AAAAAs instead of text in the latest version of Safari

Question

I'm getting strings of AAA's surrounded by boxes instead of text in my browser - primarily in ads and in videos that use Flash. I'm using the latest version of Safari on my 2013 model iMac 27 with Mavericks OS (latest update installed) and the latest version of Flash (all of this as of 11/14/14). Is anyone else having this problem, and if so have you been able to resolve the issue? I spoke with Apple, who, as they always do, spent a good deal of time trying to find a solution, but to no avail. After spending much time with a very gracious and knowledgable Senior Advisor, they suggested contacting Adobe, and if they didn't have a solution, they (Apple) would gladly continue to work on this issue with me.

I have little doubt that his is a Flash related problem! Thanks!

thinkman12345 · Accepted Answer

Wow. I love the weird stuff.

If I had to place a bet on what this is, I'd put my money on a corrupted system font. It's not even really an A. It's a different glyph. It reminds me of the "missing character' box that you'd see when trying to display high-ascii text that isn't installed (like Korean on an english machine without font support), but this is even stranger.

The dialog itself looks like the "Do you want to allow this site to store some information on your computer" prompt, which is definitely Flash Player.

A cursory Google search supports this:

Oncreen text is all capital A's in boxes on my ... | Apple Support Communities

This seems like a really good suggestion from that thread:

sdpitbullJan 8, 2013 1:04 PM https://discussions.apple.com/message/20847134#20847134
Re: Oncreen text is all capital A's in boxes on my MacBook Pro?in response to dancer64

This is also a common problem when one installs Microsoft products. They duplicate a lot of the Apple fonts and cause all sorts of havoc with capital "A" in boxes.

If that is the problem then you'll need to run Font Book in your Applications Folder. There are commands here to check for corrupted or duplicate fonts.

You may also want to try Restore Standard Fonts (also in Font Book) to see if you can get Geneva back that way.

With Yosemite now installed, I checked back on the URL I sent you previously, and NO AAAAAAAs. So far. Hopefully this upgrade cleaned up whatever mess caused the problem, but I won't completely convinced until I've used it a while. Again, thanks for all of your help with this problem! You are my Good Samaritan of the month!

jeromiec83223024 · Answer

I haven't heard anyone complaining about this yet. What is your system language set to?Can you provide me with a URL that reproduces the problem?

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