Isn’t it frustrating when Safari doesn’t open a page? Although Safari is an excellent browser and one of the best-optimized for Mac, sometimes it won’t open a particular page.
Hi, I’m Andreas, and I’ve come across this particular issue. No doubt the first thing you do is refresh the website or try to re-open it, but Safari still cannot open the page.
Surprisingly, not every reason as to why Safari cannot open a webpage is down to the browser. Sometimes, the culprit is a faulty internet connection, cookies, etc.
We’ll discuss the reason and possible fixes to solve the problem. Read on to find out.
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3 Possible Causes Why Safari Cannot Open Page on Mac
Understanding the cause will help you diagnose the problem much more easily. Luckily, there aren’t that many causes as to why the browser doesn’t open a webpage.
Reason 1: Faulty Internet Connection
The most basic and probably most common reason why Safari cannot or won’t open a webpage is down to a faulty internet connection. Without a solid internet connection, the browser cannot open the webpage no matter how hard you try.
We can bundle all the Safari-related causes in one. For example, possible Safari-related causes why the browser won’t open a page is down to Safari not being responsive, damaged cookies, or a host of other problems. Generally speaking, these issues rarely happen, but they can be a nuisance.
Reason 3: Wrong URL
This last reason is down to human error. Are you 100% sure that you’ve typed the correct URL address? If you mistype a letter, Safari will try to establish a connection to that particular URL address.
But if the address doesn’t exist, Safari cannot establish a connection to the domain.
Now that you know the possible reasons, let’s look at the potential fixes.
4 Fixes to Safari Cannot Open Page on Mac Problem
I will tell you about the potential X fixes to solve the problem. Conveniently, many of these fixes overlap with the causes. So, let’s dive in.
Solution 1: Check Your Internet Connection
No matter how much you try, Safari won’t open a webpage without internet access. So the easiest thing to do is to check if you’re connected to the internet.
In that case, Safari will display a message such as “You Are Not Connected to the Internet.” This makes it obvious that you need to check your internet connection and that Safari isn’t the culprit.
Solution 2: Disable Extensions
Extensions are third-party applications that enhance our browsing experience. However, some extensions might interfere with the browser’s ability to connect to the website. In most cases, these are faulty VPN or AdBlock extensions.
For whatever reason, these extensions need to go, as they harm your browsing experience. Here is how to do that.
Step 1: Launch Safari, navigate to the “Menu” bar and click on “Preferences.”
Step 2: Go to “Extensions” and locate the potentially faulty extensions.
Step 3: You will see a checkbox next to the extension. To disable the extension, make sure to untick the checkbox next to the extension. To delete the extension, click on the “Uninstall” button.
Step 4: Restart Safari and try again.
Solution 3: Check the URL Address
Adding an incorrect URL address won’t connect you to the particular website. However, there are exceptions to this rule. For example, typing in www.gogle.com instead of www.google.com will redirect you to Google’s homepage.
This is an exception because Google purchased the “gogle.com” domain and added a script to redirect traffic to “google.com.” So, if Safari cannot open a page, check the URL and ensure you’re trying to visit the correct website.
Solution 4: Hard Refresh the Webpage and Cache
You can try and perform a hard refresh on the web page to refresh the cache. Safari stores copies of websites in the form of a cache. Sometimes, these old copies are faulty or can cause a problem that prevents Safari from opening a particular webpage.
So, a hard refresh will refresh the cache, which might fix the problem. To perform a hard refresh, press “Shift” and click on the refresh button in the URL bar.
Conclusion
That concludes this guide on the three reasons and four fixes when Safari cannot open a page on Mac. The bottom line is that the problem might not be with Safari itself but with the website or your internet connection.
Fortunately, the guide covers multiple fixes that address each one. I look forward to hearing how you fix the problem. Leave your feedback in the comments section below.
