In connection with this issue, I re-d/l'ed and reinstalled Safari last night, and after realizing that Activity Monitor was no longer showing both Safari and Safari Web Content I did some looking and found that I'm once again (*) running Safari 5.0.5; it was d'l'ed directly from Apple's Website from a page marked Safari 5.1.

I wonder if the downgrade is a result of Safari 5.1's memory leak and other issues?

(*) I'm once again seeing the Console messages I reported here, but the memory leak may not be as bad as I originally reported. (Edit 2: It's certainly not as bad as it was in 5.1.)

Edit: Well, I'll be damned! I just tried to duplicate the 5.0.5 d/l, and I got 5.1. (Apple - Support - Downloads shows Safari 5.0, 5.0.6 for Leopard, and 5.1, but both the 5.0 and 5.1 pages link to the 5.1 d/l page.)

Very !

(Edit 3: Sunday, 1:15 AM EDT, and neither the Safari 5.0 nor the 5.1 d/l link is working.)

Considering that I've now d/l'ed Safari 5.0.5 twice, once from Software Update and once from Apple's Website, when both Apple and I thought I was d/l'ing v 5.1, and further considering that v 5.0.5 creates a receipt that says "com.apple.pkg.Safari51SnowLeopard" and fools SU, I've got to wonder how many people are not running the version they think they're running.

FWIW, I downloaded Safari 5.1 from Apple's website on the day that it became available and I'm actually running that version.

Congrats on your memory leak, Jon.

I've now d/l'ed "Safari 5.1" numerous times, and if the SHA1 test is meaningful in this instance, almost all of my d/l's have been the correct version.

Is it possible that a small number, possibly just one, of Apple's servers somehow weren't update to v 5.1?

Are your referring to Safari or my aging brain?

As long as you can distinguish that there's a difference it's Safari.

And that you somehow hit this small target with attempts made through two different routes? Seems more likely to me that you're experiencing some kind of anomaly specific to your setup.

Just out of curiosity, when you reapplied the OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update, did you do so from a previously downloaded copy that you had stashed? And what is the meaning of "pre-updated OS X 10.6.8" in this post? The reason I ask is that I notice that Apple released a Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update on July 25, as well as new new 1.1 versions of the 10.6.8 updates.

Since your MacBook was in the shop at that point, it's conceivable that the application of a stashed v1.0 updater confused Software Update (not the brightest bulb in the chandelier to begin with)...

One further thought: are you certain you don't currently have both Safari 5.0.5 and Safari 5.1 installed? (I guess a quick way to check this would be to go to Safari's Preferences -> General tab and look at the Default web browser pop-up menu.)

From top to bottom...

If an anomaly specific to my setup was to blame I'd expect my results to have been consistent, but at least six d/l's from Apple's Safari 5.1 page yielded only one d/l of v 5.0.5 (if the SHA1 test can be taken at face value).

If you can envision some means for my "system anomaly" to have accessed a version of Safari that is, as far as I can tell, 100% unavailable, I'd be fascinated by and interested in exploring it.

The successful reapplication of the Combo was v 1.1, but I did have a stashed v 1.0 on a separate partition on my deuced Mac(hina) when Software Update gave me Safari 5.0.5. (Under any circumstances, why would SU offer me anything but the latest version of Safari? Note that v 5.1 [Post Date: July 20, 2011] was issued prior to the v 1.1 Combo [Post Date: July 25, 2011].)

Sorry for being unclear about "pre-updated;" I was referring to a volume that had been updated by the original Combo.

The Safari 5.0.5 d/l from SU occurred under the auspices of the original Combo, and those from Apple's Website occurred after I ran the v 1.1 Combo.

When I first looked at the "Default web browser" tab both Safari 5.0.5 and 5.1 were listed, but it turned out that the 5.1 version was on my backup volume, and it disappeared when I updated my clone.

'Tis a puzzlement.

This just occurred to me... Is it expected behavior for OS X to have allowed me to backdate Safari, i.e, to install v 5.0.5 over v 5.1, as it did?

If Safari 5.0.5 was included in the OS X 10.6.8 update you installed, then I would expect Safari 5.0.5 to replace whatever version of Safari I currently had on my system. However, the next time Software Update ran, I would expect it to offer to install Safari 5.1 or whatever the latest Safari version is at the time.

That didn't happen with my system. I had updated to 10.6.8 and, when Safari 5.1 was released, Software Update didn't detect it (and I don't know why). I had to download it from Apple in order to install it.

Clarification... In this instance, a freestanding Safari 5.0.5 d/l overwrote an installed v 5.1, and, as in Jon's case, Software Update never offered me v 5.1 at any time.

If you'd care to do some research, open /Library/Receipts/InstallHistory in TextWrangler or the like and search for your next to last Safari update, which will presumably be the one that preceded v 5.1, and tell us whether it is listed as com.apple.pkg.Safari50SnowLeopard or 51.

In my instance, v 5.0.5 is listed as 51, which, I guess, is what fooled Software Update into not offering me v 5.1.

Hold the presses!

I think I'm on to something...more later.

Mine is listed as com.apple.pkg.Safari50SnowLeopard so it looks as if your guess is incorrect.

Wow! Whouda thunk that OS X could be as much fun as a roller coaster?

You got me thinking, so I opened the 10.6.8 Combo 1.1 in Pacifist, and it does, indeed, include Safari 5.0.5.

Putting all the pieces together, I then realized that both times I installed Safari 5.1 I followed up by running the Combo, which, without my realizing it and, in my estimation, anyhow, completely non-intuitively, overwrote v 5.1 with v 5.0.5. Accordingly, my apparently off-the-wall d/l's only appeared to have happened, but never did.

Bingo!!!

This suggests that anybody who ran the v 1.1 Combo after having installed Safari 5.1 is now, likely unknowingly, running v 5.0.5. (As I mentioned earlier, the release of Safari 5.1 preceded the release of the v 1.1 Combo by five days.)

Shame on Apple for having perpetrated this travesty!

The bright side of this is that people like tacit, who have issues with Safari 5.1, can easily revert to an earlier version.

Many thanks for giving me the leg-up I needed on this issue.

PS: Please, everybody... Don't tell me that my overwrite experience is unique.

It's not too difficult to understand why Apple did things the way they did. Since OS X 10.6.8 is a pre-requisite for the installation of Safari 5.1, little consideration was given to that class of folks who might follow up the installation of Safari 5.1 by running the 10.6.8 update.


Somehow, I'm not surprised.

Ordinarily, that would be both understandable and reasonable, because re-installation of the 10.6.8 Combo would ordinarily be limited to troubleshooting, but in this particular instance shouldn't some consideration have been given the people who habitually install Combos rather than Betas? The release of a new 10.6.8 Combo subsequent to the release of Safari 5.1 was a most unusual occurrence...one that called for a heads-up at the least, no?

Edit: Hardly what I'd call seamless.


Somehow, neither am I.