How to go back to Safari 5.0.5

If you have a backup, use that. Otherwise find and download Safari 5.0.5 and try re-installing.

lgfaver said:

find and download.... how useful. lol nah, j/k... i kinda figured i had to do that.
It's just i haven't been able to find any links to the 5.0.5 version.

Click to expand...

Safari 5.0.5 is also contained in the 10.6.8 combo update if you can't find 5.0.5 on its own.

Here’s a link to the Safari 5.0.5 for SL .dmg-file on Apple’s servers:

http://appldnld.apple.com.edgesuite...564.20110413.Fi9pb/Safari5.0.5SnowLeopard.dmg

But, as I read on some German Mac forum, it seems strangely complicated to re-install Safari. People report, for instance, that re-applying the 10.6.8 Combo Update does _not_ bring back a working Safari 5.0.5 (you could only re-install 5.1, again -- so they report). It’s not my own experience, just quoting other people’s mileage.

Another idea I had (being in the same boat, having the too bleeding edge Safari 5.1 on my 10.6.8, want to have 5.0.5 back), if one could try to re-install 5.0.5 with a tool like Pacifist. Obviously, you cannot just drag-n-drop some Safari icon into the Applications folder, since Safari represents some sort of framework to the whole OS.

Then, there are the WebKit Nightly Builds

http://nightly.webkit.org

which you can use side-by-side with any Safari installed. One could hope for timely fixes of 5.1, like some early 5.1.1, or 5.2.

Why, o why, didn’t test Apple 5.1 better?

Good luck.

Okay, I can report that I successfully and easily downgraded from Safari 5.1 to 5.0.5 under 10.6.8 by means of Pacifist using the above linked Safari 5.0.5 .dmg-file.

It worked flawlessly (except for the inability to restore Safari’s last session’s tabs, so bookmark accordingly before initializing the downgrade), and 5.0.5 indeed “flies” compared to the 5.1 experience.

Helpful instructions on how to use Pacifist (it’s simple!) can be found here (look for the “Force Install” part)

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/downgrade-from-safari-5-0-to-safari-4-0-5/

and also in Pacifist’s documentation.

Basically, always use “Replace” (not the, in some dialogues, default “Update”), because you do want to (“destructively”) go back. This case of downgrading, and the corresponding choice of “Replace”, is also explicitly mentioned in Pacifist’s documentation.

Another point, just for clarification: It is true, that the above linked 5.0.5 installer does deny to install under 10.6.8 (when you just double-click the installer, etc, i.e. when not using Pacifist), claiming that 10.6.7 would be required. But that’s apparently due only to the fact that, at the time this installer was current, 10.6.7 was the most up-to-date OS. Obviously, 10.6.8 uses Safari 5.0.5, they work perfectly together, and it gets installed with the 10.6.8 Combo Update. To use now the 5.0.5 installer is just very handy and makes things simple, and, again, I can report that it works, and simply so.

Happy 5.0.5 surfing!

On a side note: don't try to downgrade Safari 5.1 in Lion, I did it yesterday and bricked my Mac's Lion installation to the point it didn't even boot.

turbone, sorry to hear that.

But: Since Lion (Release) never shipped with anything other than Safari 5.1, and since Safari as WebKit framework is deeply built into the OS, this is not really a surprise.

My findings only refer to the situation under Snow Leopard, more specifically 10.6.8.

Did you try to reinstall Safari 5.1 -- via the stand-alone installer: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ ?

Good luck.

You're totally right, I didn't think of this at the time. Unfortunately, there's no Safari for Lion standalone binary download available right now. Instead, I restored my Mac using Time Machine, no biggie.

Worked perfectly

Replacing Safari under Snow Leopard by Pacifist and the 5.0.5 Installer Package worked perfectly for me. Thank you!

katonah said:

Okay, I can report that I successfully and easily downgraded from Safari 5.1 to 5.0.5 under 10.6.8 by means of Pacifist using the above linked Safari 5.0.5 .dmg-file.

It worked flawlessly (except for the inability to restore Safari’s last session’s tabs, so bookmark accordingly before initializing the downgrade), and 5.0.5 indeed “flies” compared to the 5.1 experience.

Helpful instructions on how to use Pacifist (it’s simple!) can be found here (look for the “Force Install” part)

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/downgrade-from-safari-5-0-to-safari-4-0-5/

and also in Pacifist’s documentation.

Basically, always use “Replace” (not the, in some dialogues, default “Update”), because you do want to (“destructively”) go back. This case of downgrading, and the corresponding choice of “Replace”, is also explicitly mentioned in Pacifist’s documentation.

