box never loads.  It was working fine and not sure what I've done, but it doesn't work now.  I have installed some plug-ins, but I'm not 100% sure when it stopped working.  I have removed all of the plug-ins and it still doesn't work.  I have also used the "RESET SAFARI" under Safari menu, and no change.

 

In installed Firefox and it works fine.  I then created a new user on the same machine and Safari works fine, so, it is deffinetly something I've done, and not sure what.  Can I (and how) rebuild Safari on one user with this new one I created since it seems to be working fine?  Any other ideas?

 

Thanks

-J

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 12:44 PM

by Neville Hillyer,Solvedanswer
Neville Hillyer Neville Hillyer
Level 4 (1,877 points)
Mac OS X
A:

The trouble is Safari has so many files all over the place.

 

First export bookmarks then quit Safari.

 

Open Terminal - in Utilities and paste the following - make sure it is the same as here - particularly first and last characters - then hit return - it will save your Safari folder with a date stamp on your Desktop and delete several files.

 

 

mv ~/Library/Safari ~/Desktop/Safari-`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.LSSharedFileList.plist; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebFoundation.plist; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginHost.plist; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess.plist; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/PubSub/Database; \

rm -Rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState  

Posted on Jul 11, 2012 12:55 PM

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jhndeere2

Q: Reset Safari Settings/Preferences

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Neville Hillyer,Solvedanswer

    Neville Hillyer Neville Hillyer Jul 11, 2012 12:55 PM in response to jhndeere2
    Level 4 (1,877 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 11, 2012 12:55 PM in response to jhndeere2

    The trouble is Safari has so many files all over the place.

     

    First export bookmarks then quit Safari.

     

    Open Terminal - in Utilities and paste the following - make sure it is the same as here - particularly first and last characters - then hit return - it will save your Safari folder with a date stamp on your Desktop and delete several files.

     

     

    mv ~/Library/Safari ~/Desktop/Safari-`date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S`; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.LSSharedFileList.plist; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebFoundation.plist; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginHost.plist; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess.plist; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/PubSub/Database; \

    rm -Rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState  

  • by Carolyn Samit,

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit Jul 11, 2012 1:00 PM in response to jhndeere2
    Level 10 (124,577 points)
    Apple Music
    Jul 11, 2012 1:00 PM in response to jhndeere2

    From your Safari menu bar top of your screen click Safari > Preferences then select the Privacy tab.

     

    Click:  Remove All Website Data

     

    Quit then relaunch Safari.

     

    If that didn't help, open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder

     

    Type this exactly as you see it here:

     

    ~/Library/Cookies

     

    Click Go

     

    Move the Cookies.binarycookies file from the Cookies folder to the Trash.

     

    Disable the Lion resume feature...

     

    Open System Preferences > General

     

    Deselect:  Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps

     

    Quit then relaunch Safari to test.

  • by jhndeere2,

    jhndeere2 jhndeere2 Jul 11, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Neville Hillyer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 11, 2012 1:12 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

    @Neville HillyerThanks.  This worked.

     

    As a side note, I continued to play around with this on the other user I temporarly created and found that the problem was the two plug-ins AdBlock and Turn Off the Lights.  Individually they work fine, but after I had them both installed it stopped working, and uninstalling them didn't resolve it.

     

    -J

  • by Neville Hillyer,

    Neville Hillyer Neville Hillyer Jul 11, 2012 1:32 PM in response to jhndeere2
    Level 4 (1,877 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 11, 2012 1:32 PM in response to jhndeere2

    This script has been developed to work on several OSs and I test it from time to time but I always welcome feedback.

     

    Recently it failed to remove all my bookmarks - I must test this again.

     

    I have slight doubts about password retention after its use and would particularly welcome any feedback on this issue.

     

    Don't forget to reset all your Safari preferences and import your bookmarks.

  • by estephan500,

    estephan500 estephan500 Dec 9, 2013 5:50 PM in response to Neville Hillyer
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 5:50 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

    Wow. That is what I call a cool clean-up step. thank you.  (referring to Neville's list of commands to paste into Terminal.)

  • by JustSomeOldGuy,

    JustSomeOldGuy JustSomeOldGuy Jun 23, 2015 12:21 PM in response to Neville Hillyer
    Level 1 (13 points)
    iPad
    Jun 23, 2015 12:21 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

    I ran into some nasty Safari malware today.  It hijacked everything!  Couldn't get to any settings in Safari.  This script fixed it.

     

    Neville, you're a rockstar!

  • by devtrish,

    devtrish devtrish Feb 13, 2016 9:59 PM in response to Neville Hillyer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2016 9:59 PM in response to Neville Hillyer

    Thanks so much Neville!  Your script and directions worked perfectly.