Fix: Safari Keeps Crashing on Mac in 11 Ways

Nick deCourville

Do you find that Safari keeps locking up on your Mac? While annoying, it can be a simple problem to solve. From browser extensions to a built-in ad blocker and superb privacy options, there are a lot of reasons to use Safari. However, there can be times when the browser acts up. Keep reading to find out what to do if Safari keeps crashing on your Mac.

Why Is Safari Locking Up?

While it can be easy for a user to assume that some form of virus or malware is causing the issue, it may be something far more simple. For example, common reasons such as software plugins, extensions, corrupt installation files, or even a website that contains poor coding can all cause Safari to lock up and crash. 

Fortunately, many of these problems are rather easy to fix, so long as you know the right solution. 

How to Stop Safari From Crashing

1. force quit and restart safari.

One of the first things a user can try is force quitting Safari and restarting it. Usually when there’s an issue with any program, a simple restart can help with specific problems. 

Time needed:  1 minute

Here’s how to Force Quit an app on your Mac:

Force Quit Safari Safari Crashing Mac

2. Restart the Mac

Another thing a user should try before diving into the nitty-gritty is simply restarting their device. Much like force quitting and restarting Safari, performing a restart can rid the browser of any small bugs that might be causing technical issues. This quick solution can potentially alleviate Apple Safari of any small issues or bugs. Simply go to Apple > Restart from the menu bar to restart your device. 

3. Update macOS and Safari

Updating macOS and Safari may also be a good idea for users. In addition to potentially solving any issues a user may be experiencing with Safari, it’s generally a good idea to check for a device update on your Mac, as it can greatly increase your chances of avoiding major issues. Updates to an operating system also provide critical security patches, as well as other things that help protect your machine. You can always check for macOS updates by going to Settings > General > Software Update and see if an update is available. 

safari crashing osx

Even better, updating macOS ensures that Safari is also up to date. 

4. Create a New User Profile

When it comes to simple solutions, a user may need to create a new Safari profile to prevent future crashes. Seeing an introduction in macOS Sonoma, profiles allow users to have a browsing history that’s unique to them. There are rare occurrences when a specific problem is tied to a user’s profile, meaning creating a new one could easily solve a specific issue. 

To create a new profile in Safari on Mac, simply follow these steps:

  • Open Safari, and then go to Safari in the menu bar.
  • Select Settings .
  • Go to the Profiles tab and select New Profile .
  • Fill out the relevant information and click Create Profile . 

5. Boot Your Mac into Safe Mode

If you need to get an idea of why Safari might be crashing, booting into Safe Mode may help illuminate your problems. Safe Mode helps stop login items and startup items from loading and opening automatically. It also disables certain fonts and deletes certain cache files. If you’re having issues with Apple Safari crashing, seeing if it operates in Safe Mode can help diagnose your problems. 

You will need to know if you are running an Intel processor or Apple silicon. You can check this from the menu bar by going to Apple > About This Mac and checking your processor information. 

For Apple silicon:

  • Shut down your Mac by going to Apple > Shut Down . Wait for the Mac to shut down entirely.
  • Press and hold the power button on your Mac. Hold it until you see a Loading startup options message.
  • Select your drive volume.
  • Then, press and hold the Shift key. Click Continue in Safe Mode . Your computer will then restart automatically and you should see the words Safe Mode in the menu bar. 

For Intel-based Macs:

  • Restart your Mac or turn it on. Then, immediately press and hold the Shift key. Hold it until you see a login window.
  • Log in to your device.
  • You should see Safe Mode in the menu bar, though you may also be asked to log in twice. 

If Safari is operating normally while in Safe Mode, it may be third-party software, extensions or certain startup files causing issues.

6. Delete Safari Cache Files

It’s also a good idea to delete Safari cache files. Whenever you visit a website for the first time, your browser downloads the data from the website, making the site load faster the next time you visit it. While this can be extremely helpful for casual internet browsing, users can amass a large cache over time. In essence, it’s possible that your cache is causing issues with Safari, or it’s even possible you may have collected something dubious from your cache. 

To delete your cache in Safari, we recommend two methods. Firstly, you can simply open the browser and go to  History > Clear History from the menu bar. Click the pop-up menu, and then choose how far back you would like to go. In this instance, I would suggest deleting everything, though be warned this may make webpages load slower until you download certain cache files again. 

Clear All History Safari Crashing Mac

The second method, which is also the easiest, is a powerful cleaning tool like Intego Washing Machine that will erase all cache and other clogging files from your device while optimizing its performance in real time.

➡️ Get Intego Washing Machine

7. Delete All Website Data

If none of the above solutions are providing an answer to your Safari woes, it may be time to consider deleting all of your website data from Safari. Items such as cookies and other data may potentially be causing problems with Safari, causing it to crash. Fortunately, deleting all website data from Safari isn’t too much of a hassle, though users may need to log back into certain websites. 

  • Open Safari on your Mac. Then go to  Safari > Settings .
  • Tap  Privacy.

safari crashing osx

8. Disable Safari Extensions

Users may also want to consider disabling any extensions they are running with Safari. This includes third party extensions. As you can turn off one or multiple extensions, it may be wise to disable all extensions, and then bring them back to your browser one by one to see if there is one causing particular issues. Users may want to delete any extensions they do not recognize. Outdated extensions or problematic extensions may be causing issues as well. 

To disable third-party extensions or any extensions, follow these steps: 

  • From the Safari app, go to Safari > Settings (or Preferences ).
  • Click  Extensions from the list of options.

Deselect Safari Extensions Safari Crashing Mac

  • To uninstall an extension, click on it and then click the  Uninstall button. 

9. Reset PRAM or NVRAM 

Users who are experiencing problems with Safari may also want to reset their NVRAM or PRAM. These sections of memory help store certain settings, and these settings may have an impact on your browser and its performance. Fortunately, we have a rather extensive guide on how to reset your NVRAM/PRAM as well as your SMC . If you are having issues with Safari and none of the above options work, check out our article to see if this provides a solution. 

