No stars in Top Sites

I no longer have stars indicating new content in top sites. I have reset Safari Top Sites, and deleted the Safari cache as recommended elsewhere in these forums to no avail. I moved the Safari plist to the desktop, as also recommended in these forums. After doing so, I had stars on three on my twelve top sites; however, one of these had not actually been updated! Further, two sites that I know had been updated still did not have stars! I tried again resetting top sites and deleting the cache and now I have no stars at all again. I still have the old plist on my desktop, so I cannot try moving the new plist to the desktop without replacing that one and, frankly, I don't know if that's a good idea or not! (I know I'm sounding like an idiot, but oh well!) I am running OS 10.6.8 and Safari 5.1.1. Don't know if you need to know this, but just in case it will help you help me: I have three accounts on my computer. The two accounts that get the most use both have this problem. The third account, which is hardly ever used, has the stars as normal. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

HI,
Go here: Safari 4 how-to: Top Sites Browser in a nutshell
"The white star on the blue background behind a curl that adorns some of the icons in the display indicate pages whose content has updated, offering instant identification of new content."
If the page hasn't had an update since you lasted opened TopSites, then there won't be a white star.
Carolyn

Similar Messages

What has happened to the blue star in Top Sites?

I recently updated from Safari 6.05 to 6.1 on my Macbook Air running OS 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion). I can live with the drab new look of Top Sites — not that I seem to have much choice in the matter. A feature that appears to have vanished, and which I greatly miss is the blue star in the upper right corner on the web pages in Top Sites which indicated a change in the web page since my last visit. Top Sites no longer appears to scan the pages; what I see now is the appearance of the page the last time I visited. Is there any way I can reactivate this function?

It should update the page automatically.
Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Safari/TopSites.plist
Click Go then move the TopSites.plist file to the Trash.
Quit and relaunch Safari. See if pages update automatically in Top Sites.

Stars in Top Sites Missing

The updated-site stars have stopped showing up on Top Site thumbnails when the sites update. I've read the suggestions related to this problem on previous posts and no definitive fix seems to be working. Has anyone found a solution for this? I had done nothing new or different to my system when this started happening. I'm running Safari Version 5.0.1 (5533.17.8).
Thanks!

HI William,
Empty the Safari cache more often. That may help. From your Safari Menu Bar click Safari / Empty Cache.
Good read here regarding TopSites.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2009/02/safari-4-focus-top-sites-browser-in- a-nutshell.ars
Carolyn

Safari Top Sites Blue Stars Missing

As of yesterday, Top Sites no longer shows the little blue stars when a page is updated. I can force them to appear if I quit Safari and restart it, but they won't update on their own as they used to periodically, even though the thumbnails still update. I tried using time machine to replace the app file and preferences from several days ago, but this hasn't solved the problem. Any ideas?

Hey guys.
Need to join the desperate team. My Top sites wont allow any other manually added site - it will get deleted right after i restart safari.
I have checked the other forums where were suggestion for binning the com.apple.safari and top sites plist - doesn't work. Standard cleaning procedure like emptying cash, reseting safari or not too standard binning some preferences files - not working. None of them is in banned sites - i binned it also
I need to add its a new thing because it was working until last week. Maybe some updates could damage something, though i can remember any new updates in last two weeks. Please be geeks, find the answare, it was very cool feature and its pitty its not working.

Star near website image in 'top sites'

I have safari for pc. In the top sites section, I sometimes get a star at the top right corner of the website image. What is it for?

It means that the site's been modified since you last went there.
(64323)

Blue star no longer showing in Top Sites

My top sites page no longer shows the blue 'updated' starts in the corner. I have tried resetting just the topsites in 'reset safari...', but it just shuffled them all around and lost some favourites. It's becoming frustrating...
Can anyone give me some fix to this?
Thanks!

