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what happened to the Safari thumbnail for webloc files?

until the 7.0.6 upgrade, when you dragged a favicon (the icon to the left of the URL window in Safari) to the desktop to create a webloc file for the URL, OS X made those icons into the same icon used for Safari.


now it's just a blank white icon like an 8.5x11" white page


what gives? I know I can individually paste the Safari icon image into every single weblog icon I have, but that will take forever, and then I'd also have to do it for every new webloc file created

Posted on Sep 18, 2014 7:40 AM

Reply
17 replies

Oct 27, 2014 1:31 PM in response to santranyc

I have been looking into this also


If you drag out of chrome you get icon, MIMEType application/xml


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>URL</key>

<string>http://www.stoneshaper.com/how.html</string>

</dict>

</plist>




If you drag out of safari you get blank icon, MIMETypeapplication/x-plist


bplist00— SURL_ #http://www.stoneshaper.com/how.html 5

Dec 15, 2014 7:47 PM in response to santranyc

+1. The thing is, it worked fine, then one day, it didn't. One thing I noticed, when I hit "Get Info", the "Open With" was listed as iOS simulator. I have no Idea why. I changed it back to Safari, clicked "Change All", Relaunched Finder, Restarted...No Luck. Its killing me. I know its not a problem, except for visually, but I'm a graphic designer, and it makes my brain hurt to see all those blank icons.


Another thing, I'm one of 2 users on the computer, and everything works normally on the other users side!! It's just mine. Is there a preference or something I could delete somewhere?

Dec 15, 2014 8:03 PM in response to Red Fall

Your dual-scenario is helpful evidence. Clearly, something is getting corrupted somehow. If only we knew where to look or what to replace.


I have 4 Macs, each running Yosemite, and I'm seeing this issue on two of them, but not the other two. In desperation, I copied the icon on one of the "good" machines and have resorted to pasting it onto the blank .webloc documents on the "bad" machines, as needed.

Dec 15, 2014 8:22 PM in response to Syncopator

It is a Safari thing. Just tried opening the blank icons with Firefox and Chrome. Once it was opened, I dragged to the desktop and got the "regular" webloc icon. Re-tried the same in safari, no dice. If you Get Info on the blank ones, the top, small icon is right, but the Preview pane is blank. As you know, if you paste a "good" one, it goes back to normal. So, it has something to do with Safari and the Preview of the icon. Now, can someone smarter than me figure this out!?

Dec 15, 2014 8:56 PM in response to Syncopator

So, I just located the .webloc icon inside Safari's package contents. I was hoping perhaps the icon was missing on the problem machines, but it's present. I even replaced the icon (for good measure) with a fresh copy from a non-problemattc machine. But the problem persists.


This -- and the fact that two users on one computer can have differering results -- suggests that the source of this bug is not within Safari itself. One suspect is the Finder, which is of course responsible for displaying the icons.


QUESTION: Are those experiencing this issue seeing it on older machines?

I'm seeing it on two, older machines, but not my two, newer ones. But that may simply be coincidence. That's why I'm asking, to see if that can be taken into account or dismissed. I'm starting to believe this may be a Finder bug (or something else interfering with the Finder).

Dec 16, 2014 12:51 PM in response to Syncopator

Found a relatively quick fix, though not a solution to the problem. After you drag it to your desktop, Get Info, select the icon up top, Cmd+C to copy, Cmd+V to paste. You don't have to get a "good" copy of another one's Get Info panel, just copy and pasting it to itself seems to refresh the file. Lame, yes. Works, yes. Now we just need to know what it's happening in the first place to solve it and save time.

Dec 25, 2014 10:01 AM in response to Syncopator

Ok, fair enough, although I did just download it and start poking around. Back up your Mac, safety first! Also, in all honesty, I’m not sure exactly what step restored my defaults; it could have been one thing, or all in combination, and I may have don’t some things that were not necessary. But in any case, it got back my default icons, and that was the whole point.


Before starting, I manually reset Safari.


In ‘MAINTENENCE - Rebuilding’ Tab;

Left default check boxes on, then manually checked “Appearance of folders content”. Set “Path” to my Home User Folder and selected "All Folders and sub Folders". Execute.


CLEANING

(most of these require a restart, and I restarted after every one, so be prepared to spend a few minutes doing this)

- System - kept defaults checked - Execute

- User - kept defaults checked - Execute

- Internet - only left "downloaded item list, Bookmark icons and Form Values UN-checked

- Fonts - Checked All - Execute (you may not need this, but I’m a graphic designer, so I assumed this was cleaning my font caches, don’t really know though)

- Misc - defaults + Saved Application States - Execute


Did not mess with anything in Automation, Utilities, Parameters, Info or Logs.


Hope this helps, and PLEASE back up your stuff before you do this. YMMV.


P.S. Merry Christmas. If you are offended, then I am offended that you are offended, which makes us even.

Feb 23, 2015 8:23 AM in response to Red Fall

I used OnyX because I was having the issue with the webloc icons on the desktop among other things and it worked for me.


I found the following settings worked for the icon issue:


Cleaning > User tab:

selected the following only:

-Applications

-Java and Java Applets

-International preferences

-Dock Icons

-ColorSync

-QuickLook

-Temporary Items

-IconServices


Execute


IconServices is probably all that needs to be selected.

what happened to the Safari thumbnail for webloc files?

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