Level 2

423 points

Only for Google links: Safari Can't Open the Page

Safari Can't Open the Page "https:/www.gogle.com/url?xyz" because the server where this page is located isn't responding.

Of course the page is perfectly reachable; and always appears when I dismiss this error and reload.

This disappeared for a while, but now is back :-(

Only in Safari, only when clicking on links which are the result of Google searches.

Anyone any ideas, please?

TIA…

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), Clean machine... no haxies; no Microsoft etc

Posted on Oct 29, 2015 4:06 PM

85 replies

Nov 1, 2015 11:45 PM in response to Mark Sealey

Hi Mark.

I thought we already established that this only happens with Safari.

In that case, it surely must be some bug with Safari. Some weird interaction that only the Safari browser has vs. other browsers on your machine.

I, for example, have the exact same problem with t.co URLs on my computer using safari, but none of the other computers in my house exhibits the same problem.

I will dig a little deeper today and file a bug with Apple in case they have any brilliant insights considering the joint information we can provide.

Nov 5, 2015 1:27 PM in response to pejotl

No solution. But I filed a bug with Apple. They haven't responded yet unfortunately.

Safari must be using a special API to load URLs or something, since it doesn't impact Chrome or Firefox.

But what's weird is, The other computers in my house have no issues. Same OS version, same Safari, same links (from the Twitter app) and no problems. So - I am assuming there is some sort of weird caching thing going on ... Very strange though.

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

423 points

Nov 5, 2015 1:48 PM in response to pejotl

pejotl and Jonathan,

I'm sorry to say I gave up and switched to DuckDuckGo: while it's not the end of the world to have to wait a couple of minutes to reload the search results in Google to display them, it was a nuisance.

I did have a case open with Apple, who believed it was AT&T - even though it was only always URLs beginning 'https://www.google.com/url?'

It began with me when I first got my iMac 5K running Yosemite.

Risco

Level 1

10 points

Nov 6, 2015 2:29 PM in response to Mark Sealey

This is the exact issue I am getting ever since upgrading to El Capitan. I will try and search and it will just hang and present this error. Also affects Youtube which is another Google website which will refuse to load.

I have tried a complete clean install, reset my router as well as my Time Capsule. This ONLY happens in Safari, with or without extensions and happens every single time when waking from sleep.

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

423 points

Nov 6, 2015 6:11 PM in response to pejotl

I don't think Apple can monitor these boards, at least not everything!

The last time I reported this behaviour, the tech who helped me was very good.

I did the usual Capture Data and very quickly they replied: the network… AT&T U-Verse was apparently failing to respond to the Google sites' ack (http acknowledgment) of my data requests. I had AT&T engineers do something with the setting on the box on the street; and - sure enough - it did improve for a few months.

But it's back.

As a matter of interest, how many of those reporting connectivity issues with Google and Google-owned domains use U-Verse?

Nov 7, 2015 3:42 AM in response to Mark Sealey

I am in the UK and using virgin media.

I am quite convinced this has nothing to do with ISP but I have to admit anything is possible. The mere fact that none of the other computers in my house exhibit this behavior AND that none of the OTHER browsers on MY computer exhibit this behavior leads me to believe this is a Safari-specific issue, local to the computer, which somehow has some ... weird state on it or something.

I have filed a bug with Apple and pointed them to this discussion. Sadly I have not heard from them yet. They are often pretty good about responding amazingly enough.

I only noticed this bug recently because I only recently switched back to Safari. But I think it's El Capitan related because I had no trouble using Safari as my main browser in Yosemite.

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

423 points

Nov 7, 2015 10:14 AM in response to Jonathan Payne1

Thanks, Jonathan, Risco

I certainly respected the Apple engineers' diagnosis. They looked at transactions between my iMac running Safari and the Google results URLs. They concluded - on the information which they had - that Google was sending responses to my clicks; but that those responses were not being processed by Safari.

I continued to draw to their attention the fact that this only happens in one browser with one (set of) domain(s).

They repeated their conclusion.

Risco

Level 1

10 points

Nov 7, 2015 11:58 AM in response to Mark Sealey

Thanks Mark, the fact it has come back for you suggests it can't be your network connection. Besides, the final version of El Capitan has only been out about 6 weeks. I just came back from the cinema and low and behold google is not working.

Just tried Firefox AND Google Chrome and no issues.

Nov 7, 2015 3:02 PM in response to Risco

Here's some new information.

I created a second account on my computer and logged into it at the same time.

Whenever a link fails on my account, I switch users to the other account and try the same link. So far it's worked immediately every time.

When I switched back to my account, however, it also worked whereas usually it takes a little longer than that to fail. So I am not sure what this means yet but will keep experimenting.

Things that make me go Hmmmm ....

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

423 points

Nov 7, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Risco

Thanks, Jonathan and Risco

I always find that reloading the page which has just failed serves it immediately. Every time.

Would you say, Jonathan, that what you're now experiencing could really be considered the equivalent of that: after all, you're sending a second request to the Google domain servers to send you the page?

(I've filed a bug report with Apple now.)

Nov 7, 2015 3:53 PM in response to Mark Sealey

Hi Mark,

Reloading does not work for me. I can reload 10 times and nothing happens. I can click the external link 10 times and it opens 10 Safari windows and they all hang.

However, so far, as soon as I switch to the OTHER user, it works immediately, and then when I come back to my own window, it also works immediately. I have a feeling there is some shared url cache in Mac OS X which is getting hung up for some reason. Actually, even that makes no sense, because why would switching to another user have impact on the original user unless it was a shared cache, in which case, why wouldn't the other user hang as well?

Very confusing.

My next test will be to switch to the other user but NOT open the link there. And then switch back. And see if the act of switching users is solving the problem.

After that I will switch to my second user and click on a different link and see if that works or not. And if that impacts the original link on my user.

And I just want to remind you that this only happens to me with t.co links, which is twitter's URL shortener.

Strange stuff but the more information the better, in/when Apple takes a look at this.

Nov 7, 2015 4:09 PM in response to Jonathan Payne1

Weird to reply to my own message, but here's what I am going to try next:

The next time my safari hangs, I am going to kill the process(es) called: nsurlstoraged using Activity Monitor.

There appears to be one for each logged in user and one other one.

I am going to see if killing the process owned by me fixes things.

I am going to bed now otherwise I'd do it now ;-)

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

423 points

Nov 7, 2015 10:28 PM in response to Jonathan Payne1

Please do let us know how it goes, Jonathan; thanks!

You're trying tests which - in theory - ought to reveal more than anyone else posting here has.

If the Apple engineers are right that Google is actually responding to the http request but the machine is not responding to the response (they say b/c of the network - even though only for Google domains on Safari), will your nsurlstoraged procedure reveal that?

Risco

Level 1

10 points

Nov 8, 2015 2:35 AM in response to Jonathan Payne1

OK just woke up the Macbook after sleeping overnight. Tried google and nothing happened, would not load at all. So I had made another account as mentioned by Jonathan and tried the same search and it worked fine. Went straight back in to my main account and it would not load. Flipped back and it loaded.

So, something is happening after installation that is causing this problem. Again, this can only be a software issue.

Mark Sealey Author

Level 2

423 points

Nov 8, 2015 9:55 AM in response to Risco

Hoping to help with the wider troubleshooting, may I just point out, please, that this all began for me when I got my new hardware in March, and was on Yosemite. I've kept the hardware (of course) and upgraded directly to 10.11.1.

It doesn't seem related to version or OS-installation - at least to me.

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Only for Google links: Safari Can't Open the Page