Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Safari plugin issue?

I have just experienced the same problem, but it also extended to Mail. Mail attachments were represented by the same "missing plugin" as your daughter saw in Safari, and it was seen in Safari as well. I did everything you and everyone else in this forum has suggested and got the same results you got: Zip.

While reading the posts on this topic, I saw Java mentioned a lot. I realized that I had recently turned Java off(last week) on Apple's advice due to security fears. This is on a dual G5 running 10.5.8, and Safari 5.0.6. Turning Java back on solved the problem. If your daughter has a G5 machine this should do it, without making her vulnerable because the OS for Intel machines is different.

I don't believe that this is true. Java is cross-platform and it shouldn't make any difference whether you are using PPC or Intel, or even Windows.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for your suggestion, and for revisiting this thread. My daughter's MacBook is an Intel based Mac, so it's different from your PPC Mac. That said, I'm still running a 2005 G5 iMac, with 10.5.8 and Safari 5.0.6, AND Java turned off in the latter. No problems like 'missing plugin' here (nor in Mail), and no problems with Flash clips either. So turning Safari's Java plugin on or off doesn't cause the problem in and by itself. What you're seeing may be some kind of interaction, albeit an interesting one.

As it is, the problem MacBook isn't at hand, so I cannot check right away if turning Java back on will help, but given what I mentioned above I'd be surprised if it would. Still, it's easy enough to give it a shot. And while we're on the topic, I'd like to make sure exactly how you turned off Java on your Mac. Was that via the Java plugin in Safari's preferences Security pane, via the actual Java installation, or both?

Btw,
This is a misconception. While PPC Macs cannot run Java 7, the older versions they can run remain vulnerable to a slew of exploits. All you need is visit an appropriately subverted site with Safari and its Java plugin enabled to get hit by e.g., Java 5-based malware.

It wasn't the Safari Java plugin that I turned off, got the problem, turned on and the problem disappeared. It was Java Preferences (Applications-Utilities-Java Preferences). There were two versions of Java there, and I turned on J2SE 5.0. This fixed the "missing plugin" problem with certain mail attachments and also in Safari, where hit counters on several sites gave me the same thing. Apparently, in Leopard, Java is used in Mail to view non-image attachments like text files, and at least some of these Safari hit counters use Java. About vulnerability, I guess I have to choose between being able to see and work with attachments and a possible exploit.

A workaround is to use the QuickLook and Save options in Mail. The attachment files themselves live in the Mail Downloads folder in the User folder. I think I'll take my chances of an exploit to be able to work with attachments hassle-free.

Thanks for the clarification. Turning off Java with its preference utility makes sense against the backdrop of your symptoms. For completeness sake I have to add that I have Java 5 enabled in Java Preferences, but keep Safari's Java plugin turned off to block drive-by problems during surfing. This allows me to run local Java based apps without exposing myself to external threats.

For completeness sake, I'll check if my daughter's Java is enabled in Java Preferences, but I wonder if you had problems playing Flash clips with Java turned off ('my' initial symptom). If not, we're likely talking about two different reasons our 'missing plugin' messages appeared.