If Safari on your Mac runs very slowly, takes far longer than it should to load pages, or crashes often, you might need to reset it. However, resetting Safari is not something you should do without care as it makes significant changes to the experience of using it. In fact, Apple removed the one-click, Reset Safari menu option, possibly for that reason.
If you’re a Mac user, then you have a copy of Safari on your computer — it’s the default browser for macOS. If you do use it, you’ll be happy to learn that, like other major browsers. Click on Safari Settings for This Website (or right-click the URL box and select Settings for This Website). You will see a pop-up window with the option Auto-Play, click on the words besides. Safari browser privacy settings require you allow permission for doxy.me and other sites to access your camera. You may need to manually allow doxy.me, especially if you accidentally denied permission. Give permission to access to your camera. If your Mac and your other devices have Safari turned on in iCloud preferences, your browsing history is removed from all of them. Clearing your browsing history in Safari doesn’t clear any browsing histories kept independently by websites you visited. Open Safari for me. In the Safari app on your Mac, choose History Clear History, then click the pop-up menu.
When you reset Safari on Mac, it:
Removes installed extensions
Deletes browsing data
Gets rid of cookies
Forgets saved login names and passwords
Scraps auto-fill data
The result is that Safari is clean and should behave as if you’ve just installed it. If you use iCloud Keychain, login names and passwords can be retrieved from there, and if you use iCloud Contacts, auto-fill data will be taken from there. So, while resetting Safari is a big step, it’s not the completely clean slate or inconvenience it used to be. However, you will notice that there’s nothing in the History menu and if you’ve left items in a checkout trolley at an online store, they will no longer be there.
How to reset Safari on Mac
Now that the Reset Safari button is gone, it takes several steps to achieve the same result.
Step 1: Clear Safari history
Tip: If you’re looking for an easy, two-clicks way, you can use CleanMyMac X to delete data like cookies, history, saved passwords, and auto-fill information.
If you want to clear the history manually, follow the steps:
Launch Safari and click on the Safari menu.
Choose Clear History…
Click the menu next to clear and choose a time period — if you want to completely reset Safari, choose all history.
Press Clear History.
Step 2: Clear Safari cache
With Safari open, click the Safari menu.
Choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced tab.
At the bottom of the window, you should see a checkbox labelled Show Develop menu in menu bar, check it.
Click on the Develop menu and choose Empty caches.
Step 3: Remove Safari extensions
Extensions are third-party add-ons that provide additional functionality to Safari, such as saving web pages to Evernote or Pocket, or downloading videos from streaming sites. However, they can also cause problems, particularly if you let them get out of date or the developer stops updating them, so here’s how to remove them.
In Safari, click on the Safari menu and choose Preferences.
Click on the Extensions tab.
In the window that opens, you’ll see a list of installed extensions. To completely reset Safari, click on each extension in turn and press Uninstall.
Step 4: Switch off plug-ins
In Safari, click on the menu and choose Preferences.
Click on the Security tab.
Remove the checkmark from the Allow Plug-ins checkbox.
Step 5: Delete plug-ins
The above steps allow you to switch Safari plug-ins on and off and to control how they behave with specific websites. To delete them completely, however, you’ll need to manually move them to the Trash. MacOS stores plug-ins in two places, your user Library folder (~/Library) and your Mac’s main system Library folder (/Library). In both cases, plug-ins are stored in a folder called ‘Internet Plug-ins.’
If you think you might want to use the plug-ins again at later date, you can move them to another folder (maybe create one called ‘Disabled plug-ins’) and move them back when you need them. However, given that it’s very important to keep plug-ins up to date, you’d be better off deleting them and then reinstalling them from the developer’s website if you need them again.
In the Finder, click on the Go menu and choose Library. If you can’t see it, try holding down the Alt key when you click; or in the Go menu, select Go to folder and type: ‘~/Library’
Click on the Internet Plug-ins folder in Library.
Drag the plug-ins you want to delete to the Trash.
Click on the Go menu in the Finder again and choose Computer.
Click on the name of your Mac and select the Library folder; or Click the Go menu, choose Go to folder, and type: ‘/Library’ (note, there’s no ‘~’ this time).
Repeat steps 2 and 3 above.
Reset applications the easy way
There is an easier way to clean up Safari, particularly if you want to reset other browsers, like Chrome or Firefox, as well as Safari. CleanMyMac’s Privacy tool allows you to quickly view each browser you have installed and, by ticking a box, delete data such as cookies, history, saved passwords, and auto-fill information.
In addition, the Extensions tool makes it very easy to delete extensions from both Safari and Chrome, just by clicking the name of the browser, checking a box next to the extensions you want to remove and pressing the Remove button. It couldn’t be easier! You can download CleanMyMac X and try it out free here.
Also, CleanMyMac can also reset applications, reverting them to their original state. To use it, launch CleanMyMac and click on the Uninstaller tool. Use the search box to find the app you want to reset and click on it. Now, click on a small arrow next to the app logo. Click the Application Reset button.
As you can see, it’s not difficult to reset Safari and return it to its original state. And thanks to iCloud Keychain and Contacts, doing so doesn’t mean that your saved logins or autofill data is gone for good. It is a significant step, however, and you should think carefully before you proceed.
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Mac users can get around online security problems by updating their systems and browsers at regular intervals. Yet Safari, the default Mac browser, is plagued by privacy concerns. From unwanted tracking to hacked accounts, Safari users face genuine attacks on their virtual identity.
