Safari will not open

Safari crashing/freezing/won't open? Try these tips, in the order given:

Find Safari's preference file. Move it elsewhere. Try again. If it doesn't work you can put it back. The preference file is located in ~/Library/Preferences (where ~ is your user or home folder) and is called com.apple.Safari.plist.

Find Safari's cache folder, and do the same thing with it. This one's in ~/Library/Caches and is called either "Safari" or "com.apple.Safari" - depending on which version of Safari you have.

Find Safari's general data folder, and try the same technique. This is in ~/Library and is called Safari. Your bookmarks, history, and cookies are in here.

If none of those work, download and apply the 10.5.5 Combo Updater from Apple's site. This will (hopefully) update the offending part of Safari.

 

If its not the preferences or the caches, nor the permissions, you might need to reinstall Safari or *gulp* the operating system. If you're running Leopard, have you tried restoring the Safari application into your Applications folder with Time Machine from a date it (Safari) last worked? Are any other applications affected? The OS being recognized as 10.5.2 by the installer when you're running 10.5.5 could indicate something more serious that may only be resolved with a complete reinstall of the system.