Safari deselecting window when app launched

[alexmack]

Hey so recently in the past week, I've come accross something rather annoying.
I launch my apps via quicksilver (which is a god) and then from there will hit ⌘+(1-9) to head to any of my menu bar links... or at least that was my usual gig.

The recent hick-up is when safari is launch (whether or not it is from q.s. or the dock) a new window opens up, but then deselects it's self, as if a different window was openend and selected... but no, there's nothing else. Therefor I can't command anything with out physically selecting the window with my mouse. Rather annoying. That or, ⌘+Tab to a different program then back to safari.

I don't even know where to begin with a solution.
Any thoughts?

 

[Gregg2]

Temporarily suspend your devotion to Quicksilver. Try Safari on its own. Does it still do that? If not, your worship is in vain.

Confession (since we're on a religious theme): I've never used Quicksilver and thus am totally unfamiliar with it.

Software is touchy, works one day, then not the next. Seems to me that lots of problems come down to software conflicts and/or inadvertent user error.

 

[alexmack]

ya I wrote that it worked with or with-out quicksilver in my original post...

re-written as:

Even when Safari is Launched exclusively from the dock (thus with-out quicksilver) it still seems to open it's first window unselected...


frustrating.

 

[Gregg2]

I believe that your original post says it doesn't work with or without Quicksilver being invoked. I was suggesting that you temporarily get rid of Quicksilver, reverting back to what you had "out of the box". If you don't like that idea, I'd suggest reinstalling Safari. Maybe it's strictly a Safari corruption.

I confess that I don't really understand the second paragraph of your original post. Is it that you've set a homepage, but it skips over that and tries to open a different page? Is this perhaps just a Safari Preferences issue? I'm trying to help. Too bad no one else is contributing so far...

 

[alexmack]

humm... ya maybe I'll re-install Safari. I need to figure out how, and with out losing bookmarks.

and ya I gues it's hard to explain.

So I'll re-explain it in steps

-Launch safari (either from dock, spotlight, quicksilver, finder, ect...)
-Safari opens and new window is opened
[everything is normal prior to this point]
-the open window practically immediately becomes de-selected.
-apears as if another safari window has been selected, but there are no other open windows

-Result I cannot use any commands for safari as no window is selected.

-work around (which is ultra lame) ⌘+Tab to a different app, then back again to safari, at which point seems to have the open window selected.

-SUPER LAME ALTERNATIVE (but I'm just would really rather not) is to physically just click the open safari window.

 

[Gregg2]

-apears as if another safari window has been selected, but there are no other open windows

How does it appear that another non-existent window is selected? That's confusing.

In any case, of course it should leave the home page window selected after it starts up. Perhaps the com.apple.Safari.plist file has become corrupted. Do you know the drill for restoring the default?

 

[alexmack]

How does it appear that another non-existent window is selected? That's confusing.

like the title bar for the safari window has less contrast and the buttons are the washed out grey... I just mean the open window isn't selected when it opens. does that clarify that?


and no, i'm not fully aware of the "drill"

 

[Gregg2]

The com.apple.Safari.plist file is found in your Home folder > Library > Preferences.

Drag it to the Desktop, then start Safari.
The OS will make a new file to replace the one you moved.
If your problems go away, Trash the file you moved.
If you liked it better (dislike it less?) before, put that file back. It will of course mean overwriting the new one, which is set to defaults.

 

[alexmack]

hey sorry for my delay.
School's been crazy.

so I did everything you recommended. and no such luck...

I decided to take a picture of what I'm trying to say.
So when I open safari, this is what the first window looks like:

you can see that safari is the selected application, but the open window is not selected.

 

[Gregg2]

Oh, that's Top Sites! I don't have it activated. Hated it.

That's new in Safari 4. Go to Safari > Preferences > General

New windows open with: Top Sites (I bet that's what yours says)
Change it to something else.

Obviously, you can do the same for New Tabs.