10. Run Disk Utility 

Another option users have is running Disk Utility. An incredibly useful app that comes baked directly into macOS, users can run this program to check for any errors on their drive. It can be especially useful in situations such as these when an app is misbehaving or crashing. Even better, using Disk Utility is rather straightforward, and can help repair your startup disk. In this instance, users will be taking advantage of the First Aid option for their disks. Remember that Disk Utility can be found in Finder by going to Applications > Utilities. 

  • Open the Disk Utility app.
  • Select your primary drive. It will likely be named Macintosh HD . 

Run First Aid Disk Utility Safari Crashing Mac

  • A pop-up will notify you that the app is about to check the disk for errors and repair them if necessary. Select Run . 
  • Wait for Disk Utility to finish. 

11. Use Apple Diagnostics to Check for Hardware Issues

While this is more of a last resort, it may be hardware problems causing Safari to crash. Though this hopefully isn’t the case for users, it may be a possibility that a hardware problem may be causing issues with Safari. Fortunately, there is a way to inspect and test your hardware, thanks to Apple Diagnostics. I’ve personally written a guide about how to test your Mac using Apple Diagnostics , and I would suggest giving it a read if this is a route you are considering taking. 

If there are issues with your hardware, or if you have tried all of these methods and none seem to work, it may be time to talk to Apple Support . 

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  • Nick deCourville

safari crashing osx

Safari Keeps Crashing on Mac? 5 Ways to Fix It

Mac users are pretty familiar with Safari crashing on their systems, but it's nothing you can't fix. Here are all the important troubleshooting steps.

Safari is the go-to browser for almost all Mac users. It works well and is faster than other browsers due to its integration with macOS.

But just like any other browser, Safari is prone to error, too. It often tends to freeze or crash, sometimes getting stuck on the dreaded spinning beach ball and displaying the "Safari quit unexpectedly" error.

In some cases, Safari will cause your entire Mac to stop responding, leaving you no choice but to restart your system. Don't fret, though, because Safari crashing is pretty common among Mac users, and there are many fixes for it.

Why Does Safari Keep Crashing on Your Mac?

Safari constantly crashing can ruin your browsing experience. Here are some reasons why it might be happening:

  • You have too many tabs open, and they're putting a strain on the CPU. Although Safari indeed uses less memory than Chrome and other browsers, opening too many tabs will still cause it to crash sometimes, especially if you have other resource-intensive applications running simultaneously.
  • You're using a browser extension that's causing Safari to crash.
  • You're using an older version of macOS and Safari. Safari updates itself when you update macOS. So, if you haven't updated your Mac in a long time, it could be why the browser is acting up.

5 Potential Fixes When Safari Keeps Crashing on Your Mac

Here are five things you can do if Safari keeps crashing on your Mac despite restarting and closing other tasks:

1. Force Quit Safari

Force quitting Safari is the first thing you should do if it stops working. First, try closing Safari by pressing Command+Q or by clicking on Safari in the menu bar and selecting Quit Safari from the drop-down menu.

If you can't click on anything, you'll have to minimize Safari and open the "Force Quit Applications" window. To do that, click on the Apple logo in the menu bar and choose Force Quit in the drop-down menu.

Select Safari in the list of applications and click on Force Quit .

2. Clear Cache Files

Cache files are temporarily stored files meant to speed up web pages, but too many cache files can actually slow down your browser and cause it to crash. That's why it's essential to clear cache files from Safari regularly.

Clearing cache is one of the many ways to reset Safari to default settings on your Mac . To delete cache files, click on Develop in the menu bar, and select Empty Caches .

If you don't see the Develop menu in the menu bar, you'll have to activate it by going to Safari > Preferences and then checking the "Show Develop menu in menu bar" option in the Advanced tab.

3. Delete Website Data

You can select which websites to delete, but since there will be so many, it'll be easier to just delete all of them.

To delete website data, click on Safari in the menu bar and select Preferences . Go to the Privacy tab and click on Manage Website Data . Click on Remove All and now relaunch Safari to see if crashes again.

4. Delete Browser Extensions

Browser extensions are useful tools, but sometimes they can negatively affect your browser's speed because some of them consume an excessive amount of memory. It's best to delete extensions that you don't use frequently.

To delete extensions, go to Safari > Preferences and click on the Extensions tab. Uncheck the boxes next to any extension you don't want to use. Remember that this only disables the extension. To completely remove it, click on Uninstall under the extension's name.

5. Update macOS​

One of the ways you can fix high CPU usage on macOS is by updating your Mac. Apple frequently releases macOS updates that contain fixes for bugs and glitches.

So, if none of the solutions above work for you, then you should check if any software updates are available for your Mac. Click on the Apple logo in the menu bar and go to System Preferences .

Click on Software Updates and if you see any updates there, click on Restart Now to start installing it.

Enjoy a Stable Safari on Your Mac

No one likes a slow browser. Safari is one of the fastest browsers, but it's susceptible to problems, too. It often crashes, which can make anyone's browsing experience unpleasant. You can fix it by performing certain actions, such as clearing the cache and resetting it.

If nothing else works, you should check if you have any pending macOS updates. Safari crashing isn't a major issue, and with a few tweaks here and there, you should be able to improve your browsing experience.

Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

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imagoodshot

Safari crashes immediately on mac

How do I fix safari from crashing immediately on my Mac

iMac 27″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 5:58 AM

leroydouglas

Posted on Sep 29, 2021 7:27 AM

imagoodshot wrote:

Safari 15 crashes in Big Sur— a known issue

Quit Safari.app Command Q

From the Finder>Go?Go to Folder, copy and paste:

~/Library/Containers/Safari/Data/Library/Safari/

delete the following or move to the desktop to delete later

safaritabs.db

safaritabs.db-shm

safaritabs.db-wal

Re-launch Safari and test.

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Sep 29, 2021 7:27 AM in response to imagoodshot

PRP_53

Sep 29, 2021 7:23 AM in response to imagoodshot

Is this occurring on the newest Safari 15.0 ??

