Manually enable Safari 14 extensions

[Edsonytic]

Hello everyone.

First, an introduction you can skip.

Spoiler

I have a Macbook 5,1 (Late 2008 Unibody) and have been able to keep it updated thanks to the excellent tools made by dosdude1 and others. That however has meant that I have been victim of the Safari "feature" meant to prevent unauthorised enabling of extensions.

So far I had managed to keep them enabled by using a system started on 10.15.2 and updated from there, however this didn't work for the new Safari 14 because it disables some extensions upon its first run. This motivated me to find a way to manually enable extensions by editing some preferences file since all the advice regarding other solutions hadn't worked for me. I have found a way that worked for me and hopefully it will work for others as well. I decided to set this as its own topic since it seems to be an issue for both those of us running patched systems and some who do not.

Now the steps to do it:

1. Install and run both Safari 14 and the desired extensions
2. Close Safari completely (command + q)
3. Navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/AppExtensions
4. Open the Extensions.plist file in a text editor (I used Atom)
   The file structure should now show a general <dict> tag under which you can find <key> values and their own <dict> tag for every extension.
5. Add two new lines below each extension's <dict> tag with the following text
   <key>Enabled</key> <true/>
   You should end up with something similar to this:
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
   <key>extension.1</key>
   <dict>
   <key>Enabled</key>
   <true/>
   <key>WebsiteAccess</key>
   <dict>
   …
   </dict>
   </dict>
   <key>extension.2</key>
   …
   </dict>
   </plist>

6. Save
7. Open Safari, extensions should now be enabled.

Important note: I would expect this file to be protected by system integrity protection, however that is permanently disabled on my system. If you run int any issues while following the previous procedure I would suggest disabling SIP.

 

[kroniu]

Hello everyone.

First, an introduction you can skip.

Spoiler

I have a Macbook 5,1 (Late 2008 Unibody) and have been able to keep it updated thanks to the excellent tools made by dosdude1 and others. That however has meant that I have been victim of the Safari "feature" meant to prevent unauthorised enabling of extensions.

So far I had managed to keep them enabled by using a system started on 10.15.2 and updated from there, however this didn't work for the new Safari 14 because it disables some extensions upon its first run. This motivated me to find a way to manually enable extensions by editing some preferences file since all the advice regarding other solutions hadn't worked for me. I have found a way that worked for me and hopefully it will work for others as well. I decided to set this as its own topic since it seems to be an issue for both those of us running patched systems and some who do not.

Now the steps to do it:

1. Install and run both Safari 14 and the desired extensions
2. Close Safari completely (command + q)
3. Navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/AppExtensions
4. Open the Extensions.plist file in a text editor (I used Atom)
   The file structure should now show a general <dict> tag under which you can find <key> values and their own <dict> tag for every extension.
5. Add two new lines below each extension's <dict> tag with the following text
   <key>Enabled</key> <true/>
   You should end up with something similar to this:
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
   <key>extension.1</key>
   <dict>
   <key>Enabled</key>
   <true/>
   <key>WebsiteAccess</key>
   <dict>
   …
   </dict>
   </dict>
   <key>extension.2</key>
   …
   </dict>
   </plist>

6. Save
7. Open Safari, extensions should now be enabled.

Important note: I would expect this file to be protected by system integrity protection, however that is permanently disabled on my system. If you run int any issues while following the previous procedure I would suggest disabling SIP.

Thanks a million!

 

[NutherBob]

Works well - many thanks!

 

[caravella]

Hello,
and sorry for this question but where i can find this: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/AppExtensions

 

[Nigel Goodman]

where i can find this: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/AppExtensions

This is in the Finder. Use the Go menu and choose Go to Folder, then copy in the line shown starting with the ~. Finder will then open the correct folder for you.

BTW, the ~ character means your Home folder - the one with your log-in name on it.

 

[caravella]

Thank you, it works.

 

[ukase]

This worked but the prior config messed up my Adguard install. Now the App Store still thinks that I have Adguard installed.

Has anyone been able to successfully remove Adguard and force the App Store to reinstall?

 

[Edsonytic]

Here you have an article regarding your problem

If there’s an issue when you redownload apps, movies, or other content from Apple - Apple Support

Learn what to do if you can't redownload an item or if you don't see the item in your purchases.

support.apple.com

 

[greenmeanie]

Annoying to have to do this at all I know what extensions I want to run so I use Firefox because I can actually install extensions Apples loss.

 

[mplacer68]

Hello everyone.

First, an introduction you can skip.

Spoiler

I have a Macbook 5,1 (Late 2008 Unibody) and have been able to keep it updated thanks to the excellent tools made by dosdude1 and others. That however has meant that I have been victim of the Safari "feature" meant to prevent unauthorised enabling of extensions.

