Beware Safari 12 on Sierra

[VanNess]

Issues on Sierra with Quicklook and website URLs. If you drag and drop a URL from Safari to the desktop (weblock icon) and use quicklook on the icon to view the website, Finder crashes immediately. Likewise, URLs imbedded in emails are not viewable with quicklook. There were similar Quicklook-related issues with Safari 11 where in the previous examples, using quicklook would only produce a Safari icon which when clicked would open the URL in Safari. In all other respects Quicklook works as expected - so long as the file is not dependent on Safari.

Safari 10.12.2, which was installed with last update to Sierra (10.12.6) works fine with Quicklook and eliminates all of the issues above.

 

[Fishrrman]

"If you drag and drop a URL from Safari to the desktop (weblock icon) and use quicklook on the icon to view the website, Finder crashes immediately."

2012 Mac Mini
OS 10.12.6 (Low Sierra)
Safari 12.0

I just reached up to the Safari tool bar, grabbed the "icon" for the URL I'm at (right here), and dragged it and then dropped it onto the desktop.

It went just fine...

 

[VanNess]

"If you drag and drop a URL from Safari to the desktop (weblock icon) and use quicklook on the icon to view the website, Finder crashes immediately."

2012 Mac Mini
OS 10.12.6 (Low Sierra)
Safari 12.0

I just reached up to the Safari tool bar, grabbed the "icon" for the URL I'm at (right here), and dragged it and then dropped it onto the desktop.

It went just fine...

Thanks. Drag and drop for URLs works ok. The issue I'm seeing is with Quicklook. So if you drag and drop a URL to the desktop you should see a webloc icon for that URL. Ordinarily if you click the icon and press the spacebar, you should see the website via Quicklook. With Safari 12 on Sierra (10.12.6) pressing the spacebar in a webloc icon crashes the Finder.

 

[Hanser65]

Thanks. Drag and drop for URLs works ok. The issue I'm seeing is with Quicklook. So if you drag and drop a URL to the desktop you should see a webloc icon for that URL. Ordinarily if you click the icon and press the spacebar, you should see the website via Quicklook. With Safari 12 on Sierra (10.12.6) pressing the spacebar in a webloc icon crashes the Finder.

I have exactly the same problem. As soon as I want to preview a link the finder crashes immediately.
Even worse, I cannot show the file info of the webloc file when makign a right click and selecting "Get Info" to eventually change the file association. If I do click "Get Info" the finder immediately crashes again.

This is super annoying, especially since I use the column view in finder. Every (!) time I just select by accident a webloc file on my HD the finder crashes. (Since the column view automatically shows the preview when selecting a file.)

This is SUPER annoying. If anyone has a fix for this please share.

Eventually the only way is to downgrad to the previous Safari version, or just uninstall Safari as it is not working.

Thanks!

PS: This all started after updated to the latest Safari today. 10.12.6 her with all updates.

 

[Typist]

I have this problem, too. If I double-click or control-click to “Get Info” on any webloc, the finder crashes and re-launches. A quick fix is to change the filename extension from webloc,” to “url” (without quotes) via Control-Click>Rename.

While surfing for a solution, I ran across a free application (Webloc Finagler) that will convert webloc to url via drag-and-drop. All credit goes to the developer Mark Douma:

Webloc Finagler app (110kb) direct download:
http://www.markdouma.com/developer/WeblocFinagler.zip

Mark Douma Apple Discussion link:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11978417#message11978417

 

[Hanser65]

I have this problem, too. If I double-click or control-click to “Get Info” on any webloc, the finder crashes and re-launches. A quick fix is to change the filename extension from webloc,” to “url” (without quotes) via Control-Click>Rename.

While surfing for a solution, I ran across a free application (Webloc Finagler) that will convert webloc to url via drag-and-drop. All credit goes to the developer Mark Douma:

Webloc Finagler app (110kb) direct download:
http://www.markdouma.com/developer/WeblocFinagler.zip

Mark Douma Apple Discussion link:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11978417#message11978417

Thanks for the tip!

However it is a bit of a pain in the ... to change all URLs like that....

Really hope Apple is going to fix that. Jeez.

