Read this whole message before doing anything.
Back up all data.
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.
If Adobe Flash Player is installed, select
▹ System Preferences ▹ Flash Player ▹ Advanced
and click Delete All. Close the preference pane.
Hold down the option key and select
Go ▹ Library
from the Finder menu bar. Delete the following items from the Library folder (some may not exist):
- Caches/com.apple.Safari
- Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess
- Caches/com.apple.WebProcess
- 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. If you still have problems, continue.
Step 2
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
open $TMPDIR../C
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Quit Safari again. 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.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). A folder should open. Delete the following items from the folder, if they exist:
- com.apple.Safari
- com.apple.WebProcess+com.apple.Safari
Quit Terminal. Close the folder. Launch Safari and test.
Step 3
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
- Internet Plug-Ins
- 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. The default set of bookmarks will be restored. Delete them all.
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 may 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 3, 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.