Does the same issue occur if booting into Safe Mode - Shift - immediately at restart. It will do a repair disc, clear cache files and only load Apple Software, extension and fonts so loads slowly - normal.

Then - test the Safari issue Crashing or not ??

Sep 29, 2021 8:39 PM in response to leroydouglas

You are really my saver. I have had this issue for a week. Doing what you posted save my sanity, too; just like "imagoodshot" said; I was concerned that I might have to spend money to fix this Safari problem.

Much Appreciate your GREAT help.

David Blaymires

Oct 20, 2021 10:51 PM in response to zeboo

The solution that worked for me was to go to this location using Finder:

Go to Folder: copy and paste:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Saved Application State

Then delete the file called windows.plist .

Safari then opened for me and worked normally. The joys of computers. 😁

Beckyjsc

Nov 14, 2021 1:12 PM in response to zeboo

Same here and I can not get it to load it just continuously finder wheel spins and it just hangs up doing nothing, thus whyI wonder if it can be reinstalled! I am not running Sur as my computer will not update to it - guess time to get a new one , it has been a good long run of 8+ years........

Saxman

Nov 22, 2021 6:47 PM in response to leroydouglas

OK, I applied the Solution, and when I reopened Safari, I saw a couple dozen empty windows!

So I then shut it down, and reloaded the safaritabs.db file, since it had about 240 mbs, which I figured were all the pages/tabs I had previously open. and of the other two files, one was empty, and the other only had 33kbs, which is what the new one also has, so I assumed it contained nothing relevant.

Well, when I reopened Safari, I now had two dozen, empty "Start pages", and when I looked in the folder I had put back in the large file, it was now EMPTY!

The very first time I opened Safari, when updating to Big Sur, I also lost about 40 or 50 previously opened tabs and windows, which was a royal pain, that I was never able to reconfigure, and now, I've just lost about the same number of ones I had open before applying this "fix". Any ideas?

Plus, Safari is still slowing, getting spinning balls, typing slow, dock is jittery when I put my mouse over it, and Windowserver is up to nearly 5 GBs of RAM & 85% of CPU, and that's with only three open windows, aside from the 20 blank ones! Just now I've lost all my previously opened ones, in other words it's now acting worse than before I used the "solution"....

Dec 26, 2021 10:00 AM in response to Saxman

Now, thanks to the Safari 15.2 "update" Safari now crashes upon opening! Won't even open, tried opening while holding the Shift key, as suggested on another thread, but all that did was empty any remaining open windows or tabs I still had, and still crashes upon opening. This is a big mess....

Dec 26, 2021 10:07 AM in response to leroydouglas

After following your instructions, Safari opened, for maybe one minute, then immediately crashed, yet again:

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)

Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Exception Note: EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal: Illegal instruction: 4

Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0x4

Terminating Process: exc handler [95772]

Crashing on exception: The window has been marked as needing another Update Constraints in Window pass, but it has already had more Update Constraints in Window passes than there are views in the window.

<NSWindow: 0x7ff77ce437c0> 0x129d (4765) { {100, 100}, {100, 128}} en

Sep 29, 2021 12:50 PM in response to leroydouglas

You are an angel! Thank-you for saving my sanity as well as a saving me a crap ton of money to fix my computer. I can’t believe it was that simple.

GFebres

Oct 10, 2021 12:10 PM in response to Mac2021Apple

It worked for me too, thank you very much. I had been running Firefox for two weeks after trying everything I could.

zeboo

Oct 16, 2021 12:57 AM in response to leroydouglas

Did not work for me, Safari still stalls and has to be forcibly closed

Jan 3, 2022 12:06 PM in response to David Blaymires

Thank you David, this is the only solution that worked for me. Nothing else was able to stop Safari from crashing within a minute of opening it!

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Safari crashing on Mac? 11 Ways to fix it!

Jibin

Safari has a series of commendable features, but once in a while, its loyal users may encounter crashes and glitches. If you are one of them, don’t worry. You can swiftly get your favorite browser back up and running by employing a few simple solutions. Follow this guide to explore the most common fixes to solve Safari crashes on Mac.

What to do if Safari crashing on your Mac?

1. force quit and restart safari.

It can be frustrating to experience Safari crashes on Mac whilst you’re in the middle of a task. But fear not; follow the following steps to troubleshoot this problem completely.

Click apple logo, force quit safari

  • Once Safari successfully shuts down, wait for a few seconds.
  • Now restart the web browser like you normally do.

While this process is plain and simple, it tends to do the job. As you access your browser again upon successful termination, any lingering problems or conflicts should be resolved.

2. Clear Safari cache on Mac

It is worth noting that if this problem persists despite forced quitting, then you must consider a more comprehensive solution. Safari, like any other browser, stores temporary files and data to provide a faster response to its users for future visits.

However, over time, this cache can become clogged with excess data or corrupted files, resulting in crashes. Let’s explore how you can clear the same.

  • Click the Safari option from the menu tab.

Click Safari, Settings in Safari

  • If you want, you can close the preference menu now.

Click Develop, Empty Caches for All Profiles in Safari

  • Now let the process run its course and quit Safari .
  • Wait for a moment before you restart the Safari browser.

Hopefully, the problem is now rectified. Moreover, this process is not solely dedicated to bringing your browser back from the dead but also enhances browser performance and improves security. By following these steps, Mac users can ensure a seamless browsing experience on Safari and minimize disruptions caused by crashes.

3. Remove Safari History and Website Data

If Safari continues to crash, you should consider removing its history and website data. There’s a high chance that any conflicts or errors might resolve occurring within your browser.

  • Click History from the menu bar.

Click History, clear all history

Clearing history and website data not only helps fix potential crashes but also improves browser performance by freeing up disk space. However, it’s important to consider that following this method may result in removing the preferences and settings you saved earlier.

4. Delete Safari Extensions

Removing all active extensions from Safari can turn out to be very effective.

