[Solved] iPhone message: Safari could not open the page

[undiscovered country]

Hi all,

A link that was sent to me from a company online never opens when I click it. Every time I attempt it, a page comes up with the following written on it:

‘Safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding’

The link sent is not the url, it is the title of the information discussed in the link. When the page with the safari message comes up, the url reads ‘dropbox.com’

It is not an Internet problem, as I can get into most of my other pages. I have occasionally had this safari problem before with other links, but it’s quite rare.

I do not have access to a computer these days (that’s another story which I may post about at another time) so I use my apple iPhone mini 13 for all online stuff.

When googling how to overcome this problem, I was told:

Clear the browser cache

Open the Safari browser.
Select the Safari menu at the top left corner, and from the options, select Preferences.

Click on the Privacy option and the Manage Website Data option.

At the bottom of the displayed pop-up, select Remove All.

Click done, relaunch the browser, and see if the issue is fixed.

The problem is, when I find safari in my phone settings, I cannot find ‘preferences and ‘privacy’ and ‘manage website data option’ is also nowhere to be found.

They show a picture of the screen and how to do each step but the screen they show seems to be a screen that only comes up on an apple computer. If it can be displayed like that on my mini 13, I don’t know how to bring it about.

The first step is to ‘open the safari browser’, but all I can see to do is to go to settings on my phone and when I find safari, there is no apparent means to bring up the screen that is shown on the advice page.

You can see the page I’m alluding to on the link, below.

https://windowsreport.com/wp-content/up ... rences.png

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, as the link I am trying to get into is very important to me.

Thanks.

[LastUnicorn]

I don't see you reporting any problem with OpenOffice or LibreOffice. What problem do you have with them?

Seems you have an iPhone and browser setup issue. You might have better luck raising the issue here: avforums - Mobile Phones

If it was me I would just try to connect to the website without using the 'link' you have. I assume you at least know what website you are trying to connect to.

[undiscovered country]

LastUnicorn,

Sorry, I am not clear on what topics fall under the umbrella of ‘General discussion’. I thought that anything relating to the Internet would be OK.

If I am wrong on that, then I apologize to all on the forum.

Thank you so much for the link to the mobile phone forum. Your advice about connecting directly to the website, makes sense, too. The problem with that, is the link is sent to me by email from another party who has a website whose subject matter is linked to the info on the link sent to me and the link itself has no address, but just a title of the info contained in the link. When I click on it, ‘dropbox.com’ comes up as the address along with the notice saying ‘safari could not open the page…’. If I enter ‘dropbox.com’ in the url box and click, the same safari message appears.

I suppose I could ask the sender of the link to simply send the link as a specific address, if they are able to do that.

Anyway, you have been helpful, LastUnicorn, and I appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Hagar Delest]

I thought that anything relating to the Internet would be OK.

You are right indeed.
The description of this section of the forum is:

General Discussion
Talk about anything at all....

The idea was that if there was a community of users sharing AOO as a common denominator, they could also find help with non-AOO issues.

That being said, your problem is rather strange. I understand that the link given is a hyperlink applied to some text, you seeing the text only but clicking on it sending to the address it contains.
If you copy and paste the link in a text editor, you should see the exact address. Maybe it is wrong. Sometimes, in the copy-paste operation by the sender to format the text to be hyperlinked there is a glitch and not all the link is correctly copied (and then pasted).

[undiscovered country]

Hi Hagar,

Thanks for confirming what topics are allowed on this forum. That’s cleared up a bit of confusion on my part.

Regarding my problem, I copied the text link into a text editor, and the link came up as a full address, as you said. I then opened a blank page and pasted the address into the url box. However, the result is the same. As soon as I click the link, the address changes to dropbox.com and after a few minutes wait, the message ‘safari cannot open the page’, comes up.

I also copied the link onto my notes app on my phone. The address comes up clearly. It starts with the usual ‘https and then ‘www.dropbox.com’. Next, comes a series of numbers and letters and other characters, followed by the title of the content with the letters ‘pdf’ following (I am familiar with pdfs). The address ends with more numbers and figures.

There are no obvious errors in the address, but with so many figures in it, it is difficult to be sure. The words ‘pdf’ in the address are followed by a question mark, but on doing research on question marks in urls it seems these are common features.

Are there any basic indicators that identify an address as incorrect? I will send it to the person who gave me the link, for them to check. As they send this link to scores of people every month, I think it is unlikely to be incorrect, but who knows?

Thanks Hagar Delest. Your reply was informative and much appreciated.

[Hagar Delest]

I forgot to ask: can you try with another web browser?
But it seems that the address is wrong or the file has been moved and the url is now invalid.
Ask the sender if he has tried the link himself.

[undiscovered country]

Hi Hagar,

I’m working on getting another web browser, but I think it’s not going to work. I have been informed that dropbox will not work in the country I am resident in-China. I, apparently need a vpn to access the file in that form. The company sent me the link as a full address but I got the same result- nothing. So, I guess I need to get a vpn. Alternatively, I will ask the company if they can send me the link in a different form.

Thanks a lot, Hagar, for your help

[Noici]

You can ask them to use FileCloud, instead of dropbox and explain the reason. If they don't go with it, then the VPN is the ony solution.
nulls brawl

[undiscovered country]

Thank you Noici,

I have already asked them to send it in a different format, and they sent it in a simple pdf file and I was able to open it with no problems. Since then the company sent another link to me with different content in the same way, again with no problems.

A big thank you to all who answered and offered help. Every answer was much appreciated. I would say the problem is solved now.