So far I had managed to keep them enabled by using a system started on 10.15.2 and updated from there, however this didn't work for the new Safari 14 because it disables some extensions upon its first run. This motivated me to find a way to manually enable extensions by editing some preferences file since all the advice regarding other solutions hadn't worked for me. I have found a way that worked for me and hopefully it will work for others as well. I decided to set this as its own topic since it seems to be an issue for both those of us running patched systems and some who do not.

Now the steps to do it:

1. Install and run both Safari 14 and the desired extensions
2. Close Safari completely (command + q)
3. Navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/AppExtensions
4. Open the Extensions.plist file in a text editor (I used Atom)
   The file structure should now show a general <dict> tag under which you can find <key> values and their own <dict> tag for every extension.
5. Add two new lines below each extension's <dict> tag with the following text
   <key>Enabled</key> <true/>
   You should end up with something similar to this:
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
   <key>extension.1</key>
   <dict>
   <key>Enabled</key>
   <true/>
   <key>WebsiteAccess</key>
   <dict>
   …
   </dict>
   </dict>
   <key>extension.2</key>
   …
   </dict>
   </plist>

6. Save
7. Open Safari, extensions should now be enabled.

Important note: I would expect this file to be protected by system integrity protection, however that is permanently disabled on my system. If you run int any issues while following the previous procedure I would suggest disabling SIP.

Thanks this solved my problem on my My MacBook late 2008 !

 

[Thomajc]

Many thanks for the help -- this solution solved my issue putting 1Password extension in my 2008 iMac.

 

[macOS-nerd]

I've followed these instructions (and also confirmed I have SIP disabled) but the file gets overridden after I've made my changes and then launch Safari (14.0.2) again.

Is there a way to keep my changes persistent?

Thanks!

Update:

For those of you who might run into the same problem as above, I found that adding the code snippet exactly as it is written below worked:

<dict>
    <key>Enabled</key><true/>
    <key>WebsiteAccess</key>
...
...

Apparently breaking the "true" parameter on a separate line did not work? Odd - but it works now, so hooray!

 

[wolvesboykev]

Hi I too have the same issue and I’ve tried to follow the example given but my list goes on longer than that on the example provided

do I have to delete everything else underneath and only have what’s on the example?

I’m using Moped on a late 2011 Macbook Pro

I’m very new still

 

[krakman]

works great, thanks for the tip!

 

[wolvesboykev]

works great, thanks for the tip!

Hey do you know where I’m going wrong?

 

[wolvesboykev]

Sorry to bug you all but I still can't figure this out

Has anyone thought about doing a Youtube video on it?

I'm seeing everyone getting success with it but I'm not

Can someone please help 😞

I screenshotted my screen above for reference

 

[pr1nc3r0yc3]

Sorry to bug you all but I still can't figure this out

Has anyone thought about doing a Youtube video on it?

I'm seeing everyone getting success with it but I'm not

Can someone please help 😞

I screenshotted my screen above for reference

Just open Extensions.plist in text editor or any other app and add <key>Enabled</key><true/> after <dict>. I am attaching screen-shot for your reference.

 

[Monocle_Mac]

I got Honey to work does anyone know a way to enable bitwarden extension.

I’m on a patched Mac running Catalina.

 

[roysterdoyster]

Hello everyone.

First, an introduction you can skip.

Spoiler

I have a Macbook 5,1 (Late 2008 Unibody) and have been able to keep it updated thanks to the excellent tools made by dosdude1 and others. That however has meant that I have been victim of the Safari "feature" meant to prevent unauthorised enabling of extensions.

So far I had managed to keep them enabled by using a system started on 10.15.2 and updated from there, however this didn't work for the new Safari 14 because it disables some extensions upon its first run. This motivated me to find a way to manually enable extensions by editing some preferences file since all the advice regarding other solutions hadn't worked for me. I have found a way that worked for me and hopefully it will work for others as well. I decided to set this as its own topic since it seems to be an issue for both those of us running patched systems and some who do not.

Now the steps to do it:

1. Install and run both Safari 14 and the desired extensions
2. Close Safari completely (command + q)
3. Navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/AppExtensions
4. Open the Extensions.plist file in a text editor (I used Atom)
   The file structure should now show a general <dict> tag under which you can find <key> values and their own <dict> tag for every extension.
5. Add two new lines below each extension's <dict> tag with the following text
   <key>Enabled</key> <true/>
   You should end up with something similar to this:
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
   <key>extension.1</key>
   <dict>
   <key>Enabled</key>
   <true/>
   <key>WebsiteAccess</key>
   <dict>
   …
   </dict>
   </dict>
   <key>extension.2</key>
   …
   </dict>
   </plist>

6. Save
7. Open Safari, extensions should now be enabled.

Important note: I would expect this file to be protected by system integrity protection, however that is permanently disabled on my system. If you run int any issues while following the previous procedure I would suggest disabling SIP.

Fabulous. Thank you very ,much, it works for Safari 15.0