That nagging feeling of someone looking over your shoulder is pretty irritating. The same is replicated by bad ad trackers that monitor your browsing activities and the way you consume content. As much as I want not to scare you, you should be aware of what’s really going on with your favorite websites.
Fortunately, Apple is cracking down on creepy websites that monitor your behavior whether you click on their site or not. Besides that, Apple’s latest version of Safari includes Intelligent Tracking Protection 2.0, which inspects and blocks third parties as well as first-party cookies that have the potential to track your browsing activities.
This is why Safari may throw errors when opening a questionable or incorrectly designed page. If you’ve been facing the “Unable to Establish Secure Connection” error on sites you frequently visit, you are not alone. Here are the best working solutions to help you fix this error and continue browsing peacefully.
1. Check for Appropriate Certification
To keep it simple, make sure you are accessing the correct website by clicking on the address bar. You should examine the URLs and look for the green lock icon in front of the site address. If it looks gray, it’s probably a clever phishing site with the exact logo and layout of a bank or other website you visit frequently.
2. Clear Browser History
Safari’s option to clear Browser History is a double-edged sword. Usually the Clear Browser History option removes the list of websites you have visited. However, the latest iteration of Safari removes related data such as cookies and content of related sites. So drive carefully.
Stage 1: In Safari, click History from the menu options at the top of the window.
Step 2: Select All History from the drop-down menu next to the word Clear. Then click Clear History.
3. Remove Suspicious Extensions and Add-ons
Extensions, Plugins, and Plugins are like little helpers that speed up the process of taking on certain tasks with a click or two. However, installing too much will affect Safari’s performance. Therefore, it is wise to only remove unwanted and unused add-ons or extensions.
Stage 1: Click on the Safari menu and choose Preferences.
Step 2: Click Extensions from the popup to view the list of extensions you have installed for Safari. I did not install any extensions. However, if you see any, select and remove them.
4. Unblock All Cookies
It could be an honest mistake if you accidentally clicked on the box that appears just below the box that says Block cross-site tracking. In this case, that box is essentially blocking all cookies.
Stage 1: Open Safari’s Preferences and click on Privacy.
Step 2: Clicking on Manage Website Data will open a new window. From here you can select and remove cookies from sites you think you no longer need or don’t want.
5. Check Permissions
In addition to overdoing it with add-ons, it enforces Content Blocking for websites, some of which are known to carry unwanted pop-ups and misleading advertisements with some code on them. If you think Safari comes up with false positives, you’d better check permissions for Content Blockers and other elements like Location.
Stage 1: Click on Safari’s menu and choose Preferences. Click on the Websites tab from the window that opens.
Step 2: Click Content Blockers in the left pane and see if you have blocked a particular element of the site you are trying to access.
6. Clear DNS Cache
At times, clearing the DNS cache helps fix many connection and website speed related issues. This solution is pretty simple, provided you type the command correctly.
Make sure Safari is not running and if it is, you can exit. Launch the Terminal app on your Mac and feed the following command:
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
You will need to enter the administrator password and then press Enter. Now restart Safari to check if it helps.
7. Firewall Settings
A firewall protects you from malicious requests to steal your data and resources. It is possible that some software has implemented strict Firewall policies and banned Safari from any Internet connection. This happens when parents or the office environment do not want you to surf the web. There is a safe way to check if the Firewall is blocking Safari.
Stage 1: Press Command+Space together to launch the Spotlight Search bar.
Step 2: Medicine the firewall In Spotlight Search and press Enter.
Stage 3: To make changes to Firewall settings, click the lock in the lower left corner, type your system password and tap the Unlock button. Once you have access, click the Firewall Options button.
Step 4: In the Firewall Options window, make sure the Block all incoming connections box is unchecked.
Also, check if Safari appears in the list of exceptions and if Allow incoming connections is enabled for it. If Safari doesn’t show up there, move on to the next solution.
8. Sync System Clock
While it seems highly unlikely that the system clock on your Mac is wrong, it’s best to check once. Here is how you can verify and change the system time.
Click on the Apple Menu and choose System Preferences. Click on Date and Time in the window that opens. Then click Time Zone to check if you have selected the correct one. If you want to make any changes, you need to click on the lock icon in the lower left corner and enter your macOS account password.
9. Remove All Website Data
Apple has removed the Reset Safari button since the Yosemite update. Fortunately, there are two easy ways to get the stock Safari experience.
Stage 1: Start Safari, click the Safari menu and choose Preferences.
Step 2: Click on the Privacy tab from the popup and then hit the button that says – Manage Website Data.
Stage 3: Wait for the popup to populate the list of websites. You can now remove data or all of the selected sites. You can also press the Remove all button and clear the data.
Performing this solution along with the first one should be good enough to reset Safari to factory state. You can exit and restart Safari to try accessing the site that is causing you a lot of pain.
10. Use a Different Browser
If nothing works and you need to use a browser, it is better to use another browser such as Firefox or Chrome.
Follow Safe Browsing
If none of the solutions mentioned above work, the problem may be with the site. Reinstalling macOS is a last resort and I bet it won’t come to that. One of the solutions mentioned above should work for your Mac. It is entirely possible that the site you are trying to access is not available and has been interrupted.
Next: Want to customize the ordinary lock screen on your Mac? Follow our handy guide to customizing your lock screen on a Mac running macOS Mojave.
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