Safari 15.6.1 and dreaded blue question marks

[Racineur]

Hi to all. Well known problem as I found scouring the Net for answers. Safari (Catalina) displays blue question marks on Ali express site. Also Mail shows question marks instead of pictures from Ali. iPad (iPad OS 16.7.2), iPhone (iOS 16.7.2) and even iPhone 6s (iOS 14.8.1) displays pictures fine both in Safari and Mail. So I'm forced to switch to Firefox 120.01 on Catalina to browse and purchase from Ali express. Or on the iPad or iPhone. I did all that Could find concerning the bue question marks. No results whatsoever. Is there a secret setting fro Safari. Could it be AdGuard? If so, what setting? There are a ton of them A bit lost here. Attached: screen of Safari and Firefox.
Thanks for the help

 

[Cyby-CyberDog]

Have you tried creating a new user on your mac to test if a clean and fresh safari has the same problem?

 

[masotime]

Looks like Catalina was released in 2019. That version of Safari doesn't support WebP.

By contrast, iOS 14+ does:

Why are you still using Catalina anyway? That is a really ancient OS in relative terms of software progress. Time to upgrade....

 

[masotime]

nvm I see you mentioned Safari 15.6... but you still need Big Sur at least for that. Really just upgrade your macOS....

 

[bogdanw]

Could it be AdGuard? If so, what setting? There are a ton of them A bit lost here.

Disable AdGuard.
But as your version of Safari doesn't receive security updates anymore, it's best to use Firefox or Chrome anyway, especially for shopping websites.

 

[Fishrrman]

Easiest solution is to try a different browser.

I keep a bunch of browsers around
- Orion
- Brave
- Epic
- Opera
- Firefox
- Mullvad
- Dissenter
- Waterfox
- Microsoft Edge
- Vivaldi
(probably one or two more).

Fishrrman's "Mac Rule Number 4":
Use the right tool for the job at hand.

 

[Racineur]

Looks like Catalina was released in 2019. That version of Safari doesn't support WebP.

View attachment 2325177

By contrast, iOS 14+ does:

View attachment 2325178

Why are you still using Catalina anyway? That is a really ancient OS in relative terms of software progress. Time to upgrade....

Hi and thanks for the question. Cause I have an old iMac 2012 with an i5 intel, Cant be upgraded passed Catalina. Problem is this iMac is "trouble free" since the beginning and it still suit my minimalistic needs that are emailing, browsing, some Word and keeping alive my Photos library. No gaming, no Shop, no 3D, no nothing. Sure I'd swap it for a new M2 or even a refurbished M1. Would emailing browsing and write a 1,5 page Word document would benefit so much of a M1? The Legacy Patcher way? Nothing against going that route but still have to find someone somewhere who could answer one or two questions. Anyway thanks so much for coming with this brilliant explanation.

 

[Racineur]

nvm I see you mentioned Safari 15.6... but you still need Big Sur at least for that. Really just upgrade your macOS....

View attachment 2325179

S I said, since it has an Intel i5 and it's a dinosaur (2012), can't upgrade it. Life...

 

[masotime]

S I said, since it has an Intel i5 and it's a dinosaur (2012), can't upgrade it. Life...

Fair enough - I apologize for being flippant.

I think in this case you don't have much of a choice - you can't use Safari to browse any website that uses WebP (in your example, AliExpress), so you'll have to use another browser. There's not much alternative here.

 

[Racineur]

Fair enough - I apologize for being flippant.

I think in this case you don't have much of a choice - you can't use Safari to browse any website that uses WebP (in your example, AliExpress), so you'll have to use another browser. There's not much alternative here.

I understand but why is it that Safari within version 14.8.1 shows pictures from Ali express on an iPhone 6s. Far from recent and far from as performant as on Catalina. Tend to believe this is a problem within Catalina.

 

[masotime]

I understand but why is it that Safari within version 14.8.1 shows pictures from Ali express on an iPhone 6s. Far from recent and far from as performant as on Catalina. Tend to believe this is a problem within Catalina.

Yes Apple probably decided not to support WebP on Catalina for some reason. Without an upgrade path it’s basically Apple intentionally blocking WebP on Safari for older machines.

 

[Racineur]

Yes Apple probably decided not to support WebP on Catalina for some reason. Without an upgrade path it’s basically Apple intentionally blocking WebP on Safari for older machines.

So I'm fckd...Sometimes Apple rally makes me sweat. Guess Firefox will become default soon. It's the less disagreeable browser of the others available.

 

[Tagbert]

So I'm fckd...Sometimes Apple rally makes me sweat. Guess Firefox will become default soon. It's the less disagreeable browser of the others available.

I keep other browsers around and there are a few sites that I use in one or another for various reasons, compatibility is sometimes the reason. If you only have one or two sites you go to that have this problem, you can just pull Firefox for that session.