New to Mac - Safari keeps quitting, Flash player doesn't work

[JolieCat]

I was so thrilled to get my iMac on Thursday, but I've had Safari "quit unexpectedly" at least a half dozen times since then. Actually it the first time was the first time I clicked on Safari from the dock.

I googled and found out that it could be a plug-in, so I went to preferences and unclicked "Enable plug-ins." Then I went to a site that said "you need flash player to view this site." I figured I must have disengaged Flash player to I went back to preferences to try to undo what I had undone, but there was no way to re-enable the plug-ins.

I went to Adobe and downloaded Flash, closed browser, restarted afterwards. Still no go. I installed again. Nothing. I installed it a third time and still nothing. Now I guess I should remove them all and start over, but since I am still trying to figure out where everything is (this is my first Mac ever, did I say? ) I don't know where the "remove program" button is.

Anyway, very frustrating. I ditched my PC because of numerous freezes, slowness, massive virus infections, etc. and had heard how wonderful Mac is. I hope it gets better.

Thanks.

Jolie

 

[chrono1081]

This certainly is NOT normal on a mac.

Did you buy it brand new? If so did you download all the updates? (Click the Apple in the upper left corner then click "Software Updates".)

Give that a shot because if you have an early version of snow leopard there may have been some issues.

You can also try reinstalling the OS or take it back to the store. In the almost 2 years since I became a mac convert I've bought 6 macs and never had a problem with any of them.

 

[macuserx86]

Use Firefox instead. I've had nothing but problems with Safari ever since my first Mac almost 6 years ago. I don't want to start a browser flame war, but in my experience, Safari is so unstable as to be unusable. Even on my Mac Pro, it will get bogged down and crash quite often.

 

[Velin]

I was so thrilled to get my iMac on Thursday, but I've had Safari "quit unexpectedly" at least a half dozen times since then. Actually it the first time was the first time I clicked on Safari from the dock.

Anyway, very frustrating. I ditched my PC because of numerous freezes, slowness, massive virus infections, etc. and had heard how wonderful Mac is. I hope it gets better.

Thanks.

Jolie

Did you run all the Snow Leopard software updates and install the latest Safari version?

I run Safari across several Macs and find it to be the best browser -- fast and reliable, no crashes.

Don't worry, Macs are good, iMac is great desktop. It will get better. You'll never go back to PC.

 

[JolieCat]

Thanks for the info. I did all the software updates. I think what I need to do is remove the three Adobe installations since none of them are working. Where do I find them and how do I uninstall them?

I think I messed up bad when I disabled the plug-ins. I don't know what plug-ins I had, but there's apparently no way to get them back. I had read that the plug-ins could be causing the crashes so I thought I was doing right by disabling them.

I can't play anything on YouTube either. It says that I either don't have Java (so that must have been one of the plug-ins) or that I need Flash player.

Jolie

 

[zachsilvey]

Use Firefox instead. I've had nothing but problems with Safari ever since my first Mac almost 6 years ago. I don't want to start a browser flame war, but in my experience, Safari is so unstable as to be unusable. Even on my Mac Pro, it will get bogged down and crash quite often.

I agree with the instability of Safari especially when there is active flash content. Firefox is a little slower but I like the stability and addons.

 

[Consultant]

Sounds like something is messed up.

Take a screenshot of the errors:
Command+shift+3


Post it here, and we might be able to help

 

[Velin]

Thanks for the info. I did all the software updates. I think what I need to do is remove the three Adobe installations since none of them are working. Where do I find them and how do I uninstall them?

I think I messed up bad when I disabled the plug-ins. I don't know what plug-ins I had, but there's apparently no way to get them back. I had read that the plug-ins could be causing the crashes so I thought I was doing right by disabling them.

I can't play anything on YouTube either. It says that I either don't have Java (so that must have been one of the plug-ins) or that I need Flash player.

Jolie

Well all of your programs are stored in the "Applications" folder.

Also don't worry, it's pretty hard to mess up a Mac (unlike Windows and the dreaded registry and *.dll files).

Maybe you should try deleting and reinstalling Safari from scratch. Just make sure you have the latest Safari install package from Apple's website saved to your hard drive, and your passwords safe and secure somewhere.

 

[Velin]

Now I guess I should remove them all and start over, but since I am still trying to figure out where everything is (this is my first Mac ever, did I say? ) I don't know where the "remove program" button is.

On Macs it's easy. You just go to your Application folder, take the program, and delete it or move it to the trash and empty. Don't need a remove program button -- that's what Windows has, because of Windows' garbage "registry" system (among other reasons).

Just take Safari and trash it. Then reinstall.

 

[JolieCat]

On Macs it's easy. You just go to your Application folder, take the program, and delete it or move it to the trash and empty. Don't need a remove program button -- that's what Windows has, because of Windows' garbage "registry" system (among other reasons).

