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The only side effect of deleting cache files is operations may be a bit slower until the cache files are rebuilt, which happens the first time the app is used after the files are deleted. When I worked for Microsoft training their tech support "engineers" there were two quick fixes commonly used when an immediate "fix" did not present itself.

1. Reboot and if that didn't work
2. Re-install

Although that didn't reveal the cause, roughly ²∕₃ of the time it solved the user's problem and saved everyone a lot of time.

RE: I thought you couldn't access Gmail?

At home (due to snail-speed loading).

At a high-speed access terminal it's obviously not a problem. Question remains as stated.

Given the changes at Google I don't know that this would work with your version of macOS or not, but it has always been a feature of macOS to merge the contents of Google's, and other provider's, "address books" into Apple's Contacts following these Apple instructions. Contacts and Contacts can be sorted by first or last name in Contacts > Settings > General.

I thought you couldn't access Gmail?

My contacts are alphabetized, and I don't remember them ever being in any other order or, as the case may be, disorder.

I do, however, run into occasional anomalies with business names and people listed by either first or last name only.

And you hit on a real sore spot there! Too many Google results are geared towards phones and do not address desktop computers at all.

Gmail's "standard view" seems to be geared to users who prefer pretty pictures rather than bare-bones communication.

QUERY: Does anyone know how to alphabetize the Contact list?
Googling such only brings up solutions which are hopelessly out of date and/or geared to smartphone apps — and none of them are applicable.
(At the moment there's no rhyme or reason to the manner in which my contacts are listed — which requires my going through a very long list repeatedly.)

Hi, I will try, But this seems to be wider than the browser. My AirDrop is now not working, and I can't send emails either, (not sure if that might have been linked to clearing the cache?).
I can however receive emails (but not AirDrops).
I will try a Safe Boot.

Try Firefox. I frequently have issues in Safari that don't affect me in the Firefox.

I know you have tried at least two different browsers, but Since the privacy and security settings in macOS are more oriented toward preventing incoming malware, it occurs to me the culprit might be related to a browser extension used in both the browsers you have tried.

• Try disabling any extensions in Safari and then attempting the upload
• Performing a safe boot should pretty well eliminate any blocking from your computer.
• On the off-chance the files may have been damaged during the transfer, have you tried reloading the files from their original source?

AI and DuckDuckGo searches turned up several similar posts involving Microsoft's One Drive, but none of those solutions appeared appropriate. I did find this from CleanMyMac (which purports to be a sovereign cure for everything) but I have no experience with the product and would not suggest it, if it weren't for the 7-day free trial. It is also available on the App Store where it gets mixed reviews.

No luck with those ideas (i don't have iCloud+ or a VPN). Clearing the cache didn't make any difference.

I'm thinking back over the past week and the only things I can remember changing are:
1 I gave permission to a camera firmware update app (OM Systems) to access my Mac
2 An auto update to Sonoma 14.3.1 was installed
3 I am also getting a regular error message (on YouTube) "CONNECT TO INTERNET - Your'e offline check your connection" This is resolved easily by pressing the "RETRY" button

Any other suggestions gladly considered.

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm thinking that it wont be numbers 2+3 because I have successfully uploaded the same file with the other Mac.
I will look at the others though

macOS has got a nasty habit doing stuff like that. I don't remember the details, but it did something similar to me recently, and something different to Ira.

I have some thoughts -- and they are just that -- thoughts. So FWIW...

1. Try flushing your browser caches
2. Your files may exceed the file size limits allowed by the sites.
3. If the files were downloaded from an internet site, they may have DRM protection.
4. If you have a VPN, try uploading the files with VPN turned ON,
5. if you don't have VPN go to System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > iCloud+ and turn Private Relay ON

I figured the sorting/arrangement problem out. Changing Stack By to None made Snap to Grid show up as an option for Sort By. I don't know how it got messed up, because I did not change the View Options intentionally.

As far as the "enclosing document" icons (they were not folders) I just decided to move the actual .docx and .pdf files off of the Desktop. They are only temporary files, which made the Desktop a convenient place to put them, but I can live with them being in the real Documents Folder.

I have a Mac Mini (M1) running Sonoma 14.3.1
I have been trying to upload a couple of jpg's to a photo printing site. I cannot do this and get a message on their website just saying "failed to upload". There is no system error report from my Mac.
I have tried the upload using Safari and DuckDuckGo but I have the same problem.
I have tried using another photo printing site but have the same problem.
I have used another Mac on the same network and it uploaded without a problem.
I assume that I have an issue with privacy settings or something similar but I wouldn't know what ones to look at. My Mac has done an auto system update in the past few days. The other Mac is running Big Sur 11.4
Any assistance would be much appreciated.
Thanks

I have just checked apps, docs etc on my HD and they correspond exactly with the numbers on the thumb drive. I guess I haven't missed anything. However, after reading the procedure you posted, I think I will rely on how to "Recover all your files from a Time Machine backup" which I have a printed copy. I am familiar with command R having reinstalled my OS several times. I will erase my thumb drive and put it to a more useful purpose.

Thank you for your detailed input.

jaybass

With the understanding that

1. Thumb Drives are the least reliable media short of a floppy disk and are not intended for use as a backup.
2. You have a 1 TB thumb drive
3. Your drag and drop copy is likely to have missed some critical files.
4. A complete recovery requires reinstalling the OS which is not included in your drag and drop copy.

