I have found that, wherever there is a reCaptcha "I'm not a robot" verification requirement, Safari never wants to play nice. I always have to open the page with Opera, and then the reCaptcha works.

Certainly I'd expect Safari might have an issue if the site is some weird place but, unfortunately, this occurs with all kinds of absolutely legitimate sites like finance, health records, dog licence renewal, et cetera. Today I thought I'd dig a little further and clicked the the reCaptcha "Terms of Reference" and it turned out to be Google Terms of Reference.

At first I thought Apple might, like me, automatically eschew anything Google, except the Safari security Preference says: "Safari uses Google Safe Browsing to identify fraudulent websites".

Maybe it's just me. Anyone else having issues with reCaptcha?

I've run into the same problem more than once, and the last time, I realized that with all the things I had tried, I'd never cleared cookies...and VOILA!

The problem cleared up immediately and hasn't recurred.

Fingers crossed.

Am I right to assume you used "Clear History" under Safari in the menu bar? If so, do I also assume "all history"?

As I recall, I went to Prefs > Privacy > Manage Website Data... and selected/deleted everything.

The downside to clearing cookies is that you will have to log into any sites that used those cookies for an automatic login.

Beats heck out of the alternative!

But.....I have a short list of chosen sites in Manage Website Data because they are sites I trust. None of them requires reCaptcha and the problem site yesterday (Dog Licence renewal) is not one of them. The only other item in the list is something used by Apple called settings.sol. Maybe I should start by deleting it.

I just ran into the problem again in Safari, and clearing cookies didn't help.

Have you tried emptying the Safari cache?

Cookie clears Safari cache every minute.

Happy (at least for the moment) update: My primary problem with reCaptcha (which I've been erroneously calling Captcha), being unable to get past it to log in to PayPal, was finally solved by unchecking Safari > Prefs > Privacy > Prevent cross-site tracking.

Rechecking the box afterwards had no negative effects.

Now, to see what happens at other sites.

Thinking about it, I think I did the same thing earlier, rather than having cleared cookies. Sorry ryck. Hope this works. (And so much for the scientific method! )

I also use "Prevent cross-site tracking". Do you recall if the issue at PayPal was logging intoPayPal directly or if it was after being sent there by another site to complete a payment?

It seems PayPal may have been a site where I had an issue but I can't recall with certainty. I just tried a straight-ahead log-in at PayPal, with "Prevent cross-site tracking" checked, and it worked fine.

I just went through this last night, so it's fresh in my mind, and I'm not dealing with weeks/months old "recollections."

My problem was with logging in to PayPal directly, and had nothing to do with making a payment, but I'm not sure why I was asked to log in in the first place, because it's not a usual occurrence. Ah ha! The light comes on: I was trying to access PayPal from a link in an email from them rather than from my usual bookmark, and somehow, when that failed, along with the failure I lost my bookmark's "logged in" status (If that makes sense).

When reCaptcha didn't work, I cleared cookies as I thought I had done previously, and when that didn't work, something clicked in a corner of my mind, and I unchecked that box and got in immediately.

I then rechecked the box, and I'm now able to log in to PayPal with no issues. (I'm dealing with PayPal in this post, but I also had a problem with at least one other site last night which drove me to Firefox.)

I never focused on the Captcha/reCaptcha thing, but I"m pretty sure that my problems have all been with reCaptcha. I'll pay attention going forward.

So, it appears confirmed to be only a "Safari c/w reCaptcha" issue. The reCaptcha connection worked with FireFox in your case and, in mine, always works with Opera. I wonder if it could be connected to Apple's focus on security. Does Safari see something in reCaptcha that rings an alarm bell, but that other browsers don't worry about?

I've got to call AppleCare; I'll add the question to my list.

But don't hold your breath. This call has been on my to-do list for months.

Now you can also provide a clue. I just created an account at a legit retailer and, after Safari rejected the reCaptcha, I got this error message: "Parameter Missing or Invalid: Required parameter missing or invalid: customer"

When I could not create the account with Safari, I used Opera and it did the job. Since the missing parameter was "customer", and I was now a registered customer, I thought Safari might act differently so I tried logging into my account with it. No dice, just the ever-spinning wheel.

