When I do a Google search (in Safari) and then click on a result (link to a website) I am usually taken to the website but just lately something has changed and instead of the website opening in a new tab, I get taken to a "page" ..... screenshots attached. I've emptied cache, deleted all cookies, removed all websites, made sure there are no extensions, restarted Safari and my Mac several times but it's not helping. I've checked all other settings and can't see what may be causing the problem. If I use Chrome, I do not have this issue. We have a second Mac which does not have this issue. Both Macs are fairly new, the one having this issue was bought in January 2022 and the other was bought 3 months ago. Any ideas/solutions...? Thanks in advance!
SOLVED Safari opening "page" instead of website
- Thread starter Debrastus
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Cory Cooper
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Hello and welcome.
This definitely sounds like a software issue. Could be something like MacKeeper, Internet security software, antivirus, malware, etc. Do you have any of those installed/running?
C
This definitely sounds like a software issue. Could be something like MacKeeper, Internet security software, antivirus, malware, etc. Do you have any of those installed/running?
C
Hi Cory,
We do not have any malware or anti-virus installed. I'm always suspicious of the all different anti-virus/malware apps ..... can you recommend a trustworthy one? This problem started happening quite suddenly, so I'm thinking we do need some kind of anti-virus/malware and maybe that will sort out the issue.
Thanks.
Debbie
We do not have any malware or anti-virus installed. I'm always suspicious of the all different anti-virus/malware apps ..... can you recommend a trustworthy one? This problem started happening quite suddenly, so I'm thinking we do need some kind of anti-virus/malware and maybe that will sort out the issue.
Thanks.
Debbie
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I run Intego and have for several years with zero issues. It only does Mac viruses though so theoretically won’t catch a file you may have that is infected with a windows virus. There are plenty of Mac AVs out there but I can’t speak to many of them as I have only tested a few and not very comprehensively.
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It may not be virus related but I’ve never seen an issue like this with safari so I don’t know. It is odd that chrome works fine and safari doesn’t. If there is a “reset” option in safari, maybe that might help, but I am not in from of my Mac at the moment so can’t remember. I would also remove all add ons or plugins if possible to see if one is causing an issue. I believe the instructions on that page you get mentioned that.
Thanks again. I've checked Safari and there are no plug-ins or add-ons (I believe that these are now called "Extensions")? I've also searched through everything I can to find the Safari reset function but it is nowhere to be found. The only other solution I have found but it comes with a caution, is to uninstall Safari and reinstall it. Otherwise, to wait for the next software update and see if that cures the problem. Currently I am on Monterey 12.6 and it does not look like there are any further updates available at this time. I appreciate your input.
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Silly question but if you search via other search engines (DuckDuckGo for example), is the behavior the same? Not even sure why the search engine would matter - this is a very odd issue!
Well, it does not happen when I am using Chrome. Since I am suspicious that it may be a malware problem I am a bit reluctant right now to install anything else, never heard of DuckDuckGo! We are going to get a good AV/Malware app and see if it fixes the problem. Also, I've just noticed that sometimes if I am using gmail in Safari with the preview pane open on the right and click on an email it opens a new "page" instead of letting me read the email in the preview pane in gmail and then clicking on the back button, it does not take me back to gmail, just does nothing and I have to close the "page" and reopen gmail ..... very odd and even stranger that it only does that periodically. Something is not quite right. Again, I really appreciate all your input.
Just found the fix for this and it is so simple if you know what to look for - you need to check your Reader settings. If anyone else is having the same problem go to this website page: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8272687. What is strange though is that there was an IOS upgrade and after I ran that, Safari was working normally, but two days later it reverted to this same problem. Anyway, it seems to be ok now that I changed the Reader settings. Thanks to those who tried to help. I will mark this as solved now.