To “reinstall everything”:

1. Launch SuperDuper and clone Macintosh HD to your Thumb Drive
2. Shut down your iMac
3. Press the power button and immediately press and hold ⌘R
4. If you see a lock, enter the password for your iMac
5. If you have multiple volumes on your disk, select the volume you want to recover, then click Next.
6. If requested, choose an administrator account, click Next, enter the password for the account, then click Continue.
7. If the Wi-Fi menu icon (in the upper-right corner of the screen) contains one or more bars , Wi-Fi is turned on and connected to a wireless network. If the Wi-Fi menu icon doesn’t contain any bars , Wi-Fi is turned on but isn’t connected to a wireless network. If the Wi-Fi menu icon has a slash through it, Wi-Fi is turned off. Wi-Fi needs to be turned on before you can join a wireless network and will be needed for the next step.
8. Select reinstall macOS and follow the on-screen instructions
9. When prompted for a backup, select your Thumb Drive
10. When the process completes, you will have recovered all of your data and the OS, but you will likely lose Launchpad folders and a few other settings

artie, I dragged the apps and the documents into a new thumb drive. When I checked to see if they had actually been copied, it had copied apps, doc, photos, music, recents and abc ( my admin name) I don't know if emails would be included. Like I said, how would I reinstall "everything"

jaybass

Suddenly my icon arrangement has changed, and I can't get it back to what I had. [Mac Mini, M1 2020, Sonoma 14.4.1]

1. The option to Sort by Snap to Grid is not showing up (it still shows for folders) and everything is over on the right side. I had some things on the left before. But there is not a discernible pattern to the arrangement. On the far right, there is a column of icons from top to bottom. Then there are three shorter columns to the left, with 4,5 and 3 icons respectively. Although sorted by Kind now, there are 5 kinds of items, 6 if you count the mysterious "enclosing document icons" (described below) as their own Kind.

2. I had temporarily placed three Word document icons on the Desktop. They are now embedded in a "Documents" DOCX icon and all three previously distinct documents will open in unison when that is double-clicked. I'm not sure how to get them separated. As I finish using each one, I want to delete them, but one at a time, not in unison. If I single-click on this icon, the three documents appear below the "enclosing document icon" and all four icons are highlighted. Thus, if I delete one, I delete them all.

3. Third verse, similar to the second: Same thing has happened with three pdf documents, with a twist. All four icons do not remain highlighted after a single-click. If I single-click on the PDF Documents icon again, the three pdf files disappear, but reappear when I single-click the "enclosing document icon" they come back.

4. As I've been messing around with this while composing my post, the behavior in item 2 has changed to what I described in item 3.

I'd like to separate the docx and pdf documents and get rid of their "enclosing documents icons" for good. And I'd like to Sort By Snap to Grid again. Help!

You should be able to reinstall everything, but how you'd go about it depends upon what "everything" means and how you got it to the thumb drive in the first place.

Did you use drag & drop, a cloning utility, some other method?

13.6.6
I have installed everything from my computer onto a USB thumb drive. In the event of a complete disaster, could I reinstall everything? and if so, just how would I do that?

jaybass

In Safari 17.5 (macOS 14.5 beta) The settings menu checkboxes are fully populated and look like this. I suspect that between Start page's Frequently visited and Safari Applications in the Dock, Top Sites were considered redundant and fell by the wayside. The only thing I can find about Frequently visited settings is this, but it would be nice if there were some way of defining what the user considers Frequently visited.

Step #4 is not offered.


But, nowhere in there, is the ability to have the much more convenient “Frequently Visited” sites on the Safari Home page.

I did a bit of poking around and found that, on the Safari Home Page, there is an icon (lower left) that looks like three lines with circles. Clicking on it brings up a dialogue box with this list:

Shared with you
Favorites
Frequently visited
Privacy Report
Siri Suggestions
Reading List
Recently Closed Tabs
Background Image

Only three have functional check boxes (Favorites, Frequently Visited, Background Image) and, if you toggle Frequently Visited on and off, a space appears on the Home Page with this meaage:

“Frequently Visited Websites will appear here when available. This section may be hidden if there is no content to display.”

However, I can’t find any way to assign a site to the space or to set a criterion for automatic inclusion. e.g. Sites visited daily. My layperson’s guess is that, in writing Sonoma, the programmers broke the function and have yet to fix it.

A search for "Top Site" in Sonoma Safari Help yields...

In Sonoma, you can drag and drop a url from Safari's address bar and drop it on a tab group, bookmarks, reading list, or iCloud tabs in the sidebar, or the start page, and even the Dock (where it becomes a stand-alone app).

NOTE: As this thread specifically addresses Safari, I am moving it to the Networking forum as the more appropriate context.

I have not personally tried this, but here is what the Internet Collective says:

Follow these instructions to add a Top Site:
1.Right-click on each link below (or press Command while selecting the link).
2.Select Add link to Bookmarks... .
3.Under "Add this page to:" select the arrow for the drop-down menu.
4.Select Top Sites.
5.Select the Add button.

If step #4 is no longer present, then check back for further advice.