How To: Restore Default Settings on Safari (Mac OS X Lion)

I just installed the Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 GM update and noticed that Safari was behaving a bit weird after the update so I thought I reset it’s settings to default.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Open Safari and click on Safari in the upper left hand corner.
2. Click Reset Safari.

3. Restart Safari. This will resolve most problems. If this does not solve the problem, proceed on to Step 4.

4. Open up a terminal window and enter

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

to make the user Library directory visible.
5. Click on the hard drive icon located on the desktop.
6. Go to Users > [username] > Library > Safari folder.
7. Delete all files except “Bookmarks.plist”.
8. Then go to Users > [username] > Library > Preferences.
9. Find com.apple.Safari.plist, com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist, and com.apple.internetconfig.plist and delete them (ignore any file you can’t find).
10. Safari should now be fully reset to factory defaults.

4 thoughts on “How To: Restore Default Settings on Safari (Mac OS X Lion)

  1. Matt

    I’m glad I found this page, as I had just been deleting the Safari folder and com.apple.Safari.plist. Unfortunately I’ve noticed in the absence of all these it doesn’t quite return Safari to it’s default state, in particular the Cookie block setting is set to Never, rather than Block 3rd party. Any suggestions?

    Reply
  2. Angas Tran

    Hello there,

    I am a sixty year old lady desperately trying to do what you suggest but when I type chflags nohidden ~/Library/” the message ” invalid” appears on the screen. I can access library preference folder via the Macintoch HD icon on my desktop but there is no com.apple.Safari.plist, com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist” file.
    I tried to look for this file vie Finder but nothing comes up..

    All I want to do is to restore the arrows that allow me to go back to the previous window in Safari. Can someone help me, please?
    I have a Mac OSX 10.7.5 and Safari Version 6.1.6 (7537.78.2) . I don’t know what happened , my husband just told me the arrows disappeared two or three days ago , he is not very computer literate and may have done something but he does not know what.

    Thank you for your help.

    Reply

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