Extensions are basically a helping hand leading users to upscaled accessibility. However, these can often get in the way, becoming the source of conflicts and instability. As a result, it becomes prominent to get rid of extensions to enrich Safari with uninterrupted performance.

  • Navigate to the Extensions menu.

Click extensions, select an extensiion, click uninstall in Safari

  • Further, Disable the respective extension.

Click Show in Finder in Safari extensions

However, before you adhere to this process, it’s important to consider all drawbacks regarding the process. Ultimately, upon complying with the steps discussed above, you may lose a saved password and setting preferences.

5. Delete Safari preferences

For those who have just had it with Safari crashes, let’s try something extreme – completely removing Safari preferences. This process will get rid of every misconfigured setting that might be hindering the browser.

  • Force Quit Safari following the steps discussed above.
  • Launch Finder .

Select Go, Computers in Finder

  • In this instance, you must locate all files starting with “ com.apple.Safari” .
  • Select them all and perform the Move to Bin action.
  • Ensure to clear these files from Bin as well.
  • Now simply restart your Mac.

Upon completing these steps, the application will create a new set of preferences removing all aspects saved earlier. However, stay cautious, as this process will remove all customizations or saved data associated with Safari.

6. Clear RAM

A potential solution to Safari crashing on your Mac is clearing the RAM. Over a significant period of time, our devices get burdened with a series of activities. So, if Safari crashes frequently on your Mac, it might be due to insufficient memory required for smoother browser performance.

There are many apps that can clear your RAM in a jiffy. So, take a deep understanding of these  Mac cleaner apps  and find what suits your preference.

Moreover, it’s highly recommended to perform this action on a regular basis so that you’re not bothered by such issues anywhere in the future.

7. Reset PRAM or NVRAM

However, if you do not want to try something as harsh as resetting your entire system, there is a way out. You could always opt to reset the  PRAM or NVRAM of your Mac . Remember, the M series Macs perform this action on their own.

However, on the older Macs, it is solely dedicated to resetting certain settings such as screen resolution, sound volume, startup disk selection, and even Safari-related preferences. Overall, by resetting these memory components, you can resolve possible corruption files disrupting the smooth performance of Safari.

But this process somewhat depends on luck. This solution cannot guarantee the complete retrieval of Safari in comparison to other discussed solutions. It is also advisable to back up important data prior to attempting any changes to system settings.

8. Boot your Mac in Safe Mode

If you’re experiencing browser errors while using Safari, you can investigate and troubleshoot the issue by delving into the system settings via Safe Mode. It will allow you to determine whether the problem lies with an incompatible or malfunctioning software or extension.

For those who are unaware of this process, don’t worry; we have got a dedicated guide to accessing  Safe Mode on Mac .

Upon successfully navigating to Safe Mode on Mac, launch Safari again. If Safari responds according to your commands, then it’s safe to assume that a third-party app is interfering with your system performance.

You must now exit Safe Mode and proceed to remove recently installed extensions or applications that could cause this problem.

9. Run Disk Utility

Disk Utility can also help fix Safari crashes on Mac. This tool is integrated into your macOS by default exactly to encounter such errors. Let’s see how you can execute this tool:

  • Launch Finder on your Mac.

Click Applications, Utilities in Finder

  • Choose your primary drive . It is most likely to be named Macintosh HD .

Click First Aid in Disk Utility

  • Now, let the process run its course.

Note that you will not be able to interact with your computer until this process is complete.

Upon successful completion of the process, simply restart your Mac and test Safari again to see if it continues crashing. This method not only resolves the issues tampering with Safari but ensures the overall performance of your macOS.

10. Update Safari and update macOS

Apple regularly rolls out updates with the consciousness of removing common bugs and an overall improvement to the entire system. So, there is a high chance that Apple will provide an application update to resolve this issue seamlessly.

The same verifies macOS system updates as well. If there is no dedicated update available for Safari, you can opt to update your macOS for an overall upgrade. This should contribute positively towards eliminating Safari crashes on Mac.

If Safari is experiencing an issue that cannot be fixed, it is likely that Apple will investigate and promptly provide an update to resolve all problems for the users.

11. Reset your Mac

For those who heavily rely on Safari for their work, this problem can be pretty annoying and frustrating. They should consider performing a factory reset on your Mac . 

This process will completely wipe away the entire cache, extensions, and plugins saved onto your device and mitigate crashes caused by conflicting software. Although, before you get started with this alternative, it’s wise to take a backup and store your important files away.

Contact Apple Support

Finally, if none of these steps prove successful, it may be worth contacting Apple Support or seeking assistance from a professional technician to further troubleshoot the problem.

They will guide you through more advanced troubleshooting steps or recommend potential software or hardware fixes tailored to your specific situation. You can further take part in Apple discussions to verify your concerns among fellow macOS users.

Explore and control!

Now that you’re equipped with the knowledge to combat Safari crashes on your Mac, you can confidently navigate the web without the fear of abrupt interruptions.

Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to boult your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.

  • How to lock Safari private tabs on iPhone, iPad and Mac
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  • Safari running slow on Mac? Easy ways to fix it!

Jibin

Jibin Joseph is an editor at iGeeksBlog and has excellent attention to detail. He is a voracious reader, with interests ranging from philosophy and history to geopolitics and tech. When not reading or correcting grammar, you’d find him engaging in discussions about football. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @4ibin.

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What to do if Safari keeps crashing

safari crashing osx

Does Safari keep crashing on your Mac, iPhone or iPad? Is Safari running so slowly on your Mac that you can’t use it properly? Is Safari just closing on your iPad without warning?

In this feature we’re going to look at what to do when Apple’s Safari web browser isn’t working properly.

There are a few reasons why Safari might be crashing:

There might be something going on in the background of the website you are visiting (or one you have opening another tab).

You might be running an older version of the software with an issue that has since been fixed.

A webpage might be using a plug-in, an extension or other software that has a problem.

Your Mac might be running low on memory or storage space.