You'll also see Top Sites in the Show All Bookmarks window. Drag that up, don't stop when it first stops moving. It will be reduced to a thin bar.

And, if you don't like Top Sites, there's no need to keep the Image Cache for it. Choose Safari > Reset Safari... and select Remove All Webpage Preview Images. Click Reset. Now go to YourUserName/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and select the Webpage Previews folder. Press Cmd-I and click Locked. Now it won't accumulate a jpeg and png of every web page you visit. I saved over 500MB of disk space!

 

[alexmack]

did you even read what I wrote?
it was "notice that the window is not selected"
not "tell me how much you dislike topsites and remove it completely"

regardless, it makes no difference regardless of what the home page is.

if you actually look at the picture. you will see that all of the buttons are greyed.... as in the window is not selected. Don't let what my home page is, distract you from what I am trying to say, because to be frank, it really does not matter.

 

[Gregg2]

Well, with that kind of attitude, you're not likely to get anyone to help you. Notice how many have tried... Fools, jump in!

And the grey button effect will also occur if the Finder is selected, although that's not what's going on in your case. Maybe it's corrupt Safari preferences? Download the new update (4.0.4 - out yesterday) and see if that helps. Good luck, I guess.

 

[whooleytoo]

Hmmm, not sure how this would happen. Safari appears to be active app alright, so IMO it's either a case of:

- another Safari window is open, but not visible for some reason. Perhaps try hitting Cmd-~ when this happens to see if the 'focus' comes back to the window you can see. If so, there's an offscreen Safari window somewhere, perhaps in another Space?

- another 'desk-accessory' type process is taking the focus away from the Safari window. (There are several apps which can show a window, but don't have any menus or show up in the Dock). It might be anything - it could even be QuickSilver itself; but it's strange that it only happens with Safari.

 

[alexmack]

ya that's certainly what it seems like. but I assure you there are no other open windows. plus it still happens when I launch from the dock. but what you said got me thinking.

I installed an app called "Dockless" and I set it so system pref's wouldn't show up on the dock. And when I would open system prefs, it would do the same thing, but always put it to the back of the all of the open application windows.... the more I think about this, I think safari started to do the same thing around that same time, except I never changed anything with safari's settings through that app..... I've tried turning safari's presence on and off, plus I've tried completely uninstalling Dockless, neither of which have helped.

And for the record, 4.0.4 had no fixes in it for this.

 

[allan.nyholm]

Have you tried Resetting Safari from Safari's "Safari" menu? Doing this will keep your bookmarks but delete a bunch of stuff related to Safari.

What I am about to suggest next, you have to decide whether to do or not. Before anything you should export your bookmarks from the File menu inside Safari.

Next locate on the internet, an app that will search for everything Safari. CleanApp AppCleaner, Forklift(also has this feature), AppZapper. Now carefully look everything over to see that nothing other than Safari items are being sent to the trash. You shouldn't delete the Safari.app from your Applications folder since this does nothing.

Safari puts some folders in the Cache and Library folders on your system so look for these when you are zapping Safari.

Your passwords are saved in the Keychain so they should not be affected. But first before you do anything export those bookmarks.

This is really the last resort IMO. Only do it if your are confident in doing so. I can not take responsibility for you losing bookmarks or other vital stuff. I am just providing a possible solution to this issue.

Have you got Glims installed btw? Check to see if it opens the windows that was last open before you quit Safari. Maybe there is something there.

The files can be found manually too and then just placed on the desktop and placed back again. Just note their location on your harddrive.

Here's an example of Safari cleaned with Forklift:

the RSS.plist can be left alone - I've had some problems with it before when I removed it to the trash.

 

[alexmack]

Still no luck

Sorry for my long delay. School is keeping me busy.

So I completely removed Safari in it's entirety, and re-installed it... that didn't work, so I also tried re-installing snow leopard. haha. that was exciting... but sadly that didn't help either.

And no, I don't have Glims installed...

=(