HI and Welcome to Apple Discussions...
Go to ~/Library/Safari and move these files to the Trash.
History.plist
LastSession.plist
TopSites.plist
WebpageIcons.db
Relaunch Safari.
If that didn't help, go to the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Preferences. Make note of all the preferences under each tab. Quit Safari. Now go to ~/Library/Preferences and move this file com.apple.safari.plist to the Desktop. Relaunch Safari. If you can edit TopSites now, move that .plist file to the Trash.
Carolyn

Safari 7.0 top sites remain blank

Dear Safari specialists,
after upgrading my MacBook Pro 13" 2,53 GHz C2D (2009, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD) from Lion 10.7.5 directly to Mavericks, the following problem arose with Safari: The browser no longer displays preview pictures for my top sites.
All I can see are black rectangles with a dark grey safari icon in the center of every top site preview:
Steps I took to isolate the problem:
1) Pressing CMD+R in the top sites view. This caused the top sites' captions to change to the corresponding websites' current titles. So it seams reloading the top sites works, it just doesn't create preview pictures.
2) The result made me suspect a permissions problem when writing new preview pictures to the disk. So I checked permissions on the ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/ folder and the "Webpage Previews" folder within. They're read&write for my (admin-level) user. I even changed them to read&write for everyone - but to no avail. I also ran "repair permissions" in the hard disk utility.
3) I reset Safari using Safari's reset-window in the browser's menu. Everything was checkboxed, still no change. I also tried restarting the system after a reset and before reopening the browser.
4) I closed Safari and removed the following folders and files:
~/Library/Safari/*
~/Library/Caches/Metadata/*
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/*
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess/*
~/Library/Coockies/*
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.*
~/Library/PubSub/*
~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState/*
Then I opened Safari again to force the browser to recreate each and every file with correct contents and permissions. Nonetheless, I was greeted with the top sites page containing the same black rectangles instead of website preview pictures. Reloading didn't help, the result was the same as described in 1). So I put the old files back in their former places.
5) I created a new user account, switched to that one, opened Safari there and tried reloading. Interestingly, the top site previews filled up the formerly black spaces. So in this new user account everything works as expected. Transfering the "Webpage Previews" folder contents to my regular user account even causes the corresponding preview pictures to appear in my regular safari - except the ones that weren't included in the other user account's Safari top sites selection, of course. This doesn't solve the problem, though, because once again the copied previews cannot be updated in my regular safari account. Pressing CMD+R doesn't change them back to the black rectangle state but simply leaves them untouched even though the website visible contents has changed in the meantime.
6) Going to the console app revealed that during my attempts to reload the preview pictures (see 1) ), the following entries are created in system.log (excerpt):
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_destination_prepare_complete 32 connectx to 2a00:1450:4005:809::101f#443 failed: 65 - No route to host
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_handle_destination_prepare_complete 32 failed to connect
[7 more, similar to the one above …]
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_destination_prepare_complete 139 connectx to 2a02:26f0:5::5f64:f929#80 failed: 65 - No route to host
[8 more, similar to the one above …]
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_handle_destination_prepare_complete 139 failed to connect
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_destination_prepare_complete 140 connectx to 2a02:26f0:5::5f64:f912#80 failed: 65 - No route to host
[2 more, similar to the one above …]
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_handle_destination_prepare_complete 138 failed to connect
[10 more, similar to the one above …]
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_destination_prepare_complete 157 connectx to 2620:0:862:ed1a::1#80 failed: 65 - No route to host
macbook-nick.fritz.box com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[1855]: tcp_connection_handle_destination_prepare_complete 157 failed to connect
I'm not sure what these entries mean. My first idea was that there may be a network problem connecting to my top sites. This wouldn't explain, though, why they all load properly when opened directly in safari by entering their URL or when clicking on them in the top sites view. It also wouldn't quite explain why everything works fine in the second user account (see 5) ). The second thought was that maybe Little Snitch caused some disturbance in my network traffic that blocked Safari from fetching preview pictures (even though Little Snitch also runs in the second user account). But even when turning off all network filtering, the problem persists.
Now I've run out of ideas. One hypothesis left is that there's a database file hidden somewhere that needs to be updated in order to allow Safari to create a link to preview pictures which are only then created in the Library folder's subfolders. That database file may be corrupted, who knows. Besides the fact that I don't even know if such a database file exists, I have no clue where it coult be found.
So - any thoughts on this one? Any option I may have missed out on trying?
Best,
Nick

I found what may be the solution or at least a big step forward. Deactivating the preview picture function and turning it back on again made Safari finally create snapshots for my top sites and fill up the formerly empty rectangles. It worked like this:
1) Close Safari.
2) In the terminal application enter:
defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy -int 2
3) Open Safari, then close it again.
4) In the terminal application enter:
defaults delete com.apple.Safari DebugSnapshotsUpdatePolicy
5) Open Safari again.
It's still not working exactly like in Safari 5, though. Preview pictures in top sites only seem to get updated when I click on them to visit the corresponding websites. It doesn't seem to happen in the background. So it doesn't present me with a little star icon to notify me of any unread new contents in the top sites view.
I'll have to dig in deeper to figure out if this is the intended behaviour for Safari 7.0 or if there's still something wrong. Any thoughts on this?