Update: I have since tried unchecking "Prevent cross-site tracking" and was able to log into the new account with Safari and without going through reCaptcha. However, the cart was empty when it should have shown 2 items. I reordered the items and the cart showed two. I logged out and logged in with Opera and it showed two items. I logged in again with Safari and it had an empty cart.

I repeated the process a couple of times and Safari always empties the cart.

Are you sure it is Safari that is emptying the cart (ie. erasing the cookies) and not a third party extension?

No, I'm not sure. The only evidence I have is that the site retained purchase information consistently with Opera but lost it consistently with Safari.

ITS THE COOKIES!

Safari's "Prevent Cross Site" tracking is a much more sophisticated and discriminating approach to the old "Do not accept cookies" from websites you do not navigate to. Apparently the Captcha used by the site you were attempting to log onto was blocked when it attempted to set a tracking cookie on your computer.

As to the shopping cart, most sites keep the shopping cart in a Cookie. Cookies are browser independent so Safari does not see Opera's cookies and therefore cannot see the shopping cart cookie filled in Opera. The same is true with any two different browsers. As to erasing the cookies there is not standard function in Safari for doing that Automagically but there are a number of extensions and utilities such as Cookie that do. Sometimes it isn't apparent what Extensions do so check Safari > Preferences > Extensions first to see what, if any extensions are active then in Finder launch the extension and check the preferences to be sure what it does.

That would be every site that uses reCaptcha, not just this one.

I am a "Cookie" user and have it set to remove unwanted cookies every 5 minutes and at browser quit. So, as the light slowly turns on, I assume that Opera removed the cookies on quit but Safari got blamed.

A peek in the Extensions window shows one extension in the big box on the right side - Ghostery Lite V 1.2.0 - and eight in the upright box on the left - 4 Ghostery Lite (all checked off and all V1.2.0), and 4 Wipr (all checked off but different versions V1.31, V 1 1.31, V 2 1.31, and V 3 1.31)

Wipr Preferences cannot be reviewed in Finder, that function is greyed out.

I am working on that one as I have not encountered any problem with reCaptcha on any of my Macs, iPads, or iPhones (other than the aforementioned equivocal images) and I run with Prevent Cross-Site Tracking on at all times and seldom use any other browser other than Safari. Which leaves the question of what is different between your Mac and mine. FWIW the only Safari extensions I use are 1Password, AdBlock Pro, Clip to DEVONthink, Instameet, and WIPR and I haven't customized the settings of any of those. Of the five only AdBlock Pro and WIPR effect the network. I am using a beta version of MacOS, but I have run the same version you have and did not have any reCaptcha issues. I do have Private Relay activated, but that should effect all browsers equally. In the immortal words of Yul Bryner as the King of Siam, "It is a puzzlement". You might try turning off your extensions, ONE AT A TIME (or in the case of multi=part extensions such as Wipr ONE PART AT A TIME to see which, if any, is effecting reCaptcha behavior.

As cookies are used by so many web sites and especially e-commerce shopping carts removing unwanted cookies every 5 minutes may be a bit extreme and could easily impact your browsing experience (particularly if a given site embedded a tracker in the shopping cart cookie). You might consider just deleting cookies when you quit the browser and rely on Safari's built-in content blockers and Ghostery to prevent cookies phoning home.

The left hand column lists the extensions you have installed and the checkbox in that column indicates you have set it to active. The box on the right shows additional information about the extension you have selected in the left hand column. Some extensions such as WIPR are installed as single entities but the installation includes multiple parts, each with a specific function which can be tuned on or off independently of the other parts. In the case of WIPR there are four parts WIPR Extra, WIPR Part 1, Wipr Part 2, and Wipr Part 3 and they are all have the same version 1.31. By-the-way as far as I can tell the only option with Wipr is On or Off so there are no preference settings. Choosing which part(s) to run on or off is equivalent to what you would find in a Preferences or Settings menu.

Getting back into the mix...