There are a few other things that could be causing issues. We’ll look at each below and explain how you can fix, or avoid the problem.

See also: How to use the Safari web browser on the Mac and How to speed up Safari

The first thing to check is how many tabs you have open in Safari. Including any sites you might have ‘Pinned’ in Safari on your Mac.

If you are anything like us, you open new tabs in Safari (Command+T on the Mac, or + on iOS) without closing the one you have stopped using (after all you might need to return to it). Should content of one of these tabs continue to run in the background, then it might be causing an issue.

Each tab or Safari window takes up a little space in memory. Have too many tabs open and Safari starts fighting for resources with other apps, and it ends up running far more slowly than it should.

This is more likely to be a problem on the Mac than the iPad or iPhone, but it’s still worth following the advice below on an iOS device.

How to close multiple tabs in Safari on the Mac

  • Hold down the Option/Alt key and click on File.
  • Choose: Close Other Tab (if you don’t press Option/Alt you will only see Close This Tab.

Every page other than the one you are looking at will be closed.

Close multiple Safari windows on the Mac

If you tend to open many windows while you are using Safari:

  • Click on File
  • Close All Windows

How to close multiple tabs in Safari on iPad/iPhone

Multiple tabs open on your iPhone or iPad? While this shouldn’t cause issues in the same way it might on the Mac, because the tabs you aren’t using will be suspended (they can still be active on a Mac, playing video for example), you may still benefit from closing them all down (least of all because it gets very difficult to find the tab you opened yesterday if you still have tabs open from this time last year).

  • To close all your Tabs by tap and hold on the tab icon in the bottom right.
  • A sheet will open with the options: Close All [Number] Tabs, Close This Tab, New Private Tab, New Tab.
  • Tap on Close All [Number] Tabs.

Close tabs safari iphone

Check what’s responsible

Check what's responsible

You could also look to Activity Monitor to see if a particular site is being singled out for taking up a lot of resources.

  • Open Activity Monitor.
  • Click on Memory.
  • Sort by Memory to see what is using up the most of your RAM.
  • You can select that site in Activity Monitor and then click on the X to close that process.

The benefit of this method is that you can close the page that is causing the problem and keep other pages open.

Update software

Update software

Apple regularly updates Safari to address security concerns, so it may be that you are experiencing problems that have been corrected by an update (or problems caused by a software update).

You could start by checking what version of Safari you are running.

  • In the Safari menu on your Mac, click on Safari.
  • Click About Safari.
  • A box will pop up that states the version of Safari you are running.

However, your Mac should update Safari automatically whenever Apple releases an update to Safari, because Safari comes as part of macOS. So your version of Safari should be up-to-date as long as your MacOS is…

To check to see if there is an update to macOS you need to follow these steps:

If you are running Mojave:

  • Open System Preferences.
  • Click on Software Update.
  • Your Mac will check for updates before comfirming if your Mac is, or isn’t, up to date. If you need to run an update do so as this may fix any issues you are experiencing.

If you are running High Sierra or older:

  • Click on the Apple logo in the right corner of your Mac screen.
  • Choose Software Update.

It’s the same on an iOS device. The update to Safari will come as part of the operating system update.

To check if iOS needs to be updated:

  • Tap on Settings.
  • Software Update.

Note that sometimes it’s a software update that causes the issues you are experiencing.

For example, back in January 2016, many iOS and Mac users found that their Safari browser would crash every time they tried to tap the URL bar or open a new tab. The Safari app would close, forcing them to launch it again, only for the issue to reoccur.

The problem was reportedly caused by Apple’s Safari Suggestions, the feature that offers up automatically completed URLs as you type in the URL bar.

By the end of January 2016 Apple had apparently fixed the problem with an update, but it seems that for a few months that year Safari continued to be plagued by the issue on and off.

Clear website data and cache

Clear website data and cache

When you visit a web page in Safari it stores a copy of it in a cache. This copy enables it to load the web page faster next time you visit.

Sometimes the web will start to behave oddly if something goes wrong with the cache. Perhaps Facebook seems stuck on what it was displaying yesterday evening, for example.

The best way to fix this is to clear the cache.

How to clear Safari cache on a Mac

You can start by getting rid of all your website data, including your web browsing history.

  • Click Safari in the menu at the top of the screen.
  • Choose Clear History. In older versions of Safari this listed and Website Data as well, but in new versions Website Data is automatically cleared as well (unless you press Option/Alt in which case you see the option to keep Website history). 
  • This will actually clear data on all your devices that are logged on to the same iCloud account, so your Mac, iPad and iPhone can be done at the same time. Choose from the last hour, today, today and yesterday, and all history.
  • Make your choice (we recommend All History) and click on Clear History.

That clears your history, but if you want to clear your cache specifically, follow these steps:

  • Click on Safari > Preferences.
  • Click on Privacy.
  • Click on Manage Website Data.
  • Selecting the Privacy icon and clicking the ‘Manage Website Data…’ button.
  • You can delete all cookies and cache by clicking the Remove All button.

The problem with doing this is your Mac will ‘forget’ the autocomplete information you are probably used to it filling in, such as passwords and login details.

Another way to clear your cache is to use the Safari Developer menu to just clear the cache, leaving cookies and other info alone. We have more information about how to clear Safari cache here .

How to clear Safari cache on an iPhone/iPad

You can also clear your Safari cache on your iPhone of iPad. As with the Mac, we’ll start off by clearing your history and website data – which includes the cache. Here’s how to do that:

  • Find Safari (in the list with Passwords & Accounts at the top).
  • Scroll down to Clear Website and History data and tap on that.

That will clear all your history, cookies and other browsing data. Luckily it won’t change your AutoFill information.

It’s not possible to clear only the Safari cache on iPad or iPhone as you can on a Mac.

Remove Flash

Remove Flash

Flash is software used to play video and other interactive content. Many websites switched to HTML 5 some years back because it is less problematic. We think you’ll be happier if you get rid of Flash.