Another point, just for clarification: It is true, that the above linked 5.0.5 installer does deny to install under 10.6.8 (when you just double-click the installer, etc, i.e. when not using Pacifist), claiming that 10.6.7 would be required. But that’s apparently due only to the fact that, at the time this installer was current, 10.6.7 was the most up-to-date OS. Obviously, 10.6.8 uses Safari 5.0.5, they work perfectly together, and it gets installed with the 10.6.8 Combo Update. To use now the 5.0.5 installer is just very handy and makes things simple, and, again, I can report that it works, and simply so.

Happy 5.0.5 surfing!

Click to expand...

Thanks Katonah. Works a treat. Trust MacRumors forums to find the answers.

THANK YOU KATONAH!!!! Your advice was perfect. I'm happily back to 5.0.5 and the Pacifist people now have an extra $20 and a new user. Thanks again!

katonah said:

Okay, I can report that I successfully and easily downgraded from Safari 5.1 to 5.0.5 under 10.6.8 by means of Pacifist using the above linked Safari 5.0.5 .dmg-file.

It worked flawlessly (except for the inability to restore Safari’s last session’s tabs, so bookmark accordingly before initializing the downgrade), and 5.0.5 indeed “flies” compared to the 5.1 experience.

Helpful instructions on how to use Pacifist (it’s simple!) can be found here (look for the “Force Install” part)

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/downgrade-from-safari-5-0-to-safari-4-0-5/

and also in Pacifist’s documentation.

Basically, always use “Replace” (not the, in some dialogues, default “Update”), because you do want to (“destructively”) go back. This case of downgrading, and the corresponding choice of “Replace”, is also explicitly mentioned in Pacifist’s documentation.

Another point, just for clarification: It is true, that the above linked 5.0.5 installer does deny to install under 10.6.8 (when you just double-click the installer, etc, i.e. when not using Pacifist), claiming that 10.6.7 would be required. But that’s apparently due only to the fact that, at the time this installer was current, 10.6.7 was the most up-to-date OS. Obviously, 10.6.8 uses Safari 5.0.5, they work perfectly together, and it gets installed with the 10.6.8 Combo Update. To use now the 5.0.5 installer is just very handy and makes things simple, and, again, I can report that it works, and simply so.

Happy 5.0.5 surfing!

Click to expand...

This might be a dumb question.
I'm having issues with safari ever since I updated to 5.1. I'd like to go back to the way I had it. You mention Pacifist's "force install" paragraph, but did you also perform an "Archive and Install"?

Thanks for your time.

kapiqi, no, you don’t need Archive and Install Mac OS X -- as is said on the appletoolbox-site, the two paragraphs (“Archive and Install...”, and “Force install”) are meant as (exclusive) alternatives.

And it is much easier to go the “Force Install” road with the help of Pacifist. So ignore everything except the five lines regarding “Force Install.”

The beauty of the Pacifist-approach is that it leaves all the rest of your OS X-installation untouched and just replaces Safari 5.1 with Safari 5.0.5 (don’t get confused wit the older Safari versions mentioned on the appletoolbox.com page; the way to handle Pacifist is the same with the current versions 5.1 and 5.0.5). That’s why re-installing Safari 5.0.5 with Pacifist is so simple, safe, and fast -- it takes just a couple of minutes, and one restart.

Good luck.

Thanks for this. Safari 5.1 was starting to irritate me. I'd forgotten all about Pacifist.

Found this alternative on Mac OS X Hints. Pretty nifty.

Restore previous Safari version from .SafariArchive.tar.gz

Thanks katonah! Downloaded the package, installed with Pacifist and now I'm kickin' it with Safari 5.0.5! Life is good once again!!

katonah said:

Okay, I can report that I successfully and easily downgraded from Safari 5.1 to 5.0.5 under 10.6.8 by means of Pacifist using the above linked Safari 5.0.5 .dmg-file.

It worked flawlessly (except for the inability to restore Safari’s last session’s tabs, so bookmark accordingly before initializing the downgrade), and 5.0.5 indeed “flies” compared to the 5.1 experience.

Helpful instructions on how to use Pacifist (it’s simple!) can be found here (look for the “Force Install” part)

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/06/downgrade-from-safari-5-0-to-safari-4-0-5/

and also in Pacifist’s documentation.

Basically, always use “Replace” (not the, in some dialogues, default “Update”), because you do want to (“destructively”) go back. This case of downgrading, and the corresponding choice of “Replace”, is also explicitly mentioned in Pacifist’s documentation.

Another point, just for clarification: It is true, that the above linked 5.0.5 installer does deny to install under 10.6.8 (when you just double-click the installer, etc, i.e. when not using Pacifist), claiming that 10.6.7 would be required. But that’s apparently due only to the fact that, at the time this installer was current, 10.6.7 was the most up-to-date OS. Obviously, 10.6.8 uses Safari 5.0.5, they work perfectly together, and it gets installed with the 10.6.8 Combo Update. To use now the 5.0.5 installer is just very handy and makes things simple, and, again, I can report that it works, and simply so.

