Safari 5.1.7 cannot be opened

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Level 1

8 points

Safari 5.1.7 cannot be opened

Mac Pro 2007 (not compatible with Mavericks) running OS X 10.7.5 Lion, 4x2TB internal disks RAID striped for a single 8 TB volume.

"Safari cannot be opened because of a problem. . . . You may need to reinstall the application . . ."

Right! How do I do that? I can't find a download on the Apple site or in the App store. I can't delete Safari and its files because "the operating system needs it". I thought the problem was due to one failing disk in my RAID array, so I replaced that drive, reinstalled Lion, installed all of the updates, and restored from my Time Machine backup. Everything else seems to be back to normal but Safari still doesn't work. I'm using Firefox for this message.

Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Apr 21, 2014 6:01 AM

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Answer 1

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andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Apr 21, 2014 11:15 AM in response to ThompsonTB

Have you previously updated to Safari 6 ?.

The official Apple line is that you need to reinstall OS X from Recovery, then install any available updates.

There are Safari download URLs in the update catalog, but usually only for the latest version on each OS X.

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/15/57/031-3445/ufnxrdv2eonlvqoavqx3lvqj4woggy313m/Safari6.1.3Lion.pkg

Above is for Safari 6.1.3 Lion, but it makes no checks as to system suitability.

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Answer 2

ThompsonTB Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 23, 2014 9:43 AM in response to andyBall_uk

I have fixed the problem (I think - still testing) by wiping the disk, doing a clean Lion install from a USB flash drive, updating, and selectively & sequentially restoring individual directories & files from Time Machine. Evidently doing a complete restore of User and Applications folder (and "Others") just re-established whatever had broken my system. Now I'm doing partial restores and checking after every step to see if stuff still works.

My latest software update installed Safari 6.1.3 - this is the first I have seen of it, so far as I can remember.

Now that I think back, Safari wasn't the only app that was broken - also my Canon scanner software, and a couple of other things mysteriously quit working too.

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