Reader view not working on Safari 17.2.1

Question

Level 1

19 points

Reader view not working on Safari 17.2.1

On a Safari webpage or webarchive page I used to be able to click on the Reader view button and see the words in large-sized black and white. In the last week that button became non-functional for both online and offline pages. When clicked the button turns dark grey but doesn't change anything. Any ideas about what happened and suggestions on how to get the function back?

The Reader view still works in Firefox.

Using MacBook Pro 16-inch from 2019 and macOS 14.2.1.

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Dec 20, 2023 12:52 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 28, 2024 02:43 PM in response to Frodo99

FYI—Reader view works (at least on my end) in Safari Technology Preview, which (in case you haven't used it before) has the same user interface as Safari and is updated more frequently than Safari.

Resources - Safari - Apple Developer

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Answer 2

Jan 29, 2024 06:54 AM in response to Frodo99

Beats me!

Safari's developers might not even be aware of this symptom.

My guess is that it's specific to your installation and mine…for whatever reason(s).

Otherwise, lots of Safari users would be complaining about it on the web. A search shows that's not the case.

I tested Safari and the symptom persisted after having installed Tech Preview. So installing it did not fix the problem, nor did the update to 17.3.

For the time being, the only other workaround I can think of (besides using Tech Preview) is to regress to macOS Sonoma.2 and Safari 17.2 (I think the symptom began after updating to 17.2.1).

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Answer 3

Frodo99 Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 31, 2024 12:35 PM in response to Barry Fass-Holmes

It can't be just us but maybe most people either don't use it or won't bother to complain.

I agree it happened somewhere around the 17.2.1 update.

It works during Tech Preview and that will have to do.

Thanks for all your help.

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Answer 4

Feb 24, 2024 01:33 PM in response to Frodo99

It is broken on my apple CPU hardware studio machine but works fine on my MacBook pro with intel CPU. I assume who ever did the port didn't bother testing this. It is working correctly on the Safari Technology Preview which maybe means someone at apple is aware of the issue and we might see a fix sometime in the future

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Answer 5

Frodo99 Author

Level 1

19 points

Jan 26, 2024 12:17 PM in response to Barry F-H

Yeah, after updating same for me. No joy.

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Answer 6

Jan 9, 2024 12:08 PM in response to Frodo99

Have you tried creating a new user account or logging into your current user account in Safe Mode?

My Mac running Safari 17.2.1 under Sonoma 14.2.1 has the same symptom you described.

The symptom does not happen in my Mac's vanilla virtual machine running the above versions. I have not succeeded in figuring out what is responsible for the symptom in my Mac's host installation, though.

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Answer 7

Frodo99 Author

Level 1

19 points

Feb 24, 2024 01:53 PM in response to Gene Pope

Let's hope they fix it. It's not critical but using the Preview is a work-around and takes time because my saved pages automatically open in Safari not Safari Technology Preview so I have to copy and paste the url.

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