Just take Safari and trash it. Then reinstall.

I will try that. I'm soooo tired lol. I just tried to shut down and got a message saying that "mail canceled the shutdown" so now I can't even shut the computer down. I went to the mail program to try to close it, but I click on it in the dock and nothing happens. No way to open it in order to stop whatever it's doing to prevent me from shutting the machine off.

Should I just click the button on the back and turn it off without going through shut down?

 

[Velin]

I will try that. I'm soooo tired lol. I just tried to shut down and got a message saying that "mail canceled the shutdown" so now I can't even shut the computer down. I went to the mail program to try to close it, but I click on it in the dock and nothing happens. No way to open it in order to stop whatever it's doing to prevent me from shutting the machine off.

Should I just click the button on the back and turn it off without going through shut down?

You are having setup issues, no doubt.

O.K. See the apple symbol in the top left of your screen?

Click it.

Scroll down until you come to the "Force Quit" line. Click it.

Then select Mail. That will shut it down.

Apples/Macs always allow you to "force quit" an application that is giving you trouble, without disrupting the rest of the operating system.

Once you learn these little tips and tricks, you're going to be much more confident on the machine.

 

[macuserx86]

Not a good start to the mac world I see

As far as deleting applications goes, for all intensive purposes, you can just delete the app from your Applications folder; however, it will leave behind preferences and other files scattered around your drive. usually, a new install of the app will over-write these old files, or use them again, but sometimes they're the problem in the first place.

If you're getting a lot of errors like this (safari crashing, Mail freezing, etc.) it might be wise to do a clean install of OS X with the disk that came with the computer. Back up you files before you do this obviously.

 

[newdeal]

...

sounds to me like your install of snow leopard may have come from the factory as partially corrupted. If I were you I would reinstall snowleopard after formatting the disk completely using disk utility in from the snow leopard install dvd. I can say that I have no problems with the latest version of safari and the latest version of snow leopard other than it really sucks at playing animated gifs compared to firefox

 

[JolieCat]

Thank you all. I did do a force quit on Mail last night and was able to shut down.

I am on deadline (I'm a writer) and have to get story and photos in today, so I'm not doing anything yet. If something happened before I could turn that in I would throw myself and the Mac out the window. So I'll try whatever else you suggest when I'm in the clear.

Appreciate all the input. After working on an 11-year-old Dell this is like piloting the space shuttle, and equally intimidating.

Jo

 

[JolieCat]

Believe it or not, I actually got the plug-ins to work again.

I was going to SYSTEM preferences > Security instead of SAFARI preferences. Duh. When I went to Safari > Preferences > Security I was able to re-enable the plug-ins.

Now everything's working fine again, and I can stop pulling my hair out. For now. The plug-ins will probably cause Safari to crash repeatedly like it was before, but I'll deal with that later.

Jolie

 

[macuserx86]

Awesome, it's a great feeling when you fix broken stuff.

You really should try Firefox though; it is much more stable than Safari (in my experience)

 

[colourfastt]

Awesome, it's a great feeling when you fix broken stuff.

You really should try Firefox though; it is much more stable than Safari (in my experience)

In my experience they are equally stable; but the biggest complaints on here are when people use Firefox and load it with TONS of add-ons then complain 'it's running slowly' or 'it won't work'. Firefox is fine by itself but do NOT load it with add-ons.

 

[Velin]

Believe it or not, I actually got the plug-ins to work again.

I was going to SYSTEM preferences > Security instead of SAFARI preferences. Duh. When I went to Safari > Preferences > Security I was able to re-enable the plug-ins.

Now everything's working fine again, and I can stop pulling my hair out. For now. The plug-ins will probably cause Safari to crash repeatedly like it was before, but I'll deal with that later.

Jolie

And you've stumbled upon another benefit of the way Macs Work. Every time you open a program on your Mac -- Word, Safari, Excel -- the menu bar at the top switches to the program you have selected. It's a subtle switch. The big benefit is the menu bar stays consistent across programs. Learn it once, and you'll know it for most all programs on your Mac.

So if you're on your Mac and using Firefox and you want to change preferences, you simply click on Menu item "Firefox," and select "Preferences." Same thing for Safari. Click Safari, click "Preferences."

On your Mac and using Word, click on Menu item Word, then click "Preferences." Then you can change Word preferences.

This is a much better way of doing things that Windows. In Windows, the menu selections change to all kinds of different and crazy things depending on each program. For instance, in Internet Explorer 8 for Windows, you need to click on that gear cog, then look for Internet Preferences to change preferences. Yet in Windows Word, you need to go to Tools --> Options to change preferences.

