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Saft Bug? Safari Won’t Keep Plug-Ins Enabled

Every time I launch Safari - whether it's after a crash or after a restart or after me quitting Safari manually - the "Enable plug-ins" option in the "Security" preferences is disabled.

I have Saft installed, but none of its settings seem to be affecting this issue. I can check the box and Safari works properly, but the next time I launch Safari it's unchecked once again.

I can save other preferences and their on/off state is preserved. The permissions are correct.

-rw------- 1 iacas admin 16573 Jan 17 13:24 com.apple.Safari.plist

So what's going on? Safari 2.0.3 (417.8) and Mac OS X 10.4.4. As I said, Saft and not much else non-standard installed. More notes will appear in the comments as I trouble-shoot this issue. I wanted to get the symptoms here first.

18 Responses to "Saft Bug? Safari Won’t Keep Plug-Ins Enabled"

  1. List of /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins:

    Contents/
    DRM Plugin.bundle
    Flash Player.plugin
    flashplayer.xpt
    Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin
    Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.webplugin
    iPhotoPhotocast.plugin
    iPIXBrowserReadme.rtf
    ipxBrowserPlugin/
    Java Applet Plugin Enabler
    Java Applet.plugin
    JavaPluginCocoa.bundle
    NP-PPC-Dir-Shockwave
    nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
    QuickTime Plugin.plugin
    QuickTime Plugin.webplugin
    RealPlayer Plugin
    RealPlayer Plugin.xpt

    Effect of removing all these plugins and launching Safari: checkbox still disabled.

    Effect of removing Saft? Checkbox is checked as it should be. Saft version: 8.2.3 - the latest version.

  2. Visit the Saft author's site and you see this:

    Saft 8.2.3 was release in a hurry to support just released MacOS 10.4.4, and some bugs were introduced due to both changes in the new Safari and the code changes in Saft.

    I re-downloaded Saft 8.2.3. No change - plug-ins are still disabled every time after launch. I re-set the pref (by clicking it) every time.

  3. I've been seeing that behavior for a while now. I don't recall what version of Saft I'm running (at work on a Windows machine at the moment) but I know I have to recheck that box every time I launch Safari. I know I'm not running the latest version of Saft, but I can't remember how many versions back I've been seeing it. I also have not upgraded to 10.4.4 or the newest Safari yet.

  4. It's likely you just have "Block Plugins" enabled under Safari menu -> Block Images and Plugins -> Block Plguins.

  5. Yes, Hao's last response has the answer. I dislike the number of things Saft puts in the "Safari" menu and I really dislike that they're given keyboard shortcuts. A submenu in the Safari menu - a menu I never use - is not a place I'm likely to look when troubleshooting. Make it a pref to turn off all "Safari" menu changes, Hao - I don't change any of them.

  6. Wow, I'm glad I was able to google the answer here! Before reading this, I'd no idea that Saft added anything to the Safari menu, which I almost never peek into.

  7. Thanks for blogging about this as I just discovered recently that plug-ins were turned off every time I started Safari. The Safari → Block Images and Plugins → Plugins setting was getting me as well. You are quite right that there should not be keyboard shortcuts on those settings.

  8. Hao to the rescue. Thanks, I couldn't figure out why this was happening either.

  9. This was bugging me for weeks!!! Thank you!!!

  10. I just encountered this problem myself. Likely cause? apple + option + L = Downloads. With Saft installed, apple + shift + L = Block Plugins.

  11. Wow! I'm also very glad you blogged about this! And I'm glad that Hao found your blog and responded, too! I love it when things are easy! 😀

  12. ohh! Thanks!

  13. Dang it, I feel so, so silly. 😳
    I was accidently hitting the shortcut for disable plugins without even knowing it. 😐

  14. Ha! This has been plaguing me for at least a year now. I'd resigned myself to just having to reset the checkbox every time I relaunched Safari.

    Like others above, I didn't even know that Saft added anything to the Safari menu. And, like everyone else, I probably accidentally hit cmd-shift-L trying to open the Downloads window at some point. I do love Saft, but it would be nice if this sort of thing was controlled in the standard Saft prefs menu. Then, of course, it wouldn't have a shortcut, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. 🙂

  15. Thx a lot!

    This has been bugging me for quite some time (at least a year now) and i have been blaming pithhelmet all along (Just to myself though). Oopsie.

    (^-^)

  16. Damn. Thats bugged me for like 2 years now.

    Life's better now.

    Brilliant. Thanks!!

    A

  17. Super again a thank you for publishing this solution.

  18. Thanks so much!

    This was bothering me a while now and I first thought that ClickToFlash was the problem (because the main symptom was YouTube telling me to get a newer version of Flash).
    I find it a bad idea to associate shortcuts (and especially common ones) with these for me unimportant menu items.