Top sites constantly rearrange even though being pined

well the title says it all realy.
my top sites constantly rearange even though being pined.
i havent really figured out a patern to safaris behaviour in this regard but it happens all the time and from what i can tell for a multitude of reasons...
i kinda expect the behavior to be as follows, page pinned to x,y, then it should stay at x,y no matter what i do arround it.
ive tried resetting safari, but that made no difference.
ps also some top sites dont have a thumbnail, which is a shame as they are obviously not as recognisable (facebook, google reader and google + for example)

Does anyone know how Safari determines when a site is "updated?"
It means that the site's RSS feed indicates there's been an update. If a site doesn't have an RSS feed, it won't have a star.
(45692)

Safari Top Sites Not Updating

My Top Sites is not self-updating. I no longer get the 'star' notice when a web page has been changed and the image shown on Top Sites is from my last visit to the site.
Can anyone help?
Thanks.

I'm having the same problem with the Top Sites thumbnails not updating themselves (without having to manually visit the site). It had been working, but now it has not for a couple months. I forget if it coincided with updating Safari to 4.0.5 or not; it seemed like it was right around that time.
I should also mention that my internet connection and setup have remained consistent from the time that it was working to now. I am not behind a firewall or proxy of any sort.
(Note to Jared_Dub: The blue star is shown on thumbnails that you placed there manually as opposed to your most visited pages which Safari automatically places. It has nothing to do with showing you if there have been changes to the page or not. Just thought I should clarify that point.)

Top Sites in Safari 6

how do i restore the new page content notification in top sites?

There's been several other threads about this issue and I'll repost what I found below, unfortunately its bad news for everyone wanting the Top Sites update site indicator to work with Safari v6 (which includes me).
The short version is that the Top Sites site update indicator (blue curl with white star) is not supposed to work in Safari v6.0 and its a "feature" of v6.0 (meaning its not supposed to work) not a bug - also means its not likely to come back.
The top sites web page update indicator uses the RSS functionality (yep the same one Apple got rid of in Safari v6) to tell if a page is updated or not, without RSS the page update indicator won't work - and part of this RSS functionality was actually integrated into OS X at the operating system level and was removed in Mountain Lion (this is why Safari v5.1.7 with RSS and top site indicator functionality crashes when launched on Mountain Lion...the backend RSS plumbing etc. that Safari v5.1.7 is expecting is not there).
Here's the page I found the information in the comments section about these details - serious bummer:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1168016/bugs_and_fixes_troubleshooting_mountain_ lion.html
As mentioned before, if you are running Lion, you can grab a copy of the Safari v5.1.7 package from Time Machine or another Mac (about 40MB in size and Snow Leopard did not get the v6 update) and copy it into a new directory (you create) in the Applications folder on your Lion Mac and it should run fine (with RSS and Top Site page update functionality...works for me). Be sure not to launch both versions at the same time as you could corrupt your user settings (since they use the same files for bookmarks etc.).
Mountain Lion users are stuck since the RSS functionality that the Top Site update indicator needs has literally been ripped out of OS X. Safari v5.1.7 will crash when launched in Mountain Lion because this backend functionality isn't there. For folks that are truly desperate, you could roll back (or reinstall) to Lion or Snow Leopard (although only Lion and Mountain Lion are getting system updates at this point) and then run Safari v5.1.7.
This is such a constantly used (the situational awareness of what page has been updated is so valuable) piece of functionality for me I will just run v5.1.7 for the time being (not a good long term solution since there aren't going to be anymore security updates for Safari v5.1.7, only v6...).
As far as I can tell other Browsers basically have what Safari v6 has, which is thumbnail screens of favorite sites with images that get updated (on some browsers - Firefox, Chrome?) and doesn't get updated on others (Opera) - but none of them has page update indicators like Safari v5.x. I wish one did have the Top Sites page update indicator functionality as I'd switch in an instant.
Total bummer watching this really useful and valuable feature get killed cause Apple wanted to strip out (web standard) RSS functionality from OS X and leaving the users in the dark about it all, as we try to figure out what happened. My sympathies to everyone who loves this feature as do I.

