I am using an Intel Mac Mini OSX 10.5.8 running Webkit/Safari Version 4.0.4 (5531.21.10, r55834) For this version and at least the last year's worth of Webkit updates, there is a debilitating conflict between security cookie settings and "Private Browsing". When I am looking up medical information, drug interactions, tracing torrent activity (releases on my label are widely pirated), or anything else that I do not want tracked I turn off all cookies and engage private browsing, whereupon Webkit preferences>security settings reverts without notice to [accept cookies] "only from sites I visit". For a long while I thought this might have been caused by persistent Flash cookies which I now clean those out of my system regularly (with Flush), but I have found that the problem occurs any time "private browsing" is selected AFTER setting cookies to "Never". (1) Open Webkit (2) Open preferences>security and change "only from sites I visit" to "Never" (3) Select private browsing result: preferences>security and cookie status is returned to "Only from sites I visit" Even if Webkit is relaunched with "Never" already selected, private browsing invisibly reverts cookies to "Only from sites I visit". This problem can be avoided by selecting private browsing first, THEN setting cookies to "Never", but if this arrangement is intentional, a clear explanation and instructions should obviously be incorporated into the Private Browsing "Are you sure you want to turn on private browsing?" dialog box. Right? Please forgive me if this bug is multiply reported elsewhere, as it must be a common annoyance: bugzilla searches for "private browsing" turned up only five unrelated reports. Thanks for your help!
I cannot reproduce this. Was testing on 10.6 though. Is this something you only see with WebKit nightlies, and not with shipping Safari/WebKit? Do you have any "Safari enhancers" installed? Does this happen with a newly created user account?
I switched from a dual G4 to the Intel Mini last summer - and the problem followed me. I did a clean install of Leopard and all my programs on the mini. I'm guessing my Safari (with the silver-and-blue-icon) came from the automatic Apple update: it shows version 4.0.4 (5531.21.10) ...and yes, it suffers from the same bug as my most recent Webkit [Version 4.0.4 (5531.21.10, r55834)] >Do you have any "Safari enhancers" installed? Nothing that I've installed intentionally. That said, I can't find a Library/InputManagers folder at all - is there anyplace else to look? Would updater programs have anything to do with this? I don't think there's been anything beyond the usual Adobe Reader, Flash and Java updates. >Does this happen with a newly created user account? Sorry - user account for what? Webkit? What do I have to do to try this? Are there cookies I need to remove?
> Would updater programs have anything to do with this? I don't think there's > been anything beyond the usual Adobe Reader, Flash and Java updates. Automatic updating of Apple software should not be an issue, and neither should Flash. That said, the case is a complete mystery so far. Just to double-check that I understood this correctly - are you saying that the preference for cookies (as visible in Safari preferences UI) gets reset after switching to private browsing? Do any other preferences exhibit this behavior? > Sorry - user account for what? Webkit? What do I have to do to try this? Are > there cookies I need to remove? I was asking to try Safari ("silver-and-blue" Safari 4.0.4, not a WebKit nightly) in a new user account created via Mac OS X Control Panel just for this. That's a common way to make sure the problem is not related to any existing user preferences.
>Just to double-check that I understood this correctly - are you saying that the preference for cookies (as visible in Safari preferences UI) gets reset after switching to private browsing? Yes, that's exactly right. >Do any other preferences exhibit this behavior? None that I can trigger - database storage settings, pop-up controls, etc. are all unaffected >I was asking to try Safari ("silver-and-blue" Safari 4.0.4, not a WebKit nightly) in a new user account created via Mac OS X Control Panel just for this. When I sign in as a guest, the stock silver-and-blue Safari 4.0.4 takes me straight to the animated "Hollywood Squares" introduction with the default bookmarks, etc. And I have exactly the same problem: I switch preferences to accept cookies "Never" then turn on private browsing, and when I reopen preferences cookies have been re-set to "only from sites I visit". Running my recent Webkit from a guest log-in it's the same way. One thing I did notice when I restarted again and logged back on with my admin account (I hadn't logged out for probably 6 months) - Eudora 6.2.4 loaded significantly faster (I've got huge mailboxes) - Photoshop might be faster, too, though MS Office is still slow. But like I said, there's no change to the private browsing problem.
I finally found a report of this problem internally at Apple, and it turns out that this was a bug in system frameworks below WebKit. I apologize for making you spend your time on these experiments. This bug was fixed in Mac OS X 10.6. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do in WebKit to work around it for Mac OS X 10.5. Resolving this as INVALID per our policy, as a non-WebKit issue. But thanks for reporting it! <rdar://problem/5732559>
Thanks Alexey! Snow Leopard's been kicking around on my desk for months - still sealed. Time to install it, I guess... Tell me, though, does marking the bug as "INVALID" remove it from Bugzilla's searchable database? (Is that why I couldn't find it?) Even if it's not a Webkit-fixable problem, it'd be nice to have this information somewhere on Bugzilla where other 10.5 users could find it. peace, C.
Basic search doesn't return resolved issues (neither invalid nor fixed). In advanced search pane, one can choose whether to return those.