Some of the frequently occurring glitches of an unsecured browsing session include accidental logins into fake websites and cross-website tracking. Or you may end up gathering cookies unknowingly or fall prey to phishing activities.
So, is there a silver lining? Yes, and it’s called browser security.
How do I secure my Safari browser?
There are ten ways of doing it. Read on to find out how you can enable greater browser defenses for the riskiest albeit the most common concerns.
1. Banning deceptive sites
These sites are not encrypted. The address bar is missing a green padlock icon. These are unauthenticated and may release malware into your system.
The quick fix is to open the Safari menu and scroll to Preferences. Now click on it to see the Security tab. Select the box in front of the option ‘Warn when visiting a fraudulent website’. Safari remembers the choice. The next time you come across one, it will display an alert for you on the window.
Safari Menu > Preferences > Security > select Warn when visiting a fraudulent site
2. Avoiding cross-site tracking
Not content with the user data they gather from a single visit, websites often continue tracking you even if you’ve moved on to other pages. How do you think they keep throwing relevant ads at you?
Here are two things you can do to prevent this. Set up your Safari privacy to request sites to stop following you and stop cross-site tracking.
Safari Menu > Preferences > Security > select prevent cross-site tracking + select Ask websites not to track me.
You must make sure to select both choices.
3. Blocking cookies on Safari Mac
Too many cookies could give you a bad headache. They are little files that sites send to your browser and store on your device. They help identify you by remembering your logging ID, IP address, or passwords. While they help the website remember your preference, they also track your moves on the internet.
You can quickly block cookies by visiting the Preferences section of Safari settings. Cookie collection might be active by default when you start using Safari so be sure to turn it off as soon as you can.
Menu > Preferences > Privacy > Block all cookies
This will disable cookies from most third-party sites and marketers.
4. Avoiding risky files
You may download songs, movies, ebooks, images, and whatnots from the internet. Your Mac browser can safeguard you against dodgy data.
As a user, you can enhance this protection. Like so.
Safari Menu > Preferences > General > deselect Open safe files after downloading.
This action will prevent files from opening as soon as they finish downloading. Yet they will continue to get stored in the folder you have earmarked for downloads.
5. Blocking Pop-up media
Pop-ups can be a nuisance. Their sole purpose is to force users to view ads and hopefully click on them. Get rid of pop-ups to enjoy uninterrupted browsing by tweaking Safari site preferences.
Safari menu > Preferences > Websites > General (side bar dropdown menu) > Pop-Up windows > select ‘When visiting other websites’ > select Allow or Block or Block and Notify.
6. Disabling JavaScript
While a useful program for creating interactive content and images, you can choose to disable this element on the sites you visit due to security matters. The thing to note is it might restrict a few features on them or prevent images from displaying properly.
Here’s how you can go about it:
Menu > Preferences > Security > JavaScript > deselect the box before ‘Enable JavaScript’
7. Spotting Apple Pay enabled sites
Add bonus security measures while making payments virtually. You can tell Safari to find out if those sites do transactions by way of Apple Pay. It lessens the chance of being redirected to deceitful merchant sites.
Safari Mac Menu > Preferences > Privacy > select the box before ‘Allow websites to see if Apple Pay is set up’
And Done.
8. Restricting location sharing, device camera, and microphone permissions
While sharing your location can help sites show you useful things like shops in your vicinity or ads, it is nonetheless a privacy threat. The same goes for your device camera. You know by know how easy it is to spy on you using that. In addition, various sites ask for microphone permissions to record media.
An easy one-step way out is to change the settings from the Preferences section of the main Safari menu. As an example, let us see how camera access can be denied:
Menu > Prefrences > Website > General (side bar on screen left) > Camera > select ‘when visiting other sites’ > check Deny or Ask or Allow.
Similarly, you can set up location and microphone permissions on Safari Mac.
9. Erasing browser history
What pages or sites you access should ideally be invisible to everyone else. Delete your entire browsing history or ensure selective removal in a few simple steps. You can set up the time frame that affects your searches.
Menu > Clear History > set time (last hour/yesterday/all history) > Clear History
10. Clearing website data on Safari Mac
Website data may include several things you uploaded or submitted on it. You can either clear out all data from all sites or opt for selected data clearing from a handful of sites. Either way, you can protect your online identity using this feature.
Menu > Preferences > Privacy > Manage Website Data
Now here you can select sites individually or hit ‘Remove All’ to clean out all cache.
Secure browsers to fix the security lapses
These privacy and security lapses come up from time to time but now you have a way to fix them. Any reliable browser like Safari is geared towards providing the latest safeguards to its users. While it’s a great general purpose browser, it lacks some security features.
Privacy enabled browsers such as Kingpin are designed to provide maximum anonymity to you. They never store browsing history and clear cookies as soon as you close the session. So basically, Kingpin always operates in incognito or private mode.
Safari Browser Settings For Mac
This makes the Kingpin browser an ideal fit for Mac devices. Most of its features are auto-set to provide users with greater anonymity. Browsing on Kingpin is insurance against accidental privacy breaks as the browser’s default setting favors user anonymity. Agisoft metashape pro 1 5. It helps you defend your virtual identity, deflect unnecessary ads, and guard you against being tracked.
That’s all about tweaking Safari for better privacy. Set up your browser on Mac with greater control than before when you configure your browser as per your preferences. Stay abreast of updates and software versions or better still, move to a browser that prioritizes user privacy above all else.