Safari 17.1+ won't load non-secure pages?

[emendelson]

As far as I can tell, Safari 17.1 and later versions won't load non-secure http:// pages, no matter what I do. It seems to insist on replacing http:// with https:// and then getting a 404 error when the non-existent https:// page can't be found.

All the methods I've seen for fixing this problem in earlier versions don't seem to work now. Is there any documentation of this, or any workaround?

 

[bogdanw]

It loads them just fine http://trasir.com/
Check your extensions.
Smilar problems
"Resolved Safari no longer allows "If you understand the risks, you can visit this website"

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/safari-no-longer-allows-if-you-understand-the-risks-you-can-visit-this-website.2405391/

"More and more websites simply don't work in Safari"

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/more-and-more-websites-simply-dont-work-in-safari.2409782/

 

[emendelson]

You're absolutely right about http://trasir.com so I'm puzzled that I can't open this on Sonoma (latest beta) running 17.2 and Ventura (latest beta) running 17.1:

Edward Mendelson

Edward Mendelson - Columbia University

www.columbia.edu

I've deleted all extensions and emptied all history. Possibly the server is doing something strange? The page opens easily in Firefox, Chrome, etc.

EDIT: Same problem with Safari Technology Preview under Sonoma.

 

[bogdanw]

http://www.columbia.edu/~em36

That page just says "This page has moved to another site." and that site is https://mendelson.org/index.html that appears to be under construction.

 

[emendelson]

That's exactly what it should say - but in my system it produces a 404 error. I'll have to keep digging to see what's wrong. Safari 17.1 produces exactly the page that you saw; but two different copies of 17.2 produce the 404 error. Thank you for letting me know that it's a problem in my setup, and not in Safari. The Sonoma setup inherited the settings from the Ventura setup, so it makes sense that both would produce the problem.

 

[bogdanw]

That's exactly what it should say - but in my system it produces a 404 error.

iCloud Private Relay or the DNS server used can interfere.

Disable iCloud Private Relay https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614 and and Hide IP address https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/privacy-sfri35610/mac

DNS settings https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-dns-settings-network-preferences-mac-mh14127/mac
public DNS Servers
Cloudflare
1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1
Google
8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
OpenDNS
208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220

 

[emendelson]

Thank you - this seems to be making progress. I noticed that Chrome wouldn't open the pages on one setup, but switching to the Cloudflare DNS servers fixed that. I still can't open the pages in Safari 17.1 or 17.2, but will continue clearing caches, etc. in the hope of getting it working.

Private relay was not turned on. And the sites open in Safari on my up-to-date iPhone, so this is still a mystery.

 

[emendelson]

@bogdanw - It turns out that I was wrong to say that I couldn't open http pages in 17.1. I set up a clean Sonoma system, and opened http pages in 17.1 without any problem. However, in the Safari Technology Preview, which describes itself as Safari 17.4, I can't open the non-secure pages at the columbia.edu site

I apologize for wasting your time with a question about 17.1. 17.1 is fine. It's later versions that introduce the problem, at least with some non-secure pages.