Safari 6 Top Sites doesn't update

In the previous version of Safari (5), under OS X Lion, the "Top Sites" thumbnails would be flagged with a checkmark when those pages had been updated. In Version 6, under OS X Mountain Lion, none of the "Top Sites" are being flagged when the pages have been updated. I don't see an option under Safari preferences to enable/disable the "Updated" indicator. Any suggestions for restoring this feature are greatly appreciated.
And, yes, I deleted the Safari plist file from ~/Library/Safari, and it did not make any difference.

If you dig into the Ressource folder in Safari's 6 Contents folder, you will find a .png named TopSitesUpdatedPageCurl, which is that familiar Update Star with its blue background.
Since this png is still to be found in Safari 6's innards, I venture to say that the Update Stars not showing in the Top Sites page is due to a bug, rather than a decision of Apple's to nuke this feature.
But who knows ?!
YM

Top Site new content indication missing

I just started using Safari 4 this summer. I like the Top Site thing. However, how do you see when one of the sites in the Top Site view is updated? According to the graphics on Apple's web page, a white star against a blue background should show when a site has new content, but I have never seen that in my Safari. I can see that the sites have new content but I do not get the star indication at all. This happen even if I create a new user account and run Safari 4. Am I missing something obvious here?
My computers are all updated to the latest software and I do not have any extras installed in Safari except from the usual crap (Flash, Shockwave, Silverlight) and removing that (or Safari preferences) doesn't change anything.

Hi
Might be a corrupted preference file causing the update problem. Go to your Finder: Your User Account>Library>Safari folder. There, move the topsites.plist to the trash. Also, in the same Library>Preferences folder, move the com.apple.safari.plist file to the trash. Then restart Safari.
You'll need to repopulate your top site page. Also, as the Safari preferences have been reset to default values reestablish any of your custom settings.
Ars Technica has an excellent article about the inner workings of TopSites found here.

Top Sites strange problem on xp

Hi, everyone.
I've got a very untypical problem with my Safari 4 on pc.
when I'm opening new window/tab, Safari shows Top Sites and this strange thing:
http://i39.tinypic.com/al6tlk.jpg
+En plus+ i don't see any star or thumbtack. Stripes are disappearing when I click a thumbnail, but site opens.
what can I do?
thanks for help.

oh, yes.
when I'm turning to 'small' or 'medium' thumnails, I can't see them in a half(medium) or I see nothing(small)
I noticed, that when i'm scaling the window's size, the same thing as in 'mediums' occuring.
the window smaller is, the thumbnails are bit by bit disappearing.

Please change the view in the top sites, the 6.1 upgrade has reverted back to a plane two dimensional view, which is a little plain. Can I revert back to an older version via my time capsule save?

Please change the view in the top sites, the 6.1 upgrade has reverted back to a plain two-dimensional view, which is a little dated. Can I revert back to an older version via my time capsule save? C'mon Apple upgrades supposed to leap into the future not the past. :-(

Please change the view in the top sites, the 6.1 upgrade has reverted back to a plain two-dimensional view, which is a little dated. Can I revert back to an older version via my time capsule save? C'mon Apple upgrades supposed to leap into the future not the past. :-(

How to change a thumbnail in Top Sites

(Using Safari 7)
I know I can drag a URL to the Top Sites page to add it, but invaribly it does not add the thumbnail I want. A good example of this is the Google Calendar. If I have the calendar open and drag the URL to Top Sites I get a thumbnail of the Google login page, which doesn't accurately depict the content. This used to happen with Facebook, but mysteriously that finally changed to an actual Facebook page thumbnail. This was never a problem with previous versions of Safari, so wondering if there's a way to force a page thumbnail onto the Top Sites page in Safari 7. Thanks for any help.

I understand. You could try deleting the cache database ...
Open a Finder window. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder
Type or copy paste the following:
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db
Click Go then move the Cache.db file to the Trash.
Quit and relaunch Safari to test.

No stars in Top Sites

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