I've now run into the reCaptcha pane not loading in Safari problem with a regular pictorial Captcha pane (trying to log in to PayPal on the same page that has heretofore presented me with a reCaptcha, if it makes a difference). The only extensions I"m running are Roadblock and Wipr, and neither of them is involved. My only way to get around it is by unchecking that box. (Side note: Wipr Extra installed on my MBP along with the first update that included it, but it disappeared with the next update and has never reappeared, even after I trashed Wipr and reinstalled it.)

I don't run into re/Captchas very often, so I can't say it with certainty, but I think I run into the problem with every site that uses one.

I have Cookie set to clear cookies every minute, and that's caused me to lose shopping carts on Eddie Bauer and one or two other sites. I just hot key Cookie off and redo my purchase when that happens.

I run Safari virtually exclusively, so I can't offer any site by site comparisons.

I can say with absolute certainty that, with Safari, I have had a problem (the spinning wheel) every single time since....I can't provide a start date with any certainty, but it's been quite a while.

Bauer is one of the sites I visit once in a while. Like other periodic-vendor visits, my routine has been to add them to my list of favourites until the transactions are done. That way the cart can remain in place until I've finalized the purchase decision(s). i.e. I may wish to add or subtract to an order over a couple of days.

Maybe since Apple changed the pref pane and added that check box?
I'll have to start paying attention. The working re/Captchas I remember probably came up after I switched from Safari to Firefox.

I invariably close purchases within minutes of making them, so I use a hot key to turn Cookie completely off for the minimal amount of time involved.

I am still puzzled why I have no problems with reCaptcha in Safari and you two (Artie & ryck) are reporting constant problems with sites using it. Although I have encountered reCaptcha a few times recently, I cannot recall one of those sites. If you could suggest a site or two that uses reCaptcha I would like to do some testing.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
I just discovered Captcha is the original technology name and there are numerous versions on the internet. Likely the most common version of Captcha you will encounter is Google's reCaptcha which almost certainly phones home the site you are visiting. A web search turned up one interesting side note, users of Google's own Chrome browser have been reporting problems accessing reCaptcha sites.

ASIDE:
WIPR Extra is unique in a couple of ways, first it can read and modify site contents and that function is enabled on a site-by-site basis. I would suspect WIPR Extra of being involved but although it is active, it only has permission to write to FineTunedMac.com and I have no idea why or when I granted it read/write access to this site??? As to its failure to appear after you deleted and reinstalled WIPR, I believe that may be an Option during the Install. In iOS, rather than appearing in Settings > Safari > Extensions among the list of Content blockers it appears under Allow These Extensions along with 1Password and other Safari extensions having Read/Write access to site contents.

I think you've hit on the answer. The reCaptcha window allows you to check their "Terms of Reference" and, if you click on it, you find Google Terms of Reference.

So, if I either uncheck 'Prevent cross-site tracking', or use Opera, Google is sending information from that site back to home base. What would be the nature of the information? Would it be more than the simple fact that I purchased at that site, or would there be more?

I don't know and Google would require a congressional subpoena to tell you what day they collect and sell to anyone that wants it. But, based on reports about what other other Google cookies reveal, it could be enough to identify you as an individual, although probably not by name, what you bought, and where you browsed after you left the site where you got the reCaptcha cookie, even days or weeks later.

Wow! No wonder Safari says "Ixnay on that". Thanks Apple. It looks like the sites that use reCaptcha are forcing a technological step backwards....that is, phone them.

This is a war over the ownership and control of our data and the money involved guarantees that while battles can be won, the tactics will shift and the war will continue.

A recent survey conducted by DuckDuckGo of the top IIRC 10,000 web sites (It may have been 100,000) found that 86% of them use tracking cookies, and the number of those sites that will not work unless you permit the tracking cookie is growing. I find Safari's Privacy Report interesting reading. If you haven't looked it shows a 30 day history including:

• How many trackers were prevented from tracking you
• The percentage of websites you visited that contacted trackers
• The most contacted tracker
• For each website: the number of trackers and clicking on the reveal arrow (>) specifically which trackers
• For each tracker: the owner, and number of websites it occurred on

My current Safari Privacy Report indicates that 69% of the web sites Have visited in the past 30 have had one or more tracking cookies and 77 trackers different trackers; 7 are from Google; 3 each from Adobe, Amazon, Facebook, & Salesforce.com; 2 each from Microsoft & Verizon Media; and the remaining 54 are owned by individual companies. Of the top ten most often encountered, three owned by Google and two by Facebook.