 

[cocoua]

wow, I have this problem too, reinstalling Sierra via cmd+R fixes it for a while but in 2-3 days the problem come again.

 

[photoBob]

There is a discussion on Apple Support Forums about this issue as well.

I would also add that as far back as April 2018 (and before), I was having weirdness when I would drag a URL from Chrome, my default browser, to the desktop, but they started to show up as as Safari icons, not a Chrome icons. And Quiklook stopped working as well under Safari 11.

When I selected Get Info, and tried to change the Open With application, it only showed Safari- grayed out- but did not let me change it to Chrome or Firefox. I was running Sierra, 10.12.6, with Safari 11.1 (although I had this issue with the previous version as well) on my iMac.

 

[Chris-Alvarado]

SOLUTION

• Currently working for OS X 10.12.6
• Finder doesn't crash when .weblock is clicked.
• Safari is able to launch the url.
• However, Quicklook views .weblocs as plain text files, bypassing the web preview generation.

Overview
Step 1

File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
Remove:

<string>com.apple.weblocation</string>

Step 2

File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Text.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
Add:

<string>com.apple.internet-location</string>

Location:

<string>QLGenerator</string>
<key>LSItemContentTypes</key>
<array>
    <string>public.data</string>
    <string>com.apple.internet-location</string> <!-- sierra-webloc-crashfix  -->
</array>

Step 3

Copy File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Text.qlgenerator
Move Copy:/Library/QuickLook/Text.qlgenerator​

Step 4

Terminal Command:

qlmanage -r

Basic instructions for editing the types of files:
ex.Step 1

Locate File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/
-Right Click and select “Show Package Contents”

Copy File to desktop: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
…Enter PW to allow changes
Duplicate File on desktop & rename: original.Contents.info.plist
-Edit desktop/Contents.info.plist

Remove:

<string>com.apple.weblocation</string>

- Save, move both files to replace original File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
…Enter PW to allow changes

ect.​

 

[NoLemon]

SOLUTION

• Currently working for OS X 10.12.6
• Finder doesn't crash when .weblock is clicked.
• Safari is able to launch the url.
• However, Quicklook views .weblocs as plain text files, bypassing the web preview generation.

Overview
Step 1

File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
Remove:

<string>com.apple.weblocation</string>

Step 2

File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Text.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
Add:

<string>com.apple.internet-location</string>

Location:

<string>QLGenerator</string>
<key>LSItemContentTypes</key>
<array>
    <string>public.data</string>
    <string>com.apple.internet-location</string> <!-- sierra-webloc-crashfix  -->
</array>

Step 3

Copy File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Text.qlgenerator
Move Copy:/Library/QuickLook/Text.qlgenerator​

Step 4

Terminal Command:

qlmanage -r

Basic instructions for editing the types of files:
ex.Step 1

Locate File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/
-Right Click and select “Show Package Contents”

Copy File to desktop: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
…Enter PW to allow changes
Duplicate File on desktop & rename: original.Contents.info.plist
-Edit desktop/Contents.info.plist

Remove:

<string>com.apple.weblocation</string>

- Save, move both files to replace original File: /System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
…Enter PW to allow changes

ect.​

There is no: <string>com.apple.weblocation</string> in: System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents.info.plist
There is a info.plist file in: System/Library/QuickLook/Web.qlgenerator/Contents/info.plist.
But in that file is no: <string>com.apple.weblocation</string>

 

[emaven]

I also used to launch the webloc file from within a folder. But now, double clicking on the webloc in a folder causes the finder to crash. But at least the webloc will launch from the desktop by double clicking without crashing. I even got a notice saying the finder had crashed which I never saw before.

Using Sierra and safari 12.0.2

just tried to right click the webloc file while in a folder window. I can use open with... and the url will open without causing a finder crash.

 

[iSearch]

I'm using a base 15 inch MacBook Pro 2015 with 500GB storage on Sierra with Safari 11. I was thinking about upgrading to Mojave or just Safari 12 for security updates, but everything besides a Terminal app I downloaded works perfectly on Sierra. Should I update to Safari 12 and will I lose anything I'm already used to with Safari 11?