Here’s how to uninstall Flash Player .

If you need Flash for some reason – you may see a Missing Plug-In alert, make sure you have an up to date version and make sure you get it from Adobe . One of the favourite disguises of malware is as a Flash update.

Turn off extensions

Turn off extensions

Extensions (often called plug-ins on other browsers) provide additional functionality to Safari, but they can cause problems.

  • Choose Safari > Preferences > Extensions to see all the extensions on your system.
  • Deselect any extensions you don’t want to run, or even better, uninstall them.

Older versions of Safari had the option to turn off extensions. This setting is no longer available in Safari.

If Safari works better with all extensions turned off, you could go through your extensions one at a time to find out which one is causing problems. Use the check-box next to each extension and turn them all off. Then turn them on one at a time to see which one is problematic, and leave that one set Off until an update is provided.

There are dozens of extensions available for Safari. Read more about the new Extensions for Safari here. 

Turn off Virus scanners

Turn off Virus scanners

Virus scanners pay close attention to Safari, because it’s the Mac’s main portal to the internet. It should allow you to get on fine, but if you have a virus scanner try turning it off to see if that helps. If that helps try switching to a different virus program.

Use Reader mode

Use Reader mode

If you find Safari isn’t working for just one website, you could try viewing it in Reader mode.

  • Click on the icon that looks like a cluster lines on the left of the url/search bar.
  • This will open a Reader view of the webpage, removing some of the things that could be causing problems for you, such as adverts.

You can choose for that website to always divert to Reader view.

Just right click on the Reader icon and choose Use Reader Automatically on [website name].

We have more information about using Reader view here .

Delete preferences

Delete preferences

If you’ve tried everything else and Safari still doesn’t work you can delete the preferences from your Home/Library folder.

  • Quit Safari and choose File > Go To Folder in Finder.
  • Enter ~/Library/Safari/ into the Go To Folder Window (don’t miss the tilde ‘~’ at the start) and click Go. This opens your preferences folder.
  • Drag everything in this folder to Trash and restart Safari.

When you restart Safari it will recreate these files as if you have just performed a clean installation.

How to use the Safari web browser on the Mac

Use another browser

Use another browser

Alternatively, try using a different browser. Some websites, especially old sites, struggle with providing support for a variety of browsers. Read our article that evaluates the best Safari alternatives here: Best Mac Browsers and the same for iPhone .

Get more RAM or clear some space

Get more RAM or clear some space

It might not be Safari’s fault. If your Mac (or iOS device) is running out of storage space, or you are low on RAM it might be causing problems for any apps you are running.

You could look into making more space on your Mac – more info here .

Of you could try and free up some RAM . Or Install more RAM in your Mac .

We also have how to clear cache and free up RAM on an iPhone here.

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Safari Isn’t Responding, Keeps Crashing or Freezing, Fix

safari crashing osx

Safari is not working as expected? This article explains what you can do if Safari doesn’t respond, and keeps freezing or crashing on your Mac. You may also see the rotating color wheel or “spinning beach ball”. A lot of users are also reporting that Safari crashes when they open the Preferences pane.

Safari is a great and stable browser. However, performance-related problems (freezing or crashing) may still occur rarely.

You may also see “Safari quit unexpectedly” messages.

Safari Crash

An unresponsive Safari may cause your Mac to freeze also.

If you are experiencing this issue, please try the steps below. After each step, try to open Safari to see if your problem is fixed.

See also: Safari won’t open

Make sure that your Mac has the latest versions of the macOS software . Safari is included with macOS. Updating your Mac also includes updates to Safari. Here is how:

  • If you are using macOS Mojave or later: Go to System Preferences and Software Update. Alternatively, you can click the Apple menu > About This Mac > Overview and then Software Update. And if there is an update available, click the Update Now button then follow the onscreen instructions.
  • If you are using macOS High Sierra or earlier: Open the App Store on your Mac and click Updates.

macOS Update

2. Empty Cache in Safari

Emptying all Safari caches may fix your problem. It is a good idea to do this in Safe Mode because Safe Mode clears your Mac’s system cache and may repair issues. This is also a good idea because if your experience Safari crashes when you want to open Safari Preferences. Please follow the steps below:

  • Turn off your Mac.
  • Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold the Shift key.
  • Keep holding the key until you see the login screen. Then release the Shift key and log in.
  • Your computer is now in Safe Mode. Your computer may be slower in Safe Mode, this is normal.
  • Now go to the Finder.
  • From the menu bar, click Go and Go to Folder (or press Command, Shift, G keys together).
  • Enter the following and click Go:

Safari cache

  • Delete files by dragging them to the Trash.
  • Now exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac normally. Do not press the Shift key.
  • When your Mac turns on, and then try to open Safari to see if it now crashes or freezes.

3. Safari Extensions

You may be having this problem because of third party extensions you may have. There are two steps you should take:

  • First, make sure that if your issue caused by an extension.
  • If an extension is the problem, then we will need to determine which extensions are causing the problem. Here is how:

Please follow the steps below to turn off extensions to figure out whether they are causing the problems:

  • Open Safari and in Safari, click Safari and Preferences.
  • Click the Extensions tab. Then deselect all of the extension’s checkboxes to disable them.
  • Now exit Preferences and test Safari. If your problem is not fixed, you can now turn on the extensions as they are not the issue. If your problem is fixed, it means that your problem caused by one of your extensions. What you can do is to re-enable the extensions one by one until you find the problematic extension. When you find it, you can remove (by clicking the Uninstall button), update, or contact its developer for further help.

Safari Extensions

If your issue continues to persist, you may want to fully reset Safari .

safari crashing osx

Dr. Serhat Kurt worked as a Senior Technology Director specializing in Apple solutions for small and medium-sized educational institutions. He holds a doctoral degree (or doctorate) from the University of Illinois at Urbana / Champaign and a master’s degree from Purdue University. He is a former faculty member. Here is his LinkedIn profile and Google Scholar profile . Email Serhat Kurt .

