Am I the only one experiencing web clipper issues in Safari?

[arkanoid 1]

Typically I cannot clip at all. To make this possible I need to manually log in to the Evernote Web, then reload the page I want to clip and with some bit of luck it is going to work. If the weather over Antarctica is not favorable, it could fail again.

[PinkElephant 8,091]

No issues (except on some pages that are hard to clip, like paywalled stuff).

From what you describe the web clipper is lacking the necessary authorizations. See in extensions and system settings that the clipper and the EN app have all the necessary rights.

Another problem can be caused by adblockers or antitracking extensions that may interfere. If running any, disable them one by one to find the culprit.

[arkanoid 1]

Could you please check if you can clip this page: https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/fully-ephemeral-dispvms/12030 ?
The permissions are in place, but the clipper keeps logging off for unknown reason once a while and general stability is very poor.

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Something on that page is blocking the WebClipper when opened in Safari.

When trying on Firefox, it is notable that the "Article" option only grabs one of the postings, from the middle of the posts chain. It can be extended to cover the page, but it takes a lot of clicks.

The same happens when you are on the page in Safari, and click on the Reader icon. It will only show the same post on which WebClipper is initially focussing in Firefox.

There is no obvious reason why exactly this post in a longer chain is selected both by the reader in Safari and by the WebClipper on Firefox.

After extending the grabbing range and clipping in Firefox, the article is moved to a new note fine. Simplifying it works as well, it does not reduce everything to just that one posting. So after clipping, the HTML code is sufficiently cleaned to work normally.

Conclusion: Something is broken on that page.

You can report it to support and ask to check it. Often they do, on pages of lesser importance they may skip it. The clipper can't cover any "individuality" web designers use to make their pages "unique".

[arkanoid 1]

I think it is some standard discussion platform so the problem is likely to re-appear on other forums powered by the same engine.

[PinkElephant 8,091]

And so ? You know how many websites are out there (or better, you don't, because nobody knows).

In any case, you need to talk to support, not me. For me the case is closed - because what I do is what I did: If it does not work with one browser, I choose another.

Safari and Firefox run on independent web engines, so the likelihood of success with one where the other fails is maximized. I don't use Chrome, as I avoid Google stuff wherever possible. But this would be the third web engine on the market, driving practically all existing browsers.

 

[arkanoid 1]

Still, it does not explain random failures and random logouts problem. I would expect web clipper to re-authenticate transparently and do it once a few months, not every week or more often. BTW, the problem seems to be Safari-specific, on Mac Chrome it is rock solid (and there are considerably fewer "problematic" pages either)

[PinkElephant 8,091]

LOL … it is just Chrome itself that is the problem. It is the method Google uses to dominate the way the web is seen by users, and to make Google draw the maximum profit from your interaction.

Google is selling your attention (a tiny part of your limited life span) to whoever is willing to pay the most to get it.

Sure Chrome is working - but it is not working for you in first place.

My personal opinion about G…

[arkanoid 1]

Chrome may be bad or not or you can use Chromium which is slightly less evil, but it works, and apparently desktop Safari is treated by web developers as a moderately marginal browser and least priority. Evernote developers included. 

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Safari (or better web kit, it’s engine) is worldwide the second browser in terms of usage. I don’t think it is „neglected“.

The problem is IMHO that Google / Chrome permanently tries to push own features as standards. Many have a trapdoor build in in terms of privacy (often called „anomyzation“, which comes out as semi-anonymous, still able to support cross website tracking).

Since Safari only works on Apple devices, Firefox as the third browser on an own engine is important to have a choice.

[arkanoid 1]

Chrome / Chromium is webkit-based as well. But there are minor differences and many people just do not bother to test their sites under desktop Safari, assuming the majority of Mac users switched to Chrome or Firefox. Though I agree, Firefox is much better in terms of privacy, Safari being the second, but there are privacy-enhancing extensions for Chromium that make it not that bad.

Anyway, Chrome works, Firefox works and Safari is constantly giving me issues with Evernote 😕

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Wrong - WebKit is the name of the Apple web engine, driving Safari on Mac and iOS.

On iOS all browsers must use WebKit by default - the OS does not allow to install another engine. If you run Chrome or Firefox on iOS, they always need to run as a skin on a WebKit platform.

The Chrome engine (driving Chromium as well) is called Blink and is maintained by Google. It is used in all other cases where Chrome or one of it derivates is running, including Chrome on the Mac.

The Engine driving Firefox is called Gecko. It is maintained by Mozilla, the foundation that offers Firefox and the Thunderbird free email client. It is notable that Google is one of the main contributors to the Mozilla funding. Dropping a few millions on Mozilla is probably much cheaper than facing antitrust legislation because of the way how Chrome supports the search engine core business of Google.

There is a handful more "engines", but not in broad use.

Personally I run Safari as my main browser, and Firefox as secondary. No problems.

[arkanoid 1]

Ok, now clipping stopped working even on Github. WTF?!

[PinkElephant 8,091]

Web Clipper continues to work fine for me in Safari 15.5 in Monterey 12.4.

Remember there are websites that actively try to or accidentally prevent web clipping, and invent new tricks to do so. It is a permanent race between web design and clipper capabilities, and it is not assured that the clipper will work on every web site, all of the time. GitHub may be among them, WebClipper did not start on that site when I tried on an arbitrarily chosen page there.

If I run into a problem using Safari, I use Firefox as alternate browser. I never use Chrome. FF worked fine on the same page.

You can inform EN about the problem by issuing a support ticket, telling browser, WebClipper version and the URL of the site. They usually check it and try to find a fix.

This race will never stop (WTF, and if you use GitHub, you should know better than this).

[arkanoid 1]

We can blame web sites, but every time it fails in Safari I check with Chrome and it works. So the problem is Safari-specific.

[PinkElephant 8,091]

That proves … what ?

The extension is browser specific. So it is still: Contact support.

Beside this it is known that Google tries to monopolize the browser market. Only for the best reasons, like being able to track everybody on this planet and grab another shitload of money from your and my data.

They „play“ with web and browser standards since long - oh surprise, most others dropped out of developing their own browser.  It came too costly to follow the next twist Google took in that loosing game.

Enjoy the „web standard“ …