Since a few days the web archives I make in Safari of web pages I visit have a grey label. What's up with that? More importantly, how can I default them back to no-label?

Sorry for being dense, but I don't follow "grey label" and "no label;"...screenshot?

I can't replicate what you are describing. However it occurs to me your web archives may being associated with an oddball app. Have you done a Get Info to see if they are set to open with Safari?

I was referring to the color label you can give to files in the Finder (Finder > File > Label).

Good point, but the archives are still set to Safari. I was also thinking of a possible (and wayward) Folder Action, but saving to a different location, including the Desktop, doesn't change things: the archives still get the grey label. Of course, the change may have been global, I have no way to tell. It just seems unlikely.

Same thing with Services. I can't think of one that would fit the bill, or of a way to apply this unwittingly, or—for that matter—to find out if a folder has any scripts attached other than trying to Remove Folder Actions with the homonymous script (so far invariably yielding There are no Folder Actions).

This—plus not knowing what causes it—bothers me more than Mail popping up unasked (I don't even use it as my regular mail client). My iMac is acquiring interesting quirks in its old age...

I have to wonder if rebuilding the Launch Services Database might solve the problem.

I don't understand how that could make a change, but since it can't hurt I gave it a shot: unfortunately there was no change.

Have you tried a deep cache cleaning?

Run /System/Library/CoreServices/"Folder Actions Setup.app". That lists every folder that has a folder action attached, lists all the actions attached to each such folder, and lets you add/subtract folder actions to your heart's content.

Have you checked to see if it's a Safari Extension? (Safari→Preferences...→Extensions)

Thanks, but this G5 iMac is running 10.5.8, so no FAS.app in CoreServices, only the Folder Actions Dispatcher app. I access FAS (located in Applications/AppleScript/) via the Contextual Menu item or the Folder Actions script 'Configure Folder Actions'. I tinkered with it after posting my previous comment, and thanks for confirming this approach.

To ensure I didn't miss anything, here's another question: are there FAS listings/windows for each folder, or is there just one (remember: this is Leopard, not Mountain Lion with its server approach)? It seems to me it's just the latter. Anyway, the result is negative whichever way I invoke FAS: it doesn't list any scripts at all, conform both my previous findings and expectations (this account shouldn't have any).

And no, there are no active Safari extensions that should affect the archive label, at least not under normal circumstances. So I switched off the extensions, rebooted for good measure and saved a test page to see: the resulting archive still had a label. That made absolutely no sense, unless...

And then I found the cause of this label issue: while scrutinizing every step taken to save a web page, I also checked for label options in the Default Folder X-enhanced Finder dialog I use (something I rarely see, because I hit Command-S-Enter before it pops up and away again). Sure enough, the label popup was set to 'grey'. What with the frequently maxed out G5 CPU I figure a buffered mouse click in the right place registered just at the right time for this option to be selected. Alternatively, it must have been the cat...

Thanks for your suggestions, everyone! If nothing else, they helped kick my a55 into gear.

With the successful conclusion of this label problem, I think I'll now open a separate thread to find out what could unexpectedly launch Mail, the issue I referred to above in post #24059. Who knows, even if there isn't a ready answer, you might prod me to figure that one out too...