Thus the Mac is generally consistent across all programs. It's great and you don't have to learn where stuff is with each new program on a Mac. Windows, I hate it. With each new program in Windows you need to hunt around in menus and submenus to find out where stuff is, without any rhyme or reason.

Just one of the nice benefits in using OS X and Macs. You'll be a power user in no time.

 

[JolieCat]

And you've stumbled upon another benefit of the way Macs Work. Every time you open a program on your Mac -- Word, Safari, Excel -- the menu bar at the top switches to the program you have selected. .

Velin, I was thinking this today, when for the first time I realized that whatever program I was in, the menu bar switched on its own. I am so used to having to hunt down everything in Windows, that when things are too "simple" they seem "wrong."

I also love the dock, you know. My apps are there and my downloads, plus the last document I worked on, and my photos, etc. It's so nice to see everything where you need it, instead of having to be a detective. I never did learn that much on Windows because I just gave up. I hope to become MUCH more proficient on my Mac. It's only been four days but at least I am getting some work done, and in pretty much half the time.

Can you recommend a good virus program for the Mac?

Jo

 

[kate-willbury]

people who tell you macs are more stable are lying to you. clearly they are not. safari is a crash hog. yesterday i was just watching a movie in vlc player and my 2008 unibody just crashed for no reason whatsoever. it has done this several times already. hilarious because my windows machines definitely didn't screw up this much.

 

[kate-willbury]

And you've stumbled upon another benefit of the way Macs Work. Every time you open a program on your Mac -- Word, Safari, Excel -- the menu bar at the top switches to the program you have selected. It's a subtle switch. The big benefit is the menu bar stays consistent across programs. Learn it once, and you'll know it for most all programs on your Mac.

So if you're on your Mac and using Firefox and you want to change preferences, you simply click on Menu item "Firefox," and select "Preferences." Same thing for Safari. Click Safari, click "Preferences."

On your Mac and using Word, click on Menu item Word, then click "Preferences." Then you can change Word preferences.

This is a much better way of doing things that Windows. In Windows, the menu selections change to all kinds of different and crazy things depending on each program. For instance, in Internet Explorer 8 for Windows, you need to click on that gear cog, then look for Internet Preferences to change preferences. Yet in Windows Word, you need to go to Tools --> Options to change preferences.

Thus the Mac is generally consistent across all programs. It's great and you don't have to learn where stuff is with each new program on a Mac. Windows, I hate it. With each new program in Windows you need to hunt around in menus and submenus to find out where stuff is, without any rhyme or reason.

Just one of the nice benefits in using OS X and Macs. You'll be a power user in no time.

what the heck are you talking about. pretty obvious as a windows user that a 'preferences' setting would generally be under an 'options' menu. you want to talk about consistent? how about the +/- 'maximize/minimize' buttons??? each app on the mac seemingly does something completely different when you press them. it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 

[slapguts]

Can you recommend a good virus program for the Mac?

Jo

The Mac itself is the best anti-virus program you can get. Don't download pirated software, and you'll be fine.

 

[Velin]

Can you recommend a good virus program for the Mac?

Jo

We run an entire office of Macs. We've never needed a virus program.

Apple OS X is unix-based, hence it's extremely robust. If you avoid doing something foolhardy -- i.e. downloading or installing programs from unknown or disreputable sources, staying away from malware sites -- in my opinion you won't need one.

 

[alexlerock]

I've had a Mac since February and use it mainly in Europe. Firefox is handier than Safari because I've encountered hotels that don't support Safari but support Firefox. I've found "disconnect" frequency to be similar for the two but I have better luck reconnecting when I'm in Safari than in Firefox. I keep both Safari and Firefox on my MacAir, using Firefox as default.

As for Mac-provided software, I recently received a cuople of PDF's from Swiss Rail. I could not save them to my hard drive using Mac's PDF opener (in my French-language version it's called Aperçu). I installed Adobe and with Adobe I was able to save the pdf to my hard drive. I also experimented with some other pdf's and found similar instances where my Mac pdf opener would not save a pdf to hard drive but Adobe did. I have no idea why this is. Thus, I now use Adobe pdf opener as my default.

God luck.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

We run an entire office of Macs. We've never needed a virus program.

Apple OS X is unix-based, hence it's extremely robust. If you avoid doing something foolhardy -- i.e. downloading or installing programs from unknown or disreputable sources, staying away from malware sites -- in my opinion you won't need one.

Although the point should be made that lately, OS X is just as hard (or easy, depending on your viewpoint) to hack as Windows. They're both very good at keeping virus's out. The big issue now is that people (in general) are stupid and install programs that are adware or spyware. No OS will protect you from your own stupidity, and that is where anti-virus programs like Norton are good to have. As OS X becomes more popular, mac users are going to find out the hard way that they should be careful on OS X too.