After a download, a compass/safari icon remains on the screen

My iMac is a late 2009 model and so I don't have an "Allow handoff" feature in my System Preference > General settings. And yet I also have the persistent Safari compass icon after downloading each time. This also started after I upgraded to High Sierra. Would appreciate other solutions that worked in similar circumstance as mine.

Same here. Has been happening since High Sierra as everyone else has said. I've also noticed this happens when the file I download is from my e-mail. I use gmail.

I did the suggested remedy turning off Handoff on my iPhone and iMac and this has fixed the problem--admittedly it's a workaround.

I called Apple Support and they had no additional fixes and said they would mention it to the engineers as a potential bug fix with the next update.

I've had the exact same "stuck Safari logo" issues since upgrading to High Sierra. So I attempted the VRAM restart (holding down Option/Alt + Command + P + R) while booting my computer, but that didn't work. I attempted the killall Safari command in Terminal, but that only worked temporarily – once I shut down Safari and restarted it, the logo got stuck again.

The winner for me, unfortunately, was disabling Handoff. Please note to all of you that are trying this "fix" that you have to disable Handoff on ALL devices! Not just your MacBook! If you're handing off / sharing between your MacBook and your iPhone, make sure you're going into General Settings on your iPhone and disabling as well.

This is more of a vent post toward Apple, because this isn't right that we should have to disable this feature. I use it quite frequently and really enjoy it. Unfortunately for me, the logo issue took priority as I use Gmail for work and download hundreds of documents per day. My screen was literally filled with stuck logos a matter of 20 minutes.

What I also found odd was... In Gmail, I have my shortcuts enabled so that when I press Shift + C, a new email should appear but in a SEPARATE tear-away window from my Safari browser. Whenever I tried using this shortcut, I received the error message "Oops! You must have a pop-up blocker enabled", etc. etc. Which is not the case... My pop-up blockers were disabled in my Safari settings, and any place elsewhere that I could find.

Would love it if Apple would send an update to fix this, or for someone to share any other resolution other than turning off Handoff!

come on Apple Support - this is STILL an issue for many of us. PLEASE troubleshoot and issue a fix. It is very, very annoying and only goes away after shutting down Safari. Very inconvenient and inefficient.

Possible Fix!

Just got off the phone w Apple Advanced Support and their suggestion seems to have worked (fingers crossed!). I did update to the latest High Sierra iOS yesterday.

Here's what we did:

1. Open Safari preferences

2. General Tab

3. Change File download location to desktop

4. Issue persisted

5. Restart the Computer

6. Open Safari Preferences

7. Advanced Tab

8. Click on Show Develop menu in menu bar

9. Goto Develop tab and Empty Cache, [Option] + [Command] + [E] keys

10. It worked!

11. Uncheck Show Develop menu in menu bar. (I was told you can really mess up Safari with the Develop menu.)

I included Steps 1-5 as the Apple Support Engineer said they weren't sure if this in combination with Emptying the cache somehow fixed the problem. Hope this fix is permanent and it helps all of you.

It doesn't work.

This is a *BUG* affecting computers without Handoff but compatible with 10.13.x as this wasn't happening with 10.12

This is a brand new installation of the OS so cache removals, etc is irrelevant.

Definitely something to fix or stop using Safari.

On my Mac, this problem had disappeared recently, although I have no notion what it was that I did that made the change. But then a few days ago, I installed the High Sierra update, and now the problem is back again. Clearly this is buried in the OS code, and Apple is now re-creating a host of angry users every time it does an OS update -- an apparent admission by Apple developers that they do not understand their own code.

Having to quit and re-open Safari every time we do a download is absurd. Time to find a different browser that doesn't have Safari's problems?

For those who are still experiencing this issues, in Safari Settings > General, try to disable the option "New windows open with Tabs" by choosing any alternative. This function was causing the compass to become visible on any download for me.

If "New windows open with Tabs" has to be permanently disabled, then this is not a very useful fix for those who prefer this function. Better to abandon Safari altogether and use another browser that doesn't have this compass/safari icon problem.

I have also found that the compass/safari icon problem seems to occur with downloads from some websites but not others -- which suggests it may be provoked by something in the code of those websites. Perhaps if the Apple developers explored that possibility, they might find a solution.

Lonac -

Fix:

In Finder, right click on "Downloads", then click "Add to Dock"

It's not really a fix - might be a workaround if it works for some. I really do not want the Download folder in the dock, it's not necessary and it takes up space better used for other things! May as well carry on using Firefox or Chrome.

I wish this were even a work-around rather than a fix. Fact is, I have always had the Downloads folder in my Dock, and I still have the problem of the download icon remaining on the screen. I come back to a question I've asked before in this forum: Does the icon persist only with downloads from some websites, but not all websites? And if so, what is it that makes this happen only some of the time?

Of all the suggested "fixes" thus far, this one seems to yield the best results -- at least in combination with turning off the Handoff feature on all other devices. However, this is not a permanent fix. From time to time, the problem with the compass/safari icon returns, and I have to run through the steps again. Really annoying, for a pointless icon animation that none of us really need.

Did not work for me at all.

Create another administrator account, logout, then login to your user account and test.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204443

Same issue here! Anytime i download something, I get the grey safari Icon overlay. Only way to clear it is to close safari. Started with High Sierra upgrade.