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Safari Keeps Crashing on Mac

In this article you will find the following:

Every Mac comes with Safari installed by default, and as a standard part of macOS, it’s about as reliable as you could wish. But it’s not infallible. As with any software, one day, you may find that Safari keeps crashing on Mac—either closing itself down, freezing up, or acting erratically.

Before we start   Clearing your Safari caches is one of the quickest ways to fix frequent crashes, and there’s no easier way to do that than with MacKeeper Safe Cleanup . As well as removing corrupted browser files, Safe Cleanup clears all kinds of hidden junk that can make your Mac slow and unstable, including unnecessary log files, unwanted apps and extensions, and lots more.   Here’s how to use it: Download and install MacKeeper. When MacKeeper opens, select the Safe Cleanup utility. Select Start Scan to find Safari cache files and other junk. Choose the files you want to remove, be sure to select Caches , then click Clean Junk Files .
  • Why does Safari keep crashing on your Mac?

No matter what kind of Mac you use, or how powerful it may be, there are many reasons why you might see Safari quitting unexpectedly on Mac. It could be due to corrupted browser files, bad plugins or extensions, odd preferences problems, or incompatible third-party software.

Whatever the case may be, there are lots of simple solutions to fix a Safari crash on Mac. So, as long as your Mac isn’t past its best—which may be the case if your MacBook keeps freezing —it shouldn’t be difficult to eliminate the problem and get Safari working again.

  • How to fix Safari crash on Mac

When you find Safari not working on Mac , here are the fixes you need. Some are much easier than others, so we recommend starting with those first, and then moving on to the slightly trickier solutions if you find that Safari is still freezing or closing randomly.

  • Force quit Safari
  • Restart your Mac
  • Update your macOS and Safari
  • Boot macOS in Safe Mode
  • Create a new user profile
  • Clear Safari caches
  • Delete Safari history and website data
  • Uninstall Safari extensions
  • Remove Safari preference files
  • Reset PRAM or NVRAM
  • Run Apple diagnostics
  • Use Disk Utility

1. Force quit Safari

If Safari has locked up or frozen, you should first try to quit in the normal way, using Cmd + Q . If that doesn’t work, then force quit it instead, like so:

  • Press Command + Option + Escape on your keyboard.
  • In the Force Quit menu, select Safari, then click Force Quit .

The Force Quit Applications window in macOS displaying a list of all running applications. To force quit Safari, first select it, then click the Force Quit button.

2. Restart your Mac

Sometimes, your Safari crashing problems may be related to macOS rather than Safari itself. That problem may also be temporary, and for that reason, fixing it can be as simple as restarting your Mac.  

  • In your menu bar, click the Apple icon and select Restart .
  • Click Restart again to confirm.

The Apple menu on Mac showing a list of basic options. Click Restart to restart your Mac.

3. Update your macOS and Safari

Apple regularly releases new macOS updates and security patches. So, if your Safari issues are caused by a bug in the operating system, installing these updates may well eliminate it. Here’s how to update your Mac:

  • Open the System Settings app on your Mac.
  • Select General in the sidebar, then click Software Update .
  • If an update is available for your machine, you’ll see it here. Click Update Now or Restart Now to install it.

The System Settings app on Mac showing the General menu. Select Software Update to update macOS.

Your Mac will restart once the update is complete, and any Safari updates will have been installed as well. You can now try using Safari again to see if the issue has been resolved.

4. Boot macOS in Safe Mode

In some cases, third-party software can interfere with Safari and other built-in apps, causing them to become unstable. Booting your Mac in Safe Mode stops third-party software from running, which will help you confirm whether this is the problem. See how to do it below.

On a Mac with Apple silicon:

  • Shut down your Mac.
  • Press and hold your Mac’s power button until you see the Loading startup options on the screen.
  • Select your Mac’s startup disk .
  • Press and hold the Shift key , then click Continue in Safe Mode .

On a Mac with an Intel chip:

  • Turn on or restart your Mac, then immediately hold down the Shift key.
  • Log into your Mac when prompted.
  • You may be asked to log in again to continue.
Note from our team:    When your Mac reboots into macOS, you should see Safe Boot in the menu bar. Try running Safari now to see if the issue is still present. If it’s not and Safari runs normally, you’ll know that another piece of software is preventing the browser from functioning properly when you boot into regular macOS.   At this point, you’ll need to figure out which applications or browser extensions you installed before Safari started crashing. Uninstall them one by one, testing Safari each time, until it works without crashing.

5. Create a new user profile

Safari supports multiple user profiles on Mac. If the browser is crashing because of issues with your primary profile, you may find that creating a new one gets things working properly again. Simply follow these steps:

  • Open Safari , then click Safari > Create Profile in the menu bar.
  • Click the Start Using Profiles button if it appears.
  • In the Profiles menu, click the + button in the bottom-left corner to create a new profile.
  • Give it a Name and set the preferences to your liking, then close the Profiles menu.
  • You’ll now see a new button on the left of the Safari toolbar that allows you to switch between your different profiles. Click it, then select the new profile you just created to use it.

The Safari menu on Mac with a list of options. Click Create Profile to set up a new user profile.

6. Clear Safari caches

A lot of apps use temporary storage areas called caches, which can help improve performance by making certain information easier to fetch. However, these caches can sometimes become corrupted, which may cause Safari to crash. Clearing them and starting fresh should solve the problem. Try this:

  • With Safari open, select Safari > Preferences in the menu bar.
  • Go to the Advanced tab, then check the box next to the Show Develop menu in menu bar.
  • Now click Develop in the menu bar, then select Empty Caches .
  • After emptying your caches, restart Safari . Hopefully, it’ll have stopped crashing or freezing.

The Safari menu on Mac with a list of options. Select Preferences to start clearing Safari caches.

