"Reset" Safari?

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Level 1

7 points

"Reset" Safari?

Hey friends.

TL;DR: Which file(s) and folder(s) do I delete to completely purge all Safari settings from a Mac?

I've got a problem with Safari on OS X. It has that pesky "Allow/Deny" prompt for external applications (e.g., Transmission), and has other fun features like an inability to install extensions not from the gallery, or even change its homepage setting (the field can be edited but reverts once you leave the field).

On another Mac, I have none of these issues, everything works fine, and all settings (within the Preferences pane) are the same. My conclusion? Safari has got confused and needs a reset. I have run First Aid on the drive to reset permissions etc.

Apple's help for this is to re-install your Mac, which is a HUGE PITA. I'll do this if it's really the ONLY way to solve this problem, but since most OS X apps have preferences files, is it possible to nuke these and get Safari to start afresh?

Thanks 🙂

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13.5)

Posted on Jun 8, 2018 9:46 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,311 points

Jun 9, 2018 7:05 PM in response to Morbific

Safari/Preferences/Advanced - enable the Develop menu, then go there and Empty Caches. Quit/reopen Safari and test. Then try Safari/History/Show History and delete all history items. Quit/reopen Safari and test. You can also try try Safari/Clear History…. The down side is it clears all cookies. Doing this may cause some sites to no longer recognize your computer as one that has visited the web site. Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db and move it to the trash.

Do a backup, preferably 2 backups on 2 separate drives.

Quit the application.

Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist. Delete the .plist.

Restart the computer, open the application, and test.

Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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Answer 2

Eric Root

Level 10

685,311 points

Jun 10, 2018 8:27 PM in response to Morbific

You are welcome. Try going to Safari/Preferences/Websites and set all web sites to on or off instead of Ask to get rid of the prompts. You may have to search a bit to find everything.

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Answer 3

Morbific Author

Level 1

7 points

Jun 9, 2018 7:06 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for that Eric 🙂 Have done all that now with no luck in changing (indeed, deleting the files didn't seem to impact Safari at all, e.g., it remembered its old homepage setting etc.).

For fun, I created a new user on the Mac, and the new user has the same issues - which makes me think this isn't a user-related problem but a system-wide problem. Are there any system-wide configuration files for Safari that could use a nuking?

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,311 points

Jun 9, 2018 7:31 PM in response to Morbific

You are welcome. There are no system wide files for Safari. Try the below to see if it helps.

Go to Safari Preferences/Extensions and turn all extensions off. Test. If okay, turn the extensions on one by one until you figure out what extension is causing the problem.

Safari Corruption See post by Linc Davis

Safari – Home Page see post by thomas r.

Home Page Locked - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8058186

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Answer 5

Morbific Author

Level 1

7 points

Jun 10, 2018 2:35 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks again Eric 🙂 We have partial success! Scrubbing the files as per Linc's post, and then safe-mode, was what fixed it.

Safari is now able to be configured, have extensions installed, and I can update my home page. WIN - thank you.

There's still an annoying problem with the allow/deny prompt for external handlers but TBH I can live with that, especially considering the time investment so far. It's nice to have Safari in a place where it, e.g., knows where its home is 😀

R

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"Reset" Safari?

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