Safari can't load specific websites

Hello everybody,



so for the past couple of weeks I've been experiencing the following problem: on both my iMac late 2010 and Macbook Air 2009 Safari is unable to load / connect to certain websites (about 20-30% of the pages I visit). If I try navigating to a specific page, I often get the "can't find server" error message. The websites Safari can't open seem to vary randomly - I might suddenly find myself unable to access a page that worked perfeclty fine a minute ago, and vice versa. De- and reactivating WiFi sometimes helps, sometimes it doesn't.


Also Safari at times loads websites incompletely, with the entire website format distorted and all images missing, replaced by those blue "?" symbols.


What is interesting though is that I do not experience these problems when opening the very same websites at the exact same time using another browser, such as Chrome or Firefox.


I already reset Safari and emptied the cache, deactivated all addons / plugins and made sure that both my OSX and Safari are the latest version available. I'm at a loss here - at first I thought it might be a general internet / wifi problem, that was until I found out that everythings works just fine with other browsers.


I hope you guys can help me! Of course I could just switch to Chrome or Firefox, but in my opinion Safari is vastly superior to these two so I'd really prefer keeping Safari.

Posted on Mar 3, 2014 1:57 AM

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31 replies

Dec 26, 2015 3:58 PM in response to RickTheRigged

I thought I would post MY solution. I tried all of the previous solutions posted around the web and nothing worked.


It all started when I upgraded to Mavericks. [I run a few OS versions behind to keep compatible with all of my Audio/Video hardware, software, plugins, etc.]


- Try a new user account to test

- Disable plugins/extensions in Safari

- Reset Safari

- Tried different browsers

- Start up in SAFE mode

- Restart my Apple Airport

- Config a new LOCATION in NETWORK

- Check and test ALL settings in NETWORK

- Reinstall Mavericks


Nothing worked to fix just 1 website that was not loading for me. All other sites work fine.


So the missing link? I have 2 Apple Airport devices. The main unit and one in EXTEND mode. I turned off the extend unit and it worked, slowly of course, because of the distance to the main unit. I then plugged the extend unit back in and all is well.


I still don't under stand why only ONE website did not load. I hope this helps someone else. Took me 24 hrs at this computer over 3 days to figure this out.

Jan 6, 2016 7:38 PM in response to miladwien

I have had the same problem since Christmas Day 2015 more than 50 hrs of my time after suppers trying this trying that.

Wipe router etc try other routers, other DNS, security certificates, etc etc

Safe Mode (problem gone but I need my user not safe mode) , Other user account Guest (still does it)

I installed Firefox, Chrome and chrome kind of works at least it gets to google to search but any link after that fails.

I could not access any search engine except bing in chrome


Its so bad I have to use my phone (same wireless network and no issues) as web browser to track this down.

Anyway I got a kicker for you.

I did like every one else but in this post the user miladwiensay they cant get to

google translate and youtube.com same for me.

But try it as https://www.google.ca or https://www.youtube.com


As soon as I added https: i can get there.

Sites like my own page that do not have https active it just hangs waits


I hope this helps someone I am just limping along now but I am alive.

For 6 years I have had no issues with the os or hardware its (macbook pro) been a very faithfull companion and money maker for me.

So I have faith that someone will hit on the real issue and answer I just hope its soon

Mar 28, 2016 5:52 PM in response to RickTheRigged

After 4 days of searching and trying, I finally found the solution!

Using Finder (Under the folder "Library"), go to your "LaunchDaemons" folder and delete everything in there. Then go to "Internet Plug-ins" folder and delete everything except for "default browser". I also deleted everything in my "LaunchAgents" folder. Restart your macbook and TaDaaaa! Magic. My browsers all work again!

Dec 19, 2016 2:28 PM in response to Jtnottingham

Interesting comments, @Jtnottingham. I can't comment on "dodgy support" as I haven't yet tried to get support from Apple. But I agree that Apple is in need of an inspiring vision that will justify their ongoing premium pricing, otherwise they are at risk of alienating some of their devoted users who expect quality at every level. There are a few cracks starting to show in their walls since Steve Jobs no longer lends his inspiration to the highest level of the organisation.


What concerns me here, is that this Safari issue is still a problem in December 2016 - over two years since the thread was started.


Yesterday, I experienced this problem on my iPhone (which I keep up to date, so Safari is up to date on my iPhone). I had been able to access a particular website on my iPhone in the past, but when I tried yesterday, Safari couldn't connect to that website, and the little timer wheel just went around and round.


After finding this thread, and clearing the Safari cache via Settings on my iPhone, the website came up almost instantaneously.


Can Apple not address this problem? Or at the very least, display a message after upgrades to advise users to clear the Safari cache if that is a necessity?

Dec 20, 2016 3:55 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks, Eric. I left feedback as suggested. I hope other users/visitors to this page will do the same, so that perhaps the problem will get resolved sooner as you say.


It must be a difficult bug to analyse, as (after reading this thread) it appears to occur when trying to reach some but not all websites. And in my experience, it was intermittent. (Did not occur in the past). So it might be difficult for the techies to duplicate the problem. But we live in hope 😉

Apr 26, 2017 6:50 AM in response to dominic23

None of what you just said makes any sense to me if I open up settings nothing of what you said is there, if I try to open up that app by itself it surely is not there. I am talking about my Iphone 6 plus here I do not have preferences/ extensions and do not know where to find all the stuff you are talking about. Maybe you could be more clear on this matter

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Safari can't load specific websites

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