Thank you, again, Apple Support for untangling the saga involving Mac, Safari and Xfinity
My browser is Firefox. For many years and is constantly being updated.
While I do get statements and pay online, it is not automatic. I have to hit Submit. Also, as a dinosaur, I print the invoices.
Last month I could not pay my Xfintiy (Comcast) online. After several calls with their robots - just offering me to pay then and there and hanging up on me -I finally got a live person who suggested using a different browser. OK, I have Safari and it worked.
Not this time. Yes, I could pay, but could not print the current statement. Sent me in a loop to finally told me that "something is wrong with my account." OK, will go to Safari. Their main page was completely different. I was faced with "links" which were not hyperlinks. Just sat there. Spouse is using Safari. Which version is yours? 16. something. Mine was... 12 something.
OK, lets try to download the new version. Nut I could not find it anyplace. So I called support. The conclusion was that I needed a new OS software which will come with a new Safari. And we were worried that my iMac, from 2018, I think, may not be able to be updated. But it could. We moved from High Sierra to Ventura. But before that we went all around, changing, deleting modifying. I just did what she told me while she was viewing my screen.
Finally for the download, I had to use two hand to hold Control+Command+R for it to start.
And then I held my iPad camera so she cold view the iMac screen and to continue to direct me. The iMac screen is about 9" above my desk while the iPad is flat so I had to hold it. I tried to find some boxes but they were not enough.
We were on the phone for an hour and a half. She was very patient. At some point I jumped ahead and ended up with all programs on the computer listed, and on the dock quivering. So she said that i would have to have them on a list and delete them one at a time. Thankfully I did what I often do with deleting. Holding the Shift key and deleted them in groups.
She left me while installing the new Ventura which all in all took a couple of hours.
And, the final test - yes, Xfinity was hospitable, I printed the statement and paid.
I am curious of why Safari cannot be updated on its own.
I wonder whether I should have one more browser, Chrom, Bing, or whatever.
Anyway, for any business to allows a support person to be on the line for more than an hour - Kudos Apple. No wonder we have been together since 1987!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Besides the customary "UPDATE TO SONOMA" there are smaller updates available
but almost hidden!
Go under System Settings -> Software Updates Available
Look for this, way down at the bottom of the "fabulous features" list.
You may find updates to (for example) Ventura and Safari under More Info...
These no doubt have to do with security fixes.
This will not happen for really old versions of MacOS, which they stop updating.
P.S. in the terminal, you can type "softwareupdate -l" to list available updates.
I won't say how to actually apply them, because you gotta know what you're doing before messing with updates from the terminal.
(It's on the Apple support site, or "man softwareupdate" at the terminal.)
NOW as for compatibility with websites.
A pain in the ass.
An up to date Opera Browser was flagged as obsolete or whatever by a site or two.
I use Opera because it takes almost every chrome extension, which is kinda cool.
I found, for that site, that my semi-functional Safari browser started working fine when I went under Develop -> Disable Extensions for that site. After all, I just wanted to access my account to find the balance, or pay something, rather than surf random sites with ads from hell.
You will have to go to Safari->Settings (used to be Preferences, I recall) and then Advanced, and check Show Develop menu in menu bar to enable this.
Sorry for the complexity, but things keep getting more complex, and Apple sometimes "almost hides" things.
Geniuses, you know.
Good luck.