I recently had a Mac customer that had issues with the latest version of Safari. I believe it is version 5.1. Safari would launch fine, but after browsing a few pages it would no longer quit. The “small spinning beach ball” would go until I did a Force Quit on Safari. I also noticed I could not make any changes to his bookmarks with out making Safari hang with the “endless small spinning beach ball.” I decided this must be caused by corrupted bookmarks and/or corrupted Safari configuration settings.

These are the steps I used to fix the issues:

1. In Safari goto File, Export Bookmarks…
2. Type a name for the html exported bookmarks and click Save
3. Close Safari (force quit if necessary)
4. Open a new Finder window (In Finder, File, New Finder Window)
5. Go, Go To Folder…
6. Type: /Users/(username)/Library/Safari
7. Rename Bookmarks.plist to OldBookmarks.plist
8. Shrink the Finder Window down to the Dock
9. Open Safari
10. Safari may hang at this point. Close Safari (force quit if necessary)
11. Click on the icon on the dock to bring the Finder Window back up
12. Move all the files and folders except Bookmarks.plist to the Trash
13. Close the Finder Window
14. Open Safari
15. Goto File Import Bookmarks…
16. Choose the exported bookmark file you made earlier and click Import button
17. Goto Bookmarks, Show All Bookmarks
18. Drag your bookmarks from the Imported Bookmarks folder to Bookmarks Menu (or where in bookmarks you want them to be)

This fixed all my customer’s Safari issues. I hope this helps anyone having similar issues.

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not represent any current or past employer.