NOTE: this is just the number of trackers that Safari has prevented from phoning home their data. There may have been other, more subtle or sophisticated trackers Safari missed.

I don't remember seeing a site by site option in Wipr Extra. How does it work?

I briefly thought Wipr Extra was involved in the re/Captcha issue, but that turned out to not be the case.

I get Wipr from the App Store. The is no installer nor are there any "install" options. There is this, however...
Hmmm... I wonder if I've actually got Wipr Extra but can't see it? Find Any File finds WiprBlockerMacExtra.appex, WiprBlockerMacExtra, and wipr-extra.js, all of which are located in /Apps/Wipr/Contents/Library/LoginItems, which suggests that that's the case, but since it doesn't appear in /Users/artie/Library/Safari/Extensions/Extensions.plist, only parts 1, 2, and 3, I guess it's not.

The only site I can remember on which I've run into the re/Captcha issue is eBay, but I can't reproduce it. It seems to happen only under limited unusual conditions such as clicking on a link in an email.

It seems like Google must be doing that in every browser, with Safari being the only one that offers an option to block it, although it sounds as if Chrome may have functionality similar to Safari's.

I've found that it relies on Safari's history, which I clear every time I quit Safari, after which it tells me that I haven't browsed enough in the last 30 days to generate cross-site tracking statistics.

In my experience, it is relatively common to have problems with links from advertisers;tising in emails. Typically my router reports too many re-directs and blocks the site. Adding a Captcha/reCaptcha link could easily be the straw tat broke the camels back on re-directs.

Yes Google does phones home in every browser. It is how Google earns enough money to pay premium salaries to their developers. And yes Chrome does have a blocker, but given that is cutting Googles own financial throat, I suspect there may be hidden exceptions for Google's own trackers.

I rechecked my Safari Preferences and Wipr Extra is the one called V1.31. The other three were V 1 1.31, V 2 1.31, and V 3 1.31

Yeah, I've got the last 3...had the first at one point, but haven't seen it in months. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've run across a new wrinkle with the Safari/reCaptcha issue. I was at Blue Mountain, an eCard site, and when I pressed send a reCaptcha "I am not a robot" verification request appeared. Safari, of course, just started the perpetual rotating symbol.

I couldn't use Opera on that page, as I was inside a logged-in account, so I signed out. Then I logged in with Opera and, when it came time to send the eCard, it just went. There was no reCaptcha "I am not a robot" verification requirement. Is it possible that it is Safari, not the sites, requiring the reCaptcha process?

I'm pretty sure it's not a browser thing, but 3rd party verification wouldn't hurt.

As an experiment, maybe try quitting Safari and then logging in from Opera to see if the reCaptcha still doesn't come up.

Now that I know what's going on in Safari, when I get to a Captcha/reCaptcha pane I just uncheck/recheck "Prevent cross-site tracking."

I just ran into this issue on my ipad in Safari. ReCapcha works fine in Chrome, but the Next button was greyed out (disabled). I did not have the VPN on, and I did not want to lose auto-fills by deleting the cache. I went to Settings - Safari and I tried toggling Cross-check Sites, content and ad-blockers on and off; nothing. What finally resolved it was turning off Block IP Address.
I set up an account just to share this, in case any one else comes across this frustrating problem in Safari and ends up reading this forum!

Hi, and welcome to FineTunedMac.

Thanks for your input, but actually, it's been so long since I've run into/heard of a Captcha issue that I've forgotten that the problem ever existed.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ditto artie's "Welcome to FineTunedMac"".

Your post caused me to think about the last time I had a Captcha issue and I can't recall. Actually I'm finding more and more sites using the "I'm not a Robot" with an image divided into sections and the instruction: "Find all the pictures that have....."