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I just upgraded to Safari 6 on Lion. So far, not so good. Anyone know how I can revert back to 5?
Thanks!
I don't like Safri because there a front control in prefrences. Each site is either too small or big. You goofed Apple!
There seem to be a couple of ways around this problem.
If you are running Lion (Mountain Lion will only work with v6) and have access to a Mac that still has v5.1.7 on it (or have it in Time Machine) you can copy the Safari v5.1.7 package (Safari in the Applications folder - it should be about 40MB in size or so), on your Safari v6 Mac make a new folder in Applications folder (like Safari Old) and copy the Safari v5.1.7 package into the new folder (do not overwrite v6). As things stand v5.1.7 will run just fine and v6 will get updates. Don't run both versions at the same time (and I'd recomend not running v6 while your using v5.1.7 until your ready to give up on v5.1.7) or you could get corrupted files and at some point Apple could do an update that breaks v5.1.7, but for now it seems to work.
Sorry for the double here I forgot to add something.
Apple hasn't released an uninstall, although the v6 installer creates a backup of v5.1.7 (that isn't easy to get to) when it installs (the developer previews of v6 had uninstallers - which aren't supposed to be out in the publics hands). Some folks have reported success using the safari 6 developer preview 2 for lion uninstaller with the released version but I haven't been able to find it (seems like all the copies have been taken down from the internet). I had a friend tell me they were able to find one by doing a search on Safari 6 uninstaller and going down about 25 results or so, but who knows.
Best of luck to everyone trying to do this, the copy the v5.1.7 package to a new folder in the Applications folder seems a pretty easy safe way to go for the time being, unless someone stumbles on the uninstaller.
I just reverted back to Safari 5.1.6, and it seems to be working fine (5.1.7 should work the same way). Here's what I did:
Remove the following Safari 6 folders, some of which do NOT have a Safar 5.1.x equivalent:
Restored the following folder from a Safari 5.1 source, such as your Time Machine backup, or the Safari install DMG:
Also, when Safari 6 was installed, some or all of the above folders should have been backed up in the file:
/Library/Application Support/Apple/.SafariArchive.tar.gz
This solved my problem PERRRFECTLY. Thank you so much for posting this info. I only installed 6 because I was having trouble with my top sites previews disappearing everytime I quit Safari. I HATED 6, as a web developer, they changed all the development tools I use regularly. Like the activity window, a very QUICK and HANDY way to see if you forgot an image or script. All the other ways I tried to get rid of 6 didn't work so again a BIG thank you.
This solved the problem thanks!
I tried the above recommendation from thomasfromcary. However, I still cannot delete the application safari 6 from the application folder in order to replace it from a time Machine backup. Does anybody have any suggestions?
Mtn lion success...
I would like to say that thomasfromcary'ssteps allowed me to successfully reverted back to Safari 5.1.7 on a Macbook Air that came with Mtn Lion 10.8.2 (13" Mid 2012). I used the lion 5.1.7 installer.dmg and pacifist. thomasfromcary is a brilliant contributor.
The main reason was the yahoo mail-classic was totally broken in Safari 6, (attachments, rich text, auto contacts, and even the ability to logout was all screwed) besides the lack of the activity window which was crucial to me and other issues such as copying and pasting links direclty from the bookmarks bar etc. Otherwise I would have considered going chrome. With all of these problems in 10.7 ->10.8 luckily I am keeping my main machine on 10.6.8.
Might have to do the same thing again if I do the combo update...
Thank you! Thank you! To echo someone else here, worked perfectly!
Hallo and thanks for this instructions. I'd like to follow them until the end, BUT:
I have the same problem like others seem to have:
I can't delete safari 6 application, neither simply move it to the trash, because it is required by the system (10.8.5)
Any hint here?
How do I uninstall Safari 6 (Lion)
