Safari question

[sluggo]

I've been a Vivaldi browser user for a long time. Safari has always been on the machine but never used. Just for fun I migrated all the bookmarks over the other day and began using Safari and found I kinda like it.
One little thing puzzles me though. I find that if I'm just sitting idle for a minute or two and reading a web page, I notice a blink in the screen and suddenly Finder is showing in the top menu bar. A click of the mouse kicks me back to Safari. It has also happened right while in the middle of typing something.
Is there a setting somewhere I can change to eliminate this? It's only a minor annoyance but I'd just as soon be rid of it.

[jchuzi]

That's a strange one. It has never happened to me. Have you tried restarting? That often cures weird problems.

Have you set Safari as your default browser? You can do that in System Preferences > General. That might prevent Vivaldi from interfering (if that's the issue). I don't know which OS you are using, but a standard troubleshooting technique is to download and re-install the Combo Updater for your OS.

[sluggo]

That's a strange one. It has never happened to me. Have you tried restarting? That often cures weird problems.

Have you set Safari as your default browser? You can do that in System Preferences > General. That might prevent Vivaldi from interfering (if that's the issue). I don't know which OS you are using, but a standard troubleshooting technique is to download and re-install the Combo Updater for your OS.

Yep, Safari is indeed the default browser and the machine has been restarted a few times since the switch from Vivaldi. The OS is the latest Catalina.
There are worse problems to have. I was just wondering if there was something I was overlooking.

[jchuzi]

This is a stab in the dark because I don't have Vivaldi. Is there a preference somewhere in Vivaldi that allows you to set Safari as the default browser? If Vivaldi has itself set as the default, that might be an interference.

Another thought is to check your login items and remove Vivaldi if it is listed.

[sluggo]

This is a stab in the dark because I don't have Vivaldi. Is there a preference somewhere in Vivaldi that allows you to set Safari as the default browser? If Vivaldi has itself set as the default, that might be an interference.

Another thought is to check your login items and remove Vivaldi if it is listed.

I think Vivaldi is mad because it's no longer #1. It was the slowest I've ever seen starting up. But there's no provision in it's prefs to do anything but select or deselect it as the default browser.
There are no browsers in my login items. There's only Mail, SpamSieve and CopyClip for startup items.

[jchuzi]

Here are more suggestions:

1.  May I assume that you have deselected Vivaldi in its preferences?

2. Use Disk Utility to run Repair Disk. You don't have to boot from the Recovery partition to do this. However, the computer will be locked up while it's running.

3. If you don't want to do the above, you could start up in Safe Mode That automatically runs Repair Disk (which is why it's so slow). If the problem does not occur in Safe Mode, that may tell you something.

4. Download and install the 10.15.2 Combo Update That won't hurt anything and has cured strange problems for me in the past.

[sluggo]

Here are more suggestions:

1.  May I assume that you have deselected Vivaldi in its preferences?

2. Use Disk Utility to run Repair Disk. You don't have to boot from the Recovery partition to do this. However, the computer will be locked up while it's running.

3. If you don't want to do the above, you could start up in Safe Mode That automatically runs Repair Disk (which is why it's so slow). If the problem does not occur in Safe Mode, that may tell you something.

4. Download and install the 10.15.2 Combo Update That won't hurt anything and has cured strange problems for me in the past.

I appreciate the assistance. Here's where we're at:
1) Vivaldi is indeed deselected.
2) I ran DU a few days ago, but it was before I loaded Safari with bookmarks and begin to use it as the primary browser. Worth a shot again.
3) I'll probably skip this step and go right to 4. I've never heard of the Combo Update. I'll hit the link and give it a shot.
Thanks again.

[jchuzi]

When a major OS update is available, I make it a point to use the Combo Update rather than the incremental update that is linked via Software Update. The Combo can be found by searching https://support.apple.com/downloads Sometimes, the incremental (aka delta) update doesn't update everything that you want. The Combo, basically, starts from scratch and may replace a faulty update with a good one.

I started using only the Combo when I couldn't print calendars from Calendar the way I wanted. I tried a lot of things and finally used the Combo. That cured it, and now I'm sold.

[sluggo]

Well, ran the Combo Update. Seemed like forever, nearly 20 minutes for the machine to complete the restart after installation. But, I've let the cursor sit on the page and walked away for a few minutes. Came back in it was still in Safari, hadn't reverted to Finder. Maybe we've hit upon a solution.

[jchuzi]

Fingers crossed. Let us know.

[sluggo]

Fingers crossed. Let us know.

Been using the machine all morning. So far, so good. No reverting to Finder.
Now Monday she's off to the shop for a new solid state drive to speed the old girl up again. Should buy me a few more years and cost less than $200. I wasn't quite ready to let go of $1100 for a new Mini.

[jchuzi]