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Resolving ‘A problem repeatedly occurred…’ error in Safari

Update: Apparently this has happened again with Safari 14.1 on non-current MacOS releases. As of today (Apr 29), MacRumors has the package downloaders available for Catalina and Mojave:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15675/apple-safari

I can't test this for myself yet as I'm away from my Mojave iMac for a while, but hopefully it'll solve the issue as it did before.


Yesterday, after updating to Safari 14 on my Mojave-running iMac, I noticed a big problem: I couldn't load many sites that contained either a login dialog or a shopping cart. For example, I could load Target's main site, but when I tried to open the shopping cart, it wouldn't work.

I'd briefly see the page, then it would clear and reload once or twice more, and then I'd be left with an error message:

A problem repeatedly occurred with "https://www.target.com/co-cart"

This was happening on many, but not all, sites—I could login on Amazon and my bank, but not on most of our credit card sites or typical retail shopping pages. Given this happened just after installing Safari 14, I assumed it was somehow related to the new browser version—the same pages that didn't load in Safari loaded fine in every other browser I tried. But they loaded fine on Safari 14 on my Catalina MacBook Pro, so then I knew I had a Mac-specific issue…the worst kind of issue to troubleshoot.

While troubleshooting, I found that I wasn't alone, nor was this a Safari 14 issue—there are lots of reports of the same problem over many years.

After tweeting about my troubles and what I'd done to try to troubleshoot the problem, Jeff Johnson of Lapcat Software got me on the right track by suggesting that my Safari install was broken. He suggested I check the date on this Safari framework...

/System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/libwebrtc.dylib

When I did, I found that the version on my iMac was much older (Jul 13, 2020) than the version on my MacBook Pro (Sep 15 2020), where Safari 14 worked as expected.

It seemed that the fix might be as simple as reinstalling Safari 14…but Apple doesn't make it easy to do that, as you can't reinstall an installed update, and they don't include recent Safari versions on their download page.

After some searching, I found MacUpdate's Apple Safari page, which contains direct links to many versions of Safari—scroll down to the section titled "What's New in Apple Safari," expand it, and you'll see download links for Safari versions back to 13.0.3.

I downloaded the Safari 14 installer1And kept a copy, just in case!, let it do its thing, and the problem is solved. The date on the framework I checked now reflects a mid-September date, which matches the same file on the MacBook Pro.

I'm annoyed that Apple's installer didn't report any issues, and I wonder what a "typical" user might have done to resolve this issue—I only got it fixed thanks to Jeff's tip and the installer links on the MacUpdate page. I can't imagine how long I would have had to talk to Apple Support before they figured out that it was a bad Safari install, and not some app or utility or other "you caused this" issue on my Mac.

So thanks, Jeff and MacUpdate, for helping me find and fix this very annoying problem with my Safari install!

30 thoughts on “Resolving ‘A problem repeatedly occurred…’ error in Safari”

  1. "I wonder what a "typical" user might have done to resolve this issue"

    Probably just stop using Safari, period. "It doesn't work with websites I need to get to"

    This is what I see in my IT day job at a university. Pretty much all the students using Macs use Chrome as their default browser.

    1. Yep. That's what I did. I loaded Firefox and have abandoned Safari. Of 9 financial sites that I use, only 3 work in Safari 15.0. I tried all the easy fixes posted online, but nothing helped.

  2. For me clearing website data was enough to fix this problem.

    PS
    I still miss macosxhints.

    1. Glad that worked for you, but in my case, none of those things helped (cache, history, delete prefs, reboot...). For whatever reason, the updater missed at least one framework file. No fixing that without a reinstall of the update.

      I miss it, too, but the Mac world has moved on...

      -rob.

  3. Thanks for posting this solution! I've been searching for similar reports because it seemed like a problem with Safari 14, but with so many similar problems with past versions, the recent posts are not surfaced.

    It might be helpful to add the details on what library was out of date to this post -- it took me a little while to find the reference in your tweets.

    Great find, tip of the hat to Jeff as well, and thanks so much for sharing!