Happy 5.0.5 surfing!

Click to expand...

Thanks so much katonah for the detailed instructions. Works like a charm.

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An easier solution

Hi everyone, this is my first post!

I have a two easier solutions for you.

The first and by far the easiest is to pull Safari 5.0.5 from your Time Machine backup. I've test this and it works fine.

If you cant do that then here is the easier option with the combo patch and it doesn't require using any third party tools.

1. Download the 10.6.8 combo patch
2. Move Safari 5.1 to your desktop and rename to something else (like Safari_5.1), but remove the .app extension.
3. Run the combo patch and it will reinstall Safari 5.0.5

You're done!

You will probably need to use Terminal to rename Safari or you can just delete it, but make sure to empty your trash before running the combo patch.

Testing this morning and works a treat.

Tried to use Pacifist and now I'm F'd

after reboot, I get a "the application spotlight has quit unexpectedly" every 5 seconds or so and Safari has a circle with a line through it. I cannot open Finder either. Help?

This Sucks said:

after reboot, I get a "the application spotlight has quit unexpectedly" every 5 seconds or so and Safari has a circle with a line through it. I cannot open Finder either. Help?

Click to expand...

This Sucks, just got the heads-up about your situation via the forum’s mail alert, I can only say: sorry to hear that.

When you see an icon with a line through it (“parking forbidden” style) then this usually means that the application is not compatible with the OS installed, or the cpu (type of processor) your machine is equipped with -- like, for instance, when you try to run a 64-bit application on a 32-bit Mac.

Could you specify what version of OS X and Safari, respectively, you are dealing with? Also, could you identify the type of processor your Mac runs on: you can read it on the “About This Mac” panel, accessible via the Apple menu.

Spotlight and Finder should have nothing to do whatsoever with downgrading your Safari browser. Hope you didn’t do something very wrong when dealing with Pacifist (it’s a powerful tool . . .). You didn’t do anything like “Archive and Install,” right?!

Can you run any application other than Finder and Safari?

Hopefully you have a backup of your system, as well. However, don’t panic.

I am having trouble with my Safari (Mac OSX)

It keeps sticking. When I try to reopen it, it insists on trying to recapture the last session, which required a password. So it is stuck in a loop.

I don't know how to create another user on my mac (newbie) but I'm mainly wondering what are the consequences of deleting Safari altogether?

Also, my new Adobe Reader doesn't work in Firefox. If I uninstall it, will the browser revert to using Preview to look at PDFs? I'm trying to do research and NONE of my past solutions allows me to look at these very important pdf's.

HELP!!!!!

d.rabino said:

I am having trouble with my Safari (Mac OSX)

It keeps sticking. When I try to reopen it, it insists on trying to recapture the last session, which required a password. So it is stuck in a loop.

I don't know how to create another user on my mac (newbie) but I'm mainly wondering what are the consequences of deleting Safari altogether?

Also, my new Adobe Reader doesn't work in Firefox. If I uninstall it, will the browser revert to using Preview to look at PDFs? I'm trying to do research and NONE of my past solutions allows me to look at these very important pdf's.

HELP!!!!!

Click to expand...

d.rabino,

I take it you’re running OS X 10.7 (Lion) or higher, and you have the auto-restore feature enabled (it’s on by default). That is why Safari tries to restore its last session. Apparently, during this last session you visited a page that requires a password (that you may do not know); hence, you’re stuck in a loop.

I guess you’re most easily helped when you make Safari forget its last session. Accordingly, no password request should be triggered afterwards.

See here for instructions in a very similar case:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110722125937252

I don’t think it’s necessary, or just a good idea, to create another user.
And it’s not a good idea just to delete Safari because of its deep integration into OS X. Don’t do it.

(This thread is only about replacing one version of Safari by another. If you do not want to use Safari, and you prefer a different browser like Chrome or Firefox, no problem -- just use the other browser and leave Safari alone.)

Finally, regarding displaying PDFs in Firefox: I would have to google the details, but I take it that Firefox does not support displaying (within a browser window) PDFs without some additional software like Adobe Acrobat’s browser plug-in (gets installed with Acrobat Reader, or only with Acrobat Pro?, I’m not sure). Accordingly, when you uninstall Acrobat, Firefox will loose the capability to display PDFs; Firefox will download PDFs instead, to be opened with your PDF reader of choice, for instance OS X’s Preview.

The situation is different in the case of Safari: Safari uses OS X’s built-in PDFKit to display PDFs within its browser windows; Safari doesn’t need any additional software to do so. (Btw: PDFKit also drives OS X’s Preview.)

Best of luck,
katonah