Safari HELP?!

My mother (bless her heart) has the strangest computer problems.

This one has be confused.

She goes to SAFARI… it goes to the COX COMMUNICATIONS webpage (not Google)…

So I thought, easy-peasy… Go to Safari Preferences and change the default HOMEPAGE, right?
Wrong… it won’t let me… I type in a new URL, it changes it back. I say “Use current page” it changes it back.

Any ideas?

navigate to the page you want
now open preferences & press “Use current”

over the years depending on what version of safari she has typing it in has worked, or not, sporadically

Maybe this?

That article offers two suggestions, so be sure to read until the end.

doesn’t work… it changes back no matter what I do

Except there is no such “Profile” icon

Is it every browser or just Safari? If it’s every browser it’s your ISP being a scumbag.

Oh nevermind, I see that it affects preferences inside the app.

Have you tried the second suggestion from that article?

you mean “SafeMode”? I need to be physcally with the computer in order to do that, and I’m 50 miles away. And no, trying to explain to my 87 year old mother how to do that is NOT an option :slight_smile:

There are system commands that supposedly restart the computer in safe mode, but seems there are mixed results depending on the model and macOS version. You can research it to determine if any are worth trying.

You don’t understand. I am 50 miles from the computer.
I can remote log in and restart it in SafeMode I’m sure.
But I can’t get a remote connection back to do anything

Are you sure? How are you remotely connecting? Unlike Windows, Safe Mode on a Mac does not disable network access. It does disable File Sharing, but Screen Sharing or SSH should still work.

perhaps I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that SAFEMODE was a sandbox… and all external network functions were purposely disabled.

Remote Connection via iMessage

Could she (or the installer) have installed some Cox software that continuously changes the homepage back?

Nope… .she wouldn’t have a clue how, and I didn’t :slight_smile:

google “Mojave safari wont change home page”
there are some odd ones like

enter the new value for HOMEPAGE but do NOT press ENTER or RETURN. Just click to a different preference tab and Safari will ask if you want to change your homepage

There’s been some brilliant Apple bugs in Safari over the years
Not knowing what version of safari makes it hard to know WHICH bugs you might be encountering

well it is MOJAVE… and I wish I’d read this a few min ago… I just had control of her machine, and tried Hal’s suggestion to no avail. I’ll try yours in the morning. Thanks

definitely check what version of Safari it is as that is extremely relevant

Safari 13.1.2 on Mojave
your suggestion did not work.

  1. enter “google.com
  2. clicked another tab [search for example]
  3. went back… and the start page had reset yet again

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250136557

After checking for malicious software maybe using defaults could do the trick?

I found these:

defaults write com.apple.Safari.SandboxBroker Homepage "https://google.com"
defaults write com.apple.Safari HomePage "https://google.com"