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OSX Sierra/Safari issue

rayyan

Well-known member
Hi folks.

I am running Sierra 10.12.4 and Safari 10.1

RecentlyI am getting my photo hosting site storing ' cookie ' or some sort of datafile/website data on my iMac.
The usual cache and history removal procedures did not help.
I tried some cache flush and ' sudo ' commands from Terminal. But the bugger is still there.
I contacted Zenfolio and they were helpful but could not provide any guidance to remove ' browser related issues '.

It is only their site that stores this stubborn ' cookie ' or whatever on my machine and refuses to go away.
I have performed a non-technical person diagnosis into the ~/library folder to try and find something, but to no avail.

Any help, guidance, advice, suggestion, even sympathy shall be appreciated.

Thank you.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
What is the issue with the 'cookie'? Does it cause some failure or aberrant behavior?

You should be able to delete the cookie using Safari's preferences, Privacy panel using the Manage Website Data button. You can also configure Safari how to deal with cookies in that same panel if you don't want to get them again.

G


Hi folks.

I am running Sierra 10.12.4 and Safari 10.1

RecentlyI am getting my photo hosting site storing ' cookie ' or some sort of datafile/website data on my iMac.
The usual cache and history removal procedures did not help.
I tried some cache flush and ' sudo ' commands from Terminal. But the bugger is still there.
I contacted Zenfolio and they were helpful but could not provide any guidance to remove ' browser related issues '.

It is only their site that stores this stubborn ' cookie ' or whatever on my machine and refuses to go away.
I have performed a non-technical person diagnosis into the ~/library folder to try and find something, but to no avail.

Any help, guidance, advice, suggestion, even sympathy shall be appreciated.

Thank you.
 

rayyan

Well-known member
G., thanks for the post.

It is not that simple!

I have found one way to get rid of this issue, but it is not ideal. I shall continue my investigations as to how/why/when and where?

The issue is that the solution you have provided is fine as far as one is dealing with simple cookies...benign. But some might be benign and act strangely and are not cookies at all!!
No, the operation of my OS X is not impacted..as far as I can tell. So far.

But some of them could be malignant, and one would be unaware of it...again i am just relearning my unix/LUnix since I left it in the 70/80s.

I shall illustrate the issue I had with screenshots:

1. Let start with a clean ' slate '. This is after the Safari privacy manage data commands.


2. I visited a website part of the ' junk ' is shown below.


3. Let me clear the junk in step #2 above ( as per the simple Privacy controls of Safari...i.e. Manage data, Remove all, Clear History ). And this is the screenshot.


4. Now let me visit my photo hosting site ( Zenfolio.com ). This is the screenshot after exiting from the site.


Look carefully at which and where all the sites have stored their cookies, data?, trackers etc. That is the issue!!!

5. Let me use the Safari Privacy settings to Remove all , and also clear History. This is the screenshot for the screen that appears after I have managed ( Removed all ) my website data per Safari Privacy Tab.


So you see G., the simple Safari Privacy ' Remove all ' and ' Clear History ' commands will not delete this ' something ' that is placed because it is place neither in cache, nor in cookies, nor in local storage.
One can even try the Developers Tools to view this and Debug. And ' Clear ' the cache through there. But no use.
one could also ' flush ' the cache by say ' dscacheutil - flushcache ' in Terminal. But if that bugger is not in the cache to start with..well you will be doing nothing!!
The relevant ' sudo ' command is very dangerous..use extreme caution using it. But that too was unsuccessful.

The Library ( not the folder on the Main HD ) is hidden. But one can access it and go through the relevant files/folders found there. Searching for ' Zenfolio.com ' whereabouts. I think I have nailed it.

But need to perform validation checks. More importantly

Why is it stored where it is, what does it do and how to get rid of it?
And Could such anomaly be prevented from occurring on my iMac again?

I do not like unexplained items on my computer. Especially those that should not be there in the first place.

Best.
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
As a last resort I would save my data, format the drive, reinstall the OS, apps and copy back the data.
Also, have you tried using an app like ClamXav to see whether it identifies the offending file as a virus and can delete it? :facesmack:
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
K-H, thanks for the suggestion. I am loading the app, right now.

Best wishes.
Thanks. Good luck. I would be interested to know if ClamXav can deal with that problem?
ClamXav has helped me to remove several viruses from my Mac masquerading as Adobe Flash Player.
 
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