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Safari plugin issue?
#22235 06/14/12 10:27 PM
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I just ran into an interesting situation on my daughter's MacBook (Mac OS X 10.5.8). Safari (5.0.6) in her user account will not play Flash clips ('missing plugin'), even though the requisite plugins are installed for everyone (Library/Internet Plug-Ins), and Flash works fine in the only other account. Curiously, in the problem account Safari won't stop trying to display the Installed Plug-ins (Help menu) screen either, but the relevant resource file (Plug-ins.html) loads fine in the other account and elsewhere. The only other clue I've got so far is that when I open certain other web pages while Safari is churning away on that Plug-ins.html file, I get slow script errors for that file.

This clearly looks like an account based issue, and running the Mac OS X 10.5.8 Combo installer or the Safari 5.0.6 installer won't help. I wonder if anybody has a clue as to what's florfed, and whether it can be fixed without setting up another account and moving her Home folder there.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22236 06/14/12 10:34 PM
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Sorry for hitting on the obvious, but is Safari > Prefs > Security (or whatever it is in v 5.0.6) > Web content > Enable plug-ins checked?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22238 06/14/12 11:27 PM
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Yes, the necessary check boxes are properly set. (But checking—again—never hurts.)


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22239 06/14/12 11:43 PM
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In that case, it may pay to trash the plist. (Sounds like you haven't yet.)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22240 06/15/12 12:06 AM
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Trashing the com.apple.Safari.plist doesn't help. I'm now checking various items present in ~/Library/Safari. I'm also looking into a possible JavaScript issue, but this may be an unrelated phenomenon.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22242 06/15/12 10:17 AM
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Might a Safari extension, such as Ghostery, Click to Flash, or Click to PlugIn be installed and thus precluding the plugin from running? If so, you might try disabling the extension(s) and restarting to see if that puts things to right.


Harv
27" i7 iMac (10.13.6), iPhone Xs Max (12.1)

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
Pendragon #22243 06/15/12 06:13 PM
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Good suggestion, and one I already tested without improvement: extensions ON or OFF doesn't change anything. ClickToPlugin still shows that no plugins are enabled, despite their presence in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins.
If HTML5 clips are available on video sites like YouTube they play fine, if it's only Flash the source claims the clip is not available. Meanwhile, Flash does work in Firefox (11.0) in the affected account. It's Safari that's acting up.

Last edited by alternaut; 06/15/12 08:48 PM. Reason: Changed FlashToPlugin to ClickToPlugin

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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22244 06/15/12 06:55 PM
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Quote:
FlashToPlugin [sic] still shows that no plugins are enabled...

Considered uninstalling/reinstalling ClickToPlugin?



dkmarsh—member, FineTunedMac Co-op Board of Directors
Re: Safari plugin issue?
dkmarsh #22246 06/15/12 09:01 PM
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Yes, and I have done so to no effect. (I fixed ClickToPlugin's name in my previous post, thanks). It still says that I don't have any plugins enabled, which is indeed what things look like, despite the presence of plugins in the Libraries.

It remains odd (and significant, I'm sure) that Safari is unable to load the Installed Plug-Ins page from the Help menu. And, interestingly, Adobe's Flash download page will also cause a slow script error. As with the slow script error with Safari's attempt to read/display /Applications/Safari 5.0.6.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Plug-ins.html, tinkering with its tab like attempting to close it will crash Safari. Something sure is messed up here. Time to scrutinize some more Console logs.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22247 06/16/12 03:35 AM
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Tried SafeBoot yet?


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
MacManiac #22251 06/16/12 02:54 PM
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Yes. Safe Boot doesn't change the availability of Safari plugins (as measured a.o. by ClickToPlugin) or the inability of Safari to load the Installed Plug-Ins page. Not that it matters, but I haven't yet looked much beyond that.

In the process of trying things like reinstalling the FlashPlayer plugin and testing its effect I experienced a number of crashes. Looking over the relevant crash logs I get (several cases of) the following crash types. In almost all* cases the affected process was Safari, and I list the salient details:

Process: Safari
Path: /Applications/Safari 5.0.6.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari

(Example 1)
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 com.apple.JavaScriptCore

(Example 2)
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 com.apple.WebCore

(Example 3)
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE
Crashed Thread: 19
Thread 19 Crashed:
0 com.apple.QuartzCore

At this moment I haven't yet reproduced exactly what (if anything) I was doing to precipitate a particular crash, like trying to close a particular Safari tab etc.


