Google Image Search 'Click-through' functionality broken?

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Level 1

4 points

Google Image Search 'Click-through' functionality broken?

I'm running macOS High Sierra, v10.13.3 on a MacBookPro (13", Early 2011), with Safari v11.0.3

I've sporadically had issues with Safari and the click-through mechanic on Google Image Search thumbnails. Ordinarily when you click a thumbnail it enlarges the image and provides options to 'Visit', 'Save', 'View Saved' etcetera. For me, though, while the cursor seems to 'recognize' the content and switches from arrow to hand when hovering over the thumbnail, actually clicking the thumbnail produces no result.

I've tried navigating to Google Images from the image-specific query page and from the general search results list, to no avail. I've fully closed and restarted Safari, opened Safari while pressing the 'Shift' key, restarted my computer, cleared out my cookies and cache, and toggled off and on various privacy and security options, without change or improvement.

My situation appears to be similar to some other folks who had similar issues back in late 2017, but I've not seen any threads indicating more recent occurrences of this issue.

Not sure if this is computer-specific, a result of Google's recent changes to image search or something else, but I'd really appreciate some advice or feedback.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3), 13" Early 2011, Safari v11.0.3

Posted on Feb 27, 2018 11:56 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,039 points

Feb 28, 2018 8:28 AM in response to naeboese

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later. Please post if this worked or not.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer or by using the developer’s uninstall instructions. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once. Please post if this worked or not.

Safe Mode - About El Capitan
also Sierra

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan. also Sierra

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. You can run the report for free at least once, but if you run it several times, at some point it will ask you to pay a license fee.

Etrecheck – System Information

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