* 2021 Update: Thrive Architect (formerly known as Thrive Content Builder) is now part of Thrive Suite, annual membership. Check below for more information.
Thrive Content Builder (TCB) may no longer work properly on your Safari browser. It was a few weeks ago when I contacted the Thrive technical support after the plugin started to behave funny on me. Most notably, it wouldn't let me save my work. It works fine on Chrome or Firefox. But I'm a long-term Safari user and would rather continue to use it while Safari is still Mac's default browser.
It took the TCB developer team a while to find out where the problem was as well as the solution to it. I was advised that there was a conflict issue between my web hosting server's configuration, Safari, and TCB.
I was also advised the issue was limited to my web hosting server (SiteRubix), but now someone else has reported the same problem to me. She uses TCB on Safari, but her website is hosted by a different server. I've asked her to try it on Chrome browser, and it worked fine.
I'm not going to - not able to - explain the technical issues on the Thrive's developers' behalf. But the solution I was given was pretty straight-forward, and it fixed the problem;
Add the following line at the top of your .htaccess file;
BrowserMatch "Safari" nokeepalive
So this .htaccess file needs to be edited in order for TCB to work on Safari. And it's actually fairly easy to do that in your Wordpress. You're most likely to be using an SEO co-ordinator plugin such as All In One SEO Pack or Yoast SEO. You can also edit the .htaccess file from your web hosting control panel, or access your FTP server and edit directly on the FTP platform.
Edit .htaccess File In All In One SEO Pack
- From the left hand menu under All in One SEO, click Feature Manager (image above)
- In the menu screen - click "File Editor" box to activate it (image above)
- Now new menu appears in the left-side menu "File Editor". Click it.
- There are two tabs - "robots.txt" and ".htaccess". Choose .htaccess.
- Insert the code - BrowserMatch "Safari" nokeepalive - in the first line and save.
Edit .htaccess File In Yoast SEO
Editing .htaccess file in Yoast SEO is as easy.
- Go to "Tools" under Yoast SEO menu on the left.
- Very similar to All In One SEO, you'll find .htaccess screen where you can insert the same code at the start of the box.
- Click "Save Changes" button at the bottom.
Using FTP Software To Edit .htccess File
With FTP, you won't be able to edit the file directly on the remote server, so you need to download it somewhere in your disk (hard drive, e.g. desktop) first. But you'll be able to edit the file while you're logged in to your FTP account.
- Connect to your server using FTP software (I use Filezilla).
- In the remote server you'll find two folders - httpdocs and httpsdocs. Each folder has .htaccess file in it. Unless you use https URL (secure version for sites such as e-commerce), you only need httpdocs folder. Click the folder and you'll find .htaccess file there.
- Drag the .htaccess file to your local file (e.g. desktop), or right-click the file and download. Stay in your FTP account.
- In the local file window of the FTP, right-click the downloaded .htaccess file. It should allow you to edit it (image below)
- It will ask you which application to use to open the file - choose Notepad (Windows) or Text Editor app (Mac).
- Insert the code - BrowserMatch "Safari" nokeepalive - in the first line and save.
- Upload the file back to the same folder in the remote server; either by dragging it back, or right-click and click "Upload". It will ask you whether you want to overwrite/replace the existing file - choose Yes.
Why Use Safari!?
Safari users are real minorities. Desktop browser statistics as of October 2016 according to w3schools.com was;
Chrome
73%
IE
5.2%
Firefox
15.7%
Safari
3.6%
Opera
1.1%
Mac's desktop OS share is over 10% according to StatCounter.com, it therefore means almost 2/3 of Mac users use another web browser by default. It is true often I cannot see things I'm supposed to see or cannot click buttons on Safari, where I immediately switch to Chrome or Firefox and see them work.
Perhaps it's just easy to give up Safari browser completely rather than making all the fuss trying to fix a problem after problem.
For $299/year or $149/quarter
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I have encountered some issues associated with gmail on my safari browser, firstly I was having issues while loading pages while logging into my gmail, after successful login, it was difficult for me to send or receive emails specially with attachments, it can be some sort of issue associated with gmail.
It took the TCB developer team a while to find out where the problem was as well as the solution to it. I was advised that there was a conflict issue between my web hosting server’s configuration, Safari, and TCB.
Hi, thanks for sharing your experience. It’s been 2+ years since the TCB migrated to Thrive Architect. I use it on Safari and all seems to work fine now. I hope that’s ok. Thanks for your comment.
I love your article. thank you for this interesting and informative article.
Hi Ludo, the information is pretty old now, Thrive Content Builder is now Thrive Architect, but thanks for your comment!