*) The remaining two cases involved the Adobe Flash Player Installer Manager with an EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP) as Exception Type, but virtually no useful data beyond that. Obviously, at these occasions I was trying to see if reinstalling the Flash plugin would make a difference. It did not. And these AFPIM crashes were only noticeable in Console's CrashReporter log; at desktop level there were no indications that anything went wrong, as opposed to the Safari crashes.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22252 06/16/12 03:38 PM
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I seem to recall that having ClickToFlash and ClickToPlugin installed simultaneously was not advised by the developer. I was unable to find a reference to that piece of information, but if you have both installed, try uninstalling one of them.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Safari plugin issue?
jchuzi #22253 06/16/12 04:31 PM
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Thanks for the suggestion, Jon. I believe it is a special case of the suggestion made by Pendragon earlier in this thread. In any case, there is no difference whether either one, both or neither ClickToXXX plugin(s) are installed or enabled.

Btw, closing the Safari window that's trying to load the Installed Plug-Ins page reliably causes the crash described in Example 1 above.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22254 06/16/12 04:49 PM
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I wonder whether a deep cache cleaning with applejack AUTO or the like would be worth the effort?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22255 06/16/12 05:58 PM
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Can't hurt, and might tell us something we don't already know: running <applejack auto restart> as we speak. tongue


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22256 06/16/12 06:29 PM
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Well, not surprisingly, that too didn't make a difference, as it affects only System stuff. I'll run it again in interactive mode, to have a look at the problem account's user caches. That will likely be an overwhelmingly long list, but I might get inspiration from recognizing potential 'goodies' there.

Update
Well, so much for that inspiration: all user caches were emptied without further input (forgot about that, duh! blush ), but at least I can check them in Applejack's log should this clearing help. FWIW, only two malformed (and quite irrelevant) prefs files were found. Of course, that still allows for multitudes of properly syntaxed but nonetheless corrupted prefs. That said, cleaning all user's caches didn't help: loading the Installed Plug-Ins page afterward once again caused an Example 1 Safari crash.

Last edited by alternaut; 06/16/12 07:43 PM. Reason: Update

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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22257 06/16/12 10:05 PM
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> running <applejack auto restart> as we speak

I don't know whether it would have made a difference...probably not, but "applejack AUTO," as I suggested, does a deeper cache clear than "auto."

Originally Posted By: AppleJack
3a. Deep Auto mode: If you want to let AppleJack clean out all cache files, including the Launch Services database and any cached User Pictures, use 'applejack AUTO' instead. Use this if you still have problems booting after running AppleJack already.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22258 06/16/12 10:20 PM
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Thanks, I'm aware of that. If you read the rest of that ReadMe, you'll see the recommendation to run the 'AUTO' command after 'auto' in case the latter doesn't help. In my case neither mode helped, likely because both affect System files, and the issue appears to be account-specific. That's why I also ran the interactive mode to clear user caches, which didn't help either.

It looks like a new User account and Home folder data migration is in order. Any suggestions, tips or hints that might expedite things or prevent permission issues etc. down the line?


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22259 06/16/12 10:34 PM
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But if it's a user-specific issue, migrating your daughter's home folder may/will likely perpetuate it; it may pay to try moving all of ~/Library/Prefs to her desktop first.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22260 06/16/12 11:07 PM
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I only intend to move data files, iTunes library contents, email etc. As it happens, I have moved that Preferences folder temporarily to the Trash as part of my troubleshooting. It had no effect on the phenomena I described above.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22261 06/16/12 11:31 PM
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This kind of head-scratcher hasn't come up in a while; it would be a shame to have to throw in the towel, but... Oh, well. frown

(Did you ask your daughter whether she's maybe done something lately that may have brought this on...d/l'ed something, I dunno...?)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22262 06/17/12 12:25 AM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
... it would be a shame to have to throw in the towel, but... Oh, well. frown

(Did you ask your daughter whether she's maybe done something lately that may have brought this on...d/l'ed something, I dunno...?)

So far this effort has not produced information to fix the problem, and now seems to have passed the point of diminishing returns. Because of the available workarounds there is no particular rush, but sooner or later the issue needs to be addressed.

As to downloading 'something': her Downloads folder is filled with files from years, but she doesn't recall anything 'different' happening afterward. Likewise, she rarely empties her Trash, and uses the Desktop to store boatloads of pictures, music files etc. That I take care of whenever I run updates for her every few months or so. The Downloads folder is something else, though, and sorely in need of organizing, stowing away, trashing and backing up. Clearly, she's not amenable to sensible 'management suggestions'...

Anyway, because of possible malware I plan to run MacScan overnight, and see what' it comes up with, if anything. That is, if I can get ahold of her MB: she just absconded with it...


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22263 06/17/12 01:05 AM
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My final thought before throwing in the towel... Has your daughter got anything in ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins that may be causing a conflict?


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Safari plugin issue?
artie505 #22267 06/17/12 02:46 AM
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No. There was nothing there when I started looking into the problem. I installed some plugins there as part of my troubleshooting, but nothing that hadn't been in /Library/Internet Plug-Ins before, and it didn't make a difference.

PS, MacScan didn't find anything beyond some tracking cookies. Removal, once again, didn't make any difference.


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Re: Safari plugin issue?
alternaut #22268 06/17/12 06:06 AM
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The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
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