Safari Not Consistently Allowing Downloads

Question

Level 1

8 points

Safari Not Consistently Allowing Downloads

I recently tried to download music from two different websites (safe, I've used them in the past with no problems), and Safari would not let me download the files. One website will block downloading over 3 files without a 10 min break between, to promote paid subscriptions, and after I repeatedly tried different files to see if any would download, I received the countdown and blocked download message. So that website thinks I successfully downloaded items, when my download button never appeared, and no files are in my "downloads" library. The other website, when I click the "download" button, takes me to another webpage with a bar showing the audio time, skip forward/back, etc. in the middle of the page, rather than downloading. I have run the basic problem solving steps. I updated my computer fully, made sure that the download button hadn't been accidentally removed from my toolbar, and I successfully was able to download a Flash Player update. So I don't know why these websites will not download properly. I can't find any articles to help that offer anything more than basic steps that I've already tried, or are recent enough to be of any use to my current computer. HELP.

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 2, 2020 8:21 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eric Root

Level 10

684,609 points

Jan 2, 2020 9:34 AM in response to CiMellow

It may be a website problem.

Try another browser as a test.

Firefox 10.9 or higher

Opera Browser 10.9 or higher

SeaMonkey 10.9 or higher8

Waterfox 10.8 or higher

Not knowing what you have tried, are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?

Try setting up another admin user account in System Preferences/Users & Groups to see if the same problem continues. Please post back on whether or not this worked. Also try the Safe Mode. Please post back on whether or not this worked.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

Safe Mode - About

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply. Pastebin

Etrecheck – System Information

Web site version if required. https://etrecheck.com

Reply

Answer 2

CiMellow Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 2, 2020 10:49 AM in response to Eric Root

I'm not using anti-virus programs or a VPN. Creating and using a different user account yielded the same results. Using Safe Mode didn't cause it to work, but when I restarted using that, the page with the little playback bar now instead had a small button saying "Unsupported Plug-In".

Reply