I have a MacBook pro 15 inch running Snow Leopard. Somehow it convinced itself that it is a mobile device, at least several website tell me they won't work on a mobile device or something to that effect. Not sure how this happens but since one of the sites is my library where I get my ebooks it is really frustrating. Any ideas on how to get rid of this?
Thanks
Gene Stagner
15" Powerbook, Mac OS X (10.3.9)
Welcome to Apple Support Communities.
It sounds like you are opening a saved link or bookmark that may have been optimized for an iOS device. Did someone sent you a link from their tablet or phone? Are you sharing bookmarks among several devices including phones and tablets?
Website developers using sophisticated tools are able to (or "attempt to") detect the browser in use, and optimize the site for major browsers and popular releases. But it doesn't always work properly.
Small single-site web creators (like many of us using iWeb) probably don't have the tools or the time, and just don't bother.
Try navigating directly to the home page by entering the full URL into the toolbar window, such as http://mylibrary.com
If you have the time and want to experiment, enable the 'Develop' menubar item with the checkbox at the bottom of the Safari, Preferences, Advanced tab:
Now you can try out some other browser and device 'personalities' with User Agent:
You can also Open Page With any other OS X browsers you've installed:
Would have been nice it this had worked. I had already tried putting in the direct URL into the toolbar and that didn't work. I'm not sure how changing settings in the Safari software helps change how Foxfire loads stuff. Here is what I think is a related question. I comes up when I try to access online resources at my local library. Here is the message I get in a yellow frame
"
XML Parsing Error: mismatched tag. Expected: </link>.
Line Number 14, Column 4: </HEAD>
----------^ "
Have any ideas?
No, Safari setting don't change Firefox behavior.
My suggestion was to try the various personalities available in Safari, to see if you could isolate the problem.
I don't have a library account at Pierce County so I can't sign in.
Navitaging directly to the website http://polariscatalog.piercecountylibrary.org in Safari 5.1.7 works.
Entering a search author, Alan Ayckbourn, works.
Retrieving a title by the author works.
No errors.
To me, it points to Firefox not working properly.
Have you cleared the Firefox cache and the saved cookies related to that site?
Sorry for all the typos. I was on my way out the door and didn't have time to try different browsers.
I suggested the Safari Develop settings, because you didn't mention that Firefox was the browser experiencing/causing the problem.
Based on a couple of simple tests below, clearing the cache and saved cookies for all the problem websites would be the first thing I would try.
Do you have Firefox automatically check for updates to browser and add-ins?
I had an older Mozilla Firefox release (10.x) that kept crashing when I started it, before even before loading add-ons or navigating to any website. Downloading and installing the latest version of Firefox 15.x directly from Mozilla fixed that problem. The polariscatalog.piercecountylibrary.org website link opened in Firefox 15 just fine, and completed a simple search without errors.
I usually use the Mozilla Aurora browser beta rather than Firefox. It also opened the full website automatically and a simple search and retrieval worked.
Google Chrome worked, opening the full site.
So none of my Mac browsers attempted to automatically open mobile version.
I also tried opening the site on my wife's iPad 2 running iOS 5.1.1, to see if it detected it as a mobile device. The full site opened without errors in iOS Safari.
Using mobile site link in the upper left corner of the full library website, opened a simple text screen without graphics, and showed the same behavior as clicking the mobile site link in all the OS X browsers and iOS.
Message was edited by: kostby
Why is macbook acting like a mobile device?