    1. Good point on the framework—I rewrote that bit and added the full name and path to the file I checked, thanks to Jeff's direction.

      -rob.

  4. I experienced the very same problem. Outdated framework to July 14th and fixed after reinstalling safari.
    Thanks Rob.

  5. Thank you MacUpdate Guys!

    It makes no sense to me that Apple does not provide a reinstall option without which I would surely have opted for another browser.

  6. Running into this same issue (on websites with logins like BofA or ETrade) on Safari 14.1 on an iMac Pro running 10.15.7. My framework file is from Sept 2020, which I suspect might be out of date for 14.1.

    Unfortunately your solution doesn't work for me because MacUpdate only has the installers up to 14.0.1. Have been trying to find the installer link for 14.1 with no luck. Reinstalling Catalina through Recovery didn't work either.

    Ironically in the meantime Safari Technology Preview does work, so that's my workaround at the moment!

    1. I'm having same problems as bcof after updating yesterday to Safari 14.1 on my iMac. Also with bank and broker websites. Very frustrating. Anybody found any solutions to the latest issue?

      1. I just had a live chat with Apple, and was advised to go to Safari Preferences, General, and select open Safari in a New Private Window. I'm crossing my fingers that this helps, as one of the sites I had an issue with did not shut down on me. I was told I could go back and change the preferences in Safari back to what it was. (I'm running Catalina.)

        1. Update from my previous comment: It seems keeping Safari preferences to open in a New Private Window does help, because when I changed it back to what it was, I got the same error message on the web page with a white screen. So I put it back on New Private Window, and that definitely helps, for now.

    2. Same. I have just started experiencing this problem with Safari 14.1 on Mojave. My framework file is March 1, 2021.

    3. I haven't upgraded my Mojave machine yet, so I think I'll hold off. Somehow, the 14.1 installer needs to show up somewhere, or I think we're stuck.

      -rob.

    4. Hi

      I have the same problem (see below) and it started last ought when I updated SAFARI from 14.0 to 14.1. Before that everything was working great. I just tried to install 14.01 ( I goofed as I said 14.0 below) and have no idea where to even find it on my iMac

      1. Thanks bcof. Your solution seems to have fixed my issues as well. Don't know why Apple help doesn't recommend this to resolve the issue.

      2. Spicy Caterpillar

        Thank you so much! Apple Support was useless, and the 14.0 installer didn't help, but your 14.1 installer did the trick. I couldn't log into HBO Max in Safari and it was driving me up the wall.

  7. I am having this exact same problem and no one at Apple can help.

    It started yesterday when I upgraded SAFARI to 14.1. I have a late 2013 IMAC and use CATALINA 10.15.7

    I tried clicking into that MacUpdate's Apple Safari page but it only can be read for maybe 2 seconds and then I get the "a problem repeatedly occurred" thing! So I copied the link and pasted it in CHROME and I clicked on to the SAFARI 14.0 Catalinaauto.pkg which said it was successfully downloaded. That's great but can anyone tell me where on my Mac I can find this because I have tried everything to locate it

    I have NEVER had this problem ever.

    Can anyone reading this offer any help?

    Thanks a lot.

  8. Ding ding ding ding!!!!

    Thanks for the update. I was able to download the Safari 14.1 package for mojave from macupdates (https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/15675/apple-safari) and install it, and this has fixed the problem.

    I checked the date of the framework file (/System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/libwebrtc.dylib) and it is now April 22, 2021 (mine was previously March 1).

    -J

  9. THANK YOU! I was able to download the installer for Safari 14.1 for Mojave. I ran it without even closing the browser. The framework file shows April 22, 2021. I didn't check it before I ran it, but I bet it was older. Immediately it started working properly without even having to restart the app.

    I had been dealing with this for days and it was getting very old. So glad I can use the browser normally now. I wonder if this had anything to do with having two Safari updates set to run back to back. I had 14.1 and 14.0.3 in my update queue when this happened.

  10. They must've changed something in Big Sur... that path /System/Library/StagedFrameworks/Safari/libwebrtc.dylib doesn't exist. Has anyone found a fix for this in Safari 15.1?

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