Safari 3.0 beta (#5): Will not install/launch: Remove Safari Enhancer, update Speed Download; more

[Published Friday, June 15th]

Will not install/launch: Remove Safari Enhancer, update Speed Download We continue to report on an issue where Safari 3.0 beta will not install on some systems with the error message:

"You cannot install Safari 3 Beta on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update."

We previously noted that this issue can sometimes be resolved by re-downloading the Safari 3.0 beta installer and re-attempting installation; and/or making sure that Safari is in the /Applications folder before attempting installation.

There are now two new culprits for this problem:

Speed Download If Speed Download is present, you may have problems installing and/or launching Safari Beta 3. Download and use the latest version (4.1.1.2), which resolves these issue.

Safari Enhancer This application and the modifications it makes to Safari's .plist file can cause problems with the Safari 3 beta. Quit Safari and delete the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.safari.plist and the Safari Enhancer application itself, then re-launch Safari.

Crashes when accessing PDFs Some users have experienced crashes when attempting to download or view PDFs in Safari.

MacFixIt reader Tom Smith writes:

"Yesterday I installed Beta 3.0 and found that it seemed to work well until I tried to open a pdf link in the browser.  It crashed immediately.  I repeated the test on 3 different websites and it crashed each time.  I uninstalled Beta 3 using the installer and relaunched Safari 2.0.4, my prior version.  It opened the same sites without a problem."

If you are experiencing similar issues, you may want to peruse our article on controlling Safari's PDF display methods. One alternative may work where another fails.

Secure site issues Some readers have had problems with accessing secure sites, particularly bank sites with Safari 3.0 beta.

One reader writes:

"I have lost access to my banking site. The site does not acknowledge compatibility with this version of Safari."

Users experiencing this issue should peruse our article "Getting banking sites to work in Safari," which offers several potential fixes including changing the user agent, simply clearing the cache, and removing third-party plug-ins.

Cannot find Mail.app Some users report not being able to click on "mailto:" links in Safari and automatically launch Mail.app, nor access Mail from the Services section of the Safari menu. If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.

iSale should not be used with Safari 3 The developers of iSale have posted the following note to their Web page:

"Apple recently released Safari 3 Public Beta - a first public preview of its popular web browser. Along with the browser, Apple introduced a new version of the WebKit framework. This framework is used by many applications to handle web pages and previews. iSale uses WebKit in order to preview auction drafts before uploading eBay auctions. Unfortunately, the WebKit version that comes with Safari 3 is still buggy (that's why it's released as beta) and should therefore not be used in a production environment." We informed Apple about this issue and it will be solved in the final version of Safari 3. Until then we strongly recommend not using the beta version with iSale 4."

Ability to switch search engines not in Mac version MacFixIt reader Dave notes that the Windows version of Safari 3 beta has the ability to toggle between default search engines, while the Mac version does not:

"I see that version 3 Safari on XP has a choice between Yahoo and Google when you click the search window. But it is not on the Mac version."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• Safari 3.0 beta (#4): Enhanced 'Reset Safari' function; fix for non-launching apps; more
• Safari 3.0 beta (#3): More serious issues and fixes
• Safari 3.0 public beta (#2): What gets installed; Widgets not working; Input managers can cause problems; more
• Safari 3.0 public beta for Mac OS X released

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