How to solve “this page was reloaded because of a problem” in Safari 14 with macOS Mojave

Updated November 1st, 2022.

The problem: you’re using Safari, and you’ve updated Safari to version 14, and websites give you messages about “this page was reloaded because of a problem” and the page never shows.

I had this problem myself.

Here’s the message I got when I tried to load eBay.com using Safari 14 on my MacBook Pro with Mojave (10.14.6) installed:

A problem repeatedly occurred with https://www.ebay.com
eBay couldn’t load on my MacBook Pro with Safari 14 and Mojave

I tried quitting Safari and relaunching (no good).

I tried turning off extensions in Safari’s Preferences (no good).

I tried restarting the Mac (no good).

I really thought I was stuck. But then I remembered: it’s easy enough to reinstall macOS, and it doesn’t delete your files or anything like that, so why not try? I tried, and after the reinstallation of macOS, Safari 14 worked.

How to reinstall the system

Restart your Mac, and immediately hold down Command-R. (Your Mac should be plugged into the wall– don’t try this running on battery power.)

Your Mac will boot more slowly than usual, but eventually it will finish, not at the Desktop but at something called macOS Utilities.

 macOS Utilities in Recovery Mode
macOS Utilities in Recovery Mode

Double-click the “Reinstall macOS” option. Then tell the installer that you want to install macOS onto your startup drive. You will probably only see the one drive but you do have to click on it to continue.

I know this is scary but the way this works is it leaves your personal stuff (documents, pictures, downloads, music) alone, while replacing the system. When the process is complete your Mac will still look like your Mac. All of your files will still be there, your desktop picture will be there, your Dock will look like your Dock, and you’ll still sign in as usual.

And, if your Mac is like my Mac, Safari 14 will work just fine.

Interestingly, reinstalling macOS solved a problem connected to the Parallels Desktop 16.0.1 update. After the update, Parallels would no longer start, but after reinstalling the system everything was fine again.


Naturally having a backup of your Mac would be a good idea before reinstalling macOS, just in case. See my article about Time Machine backups for more information.

Copyright 2008-2024 Christian Boyce. All rights reserved.

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Christian Boyce

Christian Boyce is a Mac and iPhone expert with over 30 years' experience in the field. His specialty is teaching people how to get more out of their Macs and iPhones using the software and apps already installed. He is the author of several books, a guest speaker for Mac and iPhone user groups worldwide, and a former rocket scientist. He splits time between homes in Santa Monica, California and Round Rock, Texas.

5 thoughts on “How to solve “this page was reloaded because of a problem” in Safari 14 with macOS Mojave

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  1. I reinstalled the system the other day, and it also cleared browsing data, and though the problem had gone away, but after about a day, it’s back again and even more annoying after the several hours it took to do that.

  2. Hi Christian. I’m running Catalina 10.15.7 with Safari 15.0 and this process didn’t;t work for me. I haven’t upgraded from Catalina because I heard there were issues with the latest OS. Suggestions?

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