Hint from our experts:    An easier way to delete Safari cache files, as well as redundant system logs, temporary data, and other junk, is to use MacKeeper Safe Cleanup . It can not only help solve performance and instability issues but also free up a surprising amount of storage space on your Mac. Here’s how: Open MacKeeper , then select Safe Cleanup . Click the Start Scan button. Select the files you want to delete, ensuring that you choose Logs and Caches , in particular. Click Clean Junk Files to remove this data from your Mac. Step 1. Select Safe Cleanup > Start Scan Step 2. Choose the files to remove > Clean Junk Files

7. Delete Safari history and website data

Although it’s handy to keep a list of sites you’ve visited, clearing your Safari history can help with crashing and freezing issues. Not only does it clear your history, but it also deletes cookies, which store website data that can cause issues from time to time. Here’s how to wipe it all:

  • Open Safari , then select History > Clear History in the menu bar.
  • In the drop-down menu, select all history , then click the Clear History button.
  • Restart Safari to see if your issues have been fixed.

The History menu in Safari on Mac. Click Clear History to remove all history and website data from Safari.

8. Uninstall Safari extensions

Extensions are a great way to add new features to Safari, but they can cause problems too. Uninstalling extensions that may not be functioning correctly can be a good way to stop Safari from crashing or freezing. Follow these steps:

  • From the menu bar, select Safari > Preferences .
  • Open the Extensions tab.
  • Pick an extension, and click the Uninstall button.
  • If prompted, click the Show in Finder button.
  • Delete the extension as you would any other file by deleting it, then emptying the Trash can.

The Safari preferences menu on Mac displaying the Extensions tab. Select an extension you want to remove, then click the Uninstall button.

9. Remove Safari preference files

When you change settings in Mac apps, macOS stores your preferences in .plist files. Deleting your Safari preference files will reset your settings, which will often eliminate issues that have been inadvertently created over time. Here’s how to remove them:

  • Quit Safari if it’s running, then open Finder and select Go in the menu bar.
  • Hold down the Option key on your keyboard to reveal the Library option, then select it.
  • In the Library folder, open the Preferences folder.
  • Find any .plist files that begin with com.apple.Safari , and delete them, making sure to empty your trash afterwards.
  • Once you’re done, open Safari again and try it out to see if it’s more stable. Safari will automatically create fresh .plist files as you use it.

The Go menu open inside Finder on Mac. Select Library to go to the Library folder where you can delete Safari preferences files.

10. Reset PRAM or NVRAM

If you have an Intel Mac, it uses PRAM or NVRAM to store certain settings and preferences in a dedicated place. Resetting these using the steps below can clear any issues that have developed, which may solve any problems you’re having with macOS and its built-in applications.

  • Turn your machine back on, then immediately press and hold the Command, Option, P and R keys on your keyboard.
  • Release the keys after 20 seconds. Your Mac may restart during this time, and you may hear the startup chime or see the Apple logo more than once.
  • Eventually, your Mac will boot up as normal, at which point you’ll need to adjust any system settings that have been reset, such as display resolution and time zone.

The Apple menu on macOS displaying some system options. Select Shut Down to shut down your machine.

11. Run Apple Diagnostics

If you’ve tried all of the above and Safari still isn’t fixed, you may have a more serious issue with your Mac. You can run Apple diagnostics to identify potential issues with your hardware.

On a Mac with Apple Silicon:

  • Press and hold the power button on your machine until you see startup options.
  • Press and hold Command + D on your keyboard to start Apple Diagnostics.

The Apple menu on macOS displaying some system options. Select Shut Down to shut down your machine.

  • Turn on your computer, then immediately press and hold the D key on your keyboard.
  • Release the D key when you see a progress bar, or you’re asked to choose a language.
  • Wait for Apple Diagnostics to finish.

The Apple menu on macOS displaying some system options. Select Shut Down to shut down your machine.

Important: If holding down the D key on your Intel Mac doesn’t work, you can try holding Option + D instead.

Once Apple Diagnostics has finished checking your Mac, it’ll show you a reference code. “ADP000” indicates that no issues were found. If you see another code, you can find out what it means on Apple’s website.

12. Use Disk Utility

If you have issues with other stuck software as well as Safari, and Apple Diagnostics tells you that your hardware is fine, you may choose to reinstall a fresh copy of macOS. You can use Disk Utility to do this:

  • Back up your Mac using iCloud, Time Machine, or whatever method you prefer. You’re going to be wiping your Mac’s startup disk, so any data you haven’t backed up will be lost.
  • On an Apple silicon Mac, shut down your machine, then press and hold the power button until you see an Options button. Click Options , then select Continue .
  • On an Intel Mac, shut down your computer, then turn it back on while pressing and holding the Command + R keys.
  • In macOS Recovery, select Disk Utility , then click Continue .
  • In Disk Utility, select your Mac’s startup disk in the sidebar, then click the Erase button.
  • Type a name for your drive, select the APFS format , then click Erase .
  • When the process is complete, select Disk Utility > Quit Disk Utility in the menu bar to return to the macOS Recovery menu.
  • Select Reinstall macOS , then click Continue .
  • Follow the steps on the screen to install a fresh copy of macOS.

macOS Recovery on Mac with a list of recovery options. Select Disk Utility, then click Continue, to wipe your Mac's startup disk and install a fresh copy of macOS.

Wiping your startup disk will remove Safari from Mac , as well as all other applications, files, and other data that may have become corrupted. Reinstalling macOS gives you a fresh copy of all built-in apps, which should eliminate any issues you had before. You can then restore your backed up data to your machine.

  • How to prevent Safari Mac from unexpectedly quitting

If you find that Safari sometimes quits unexpectedly, this is usually the result of a bug, a bad extension, or a lack of resources on your Mac. To prevent this from happening, try clearing your RAM with MacKeeper’s Memory Cleaner.

  • In MacKeeper , select Memory Cleaner in the sidebar.
  • Click the Open button.
  • MacKeeper will show you how much RAM is being used. Click Clean Memory to clear any data that’s not necessary.
  • You can also use the Smart Uninstaller to remove any unwanted software from your machine, which will prevent it from running in the background and eating up your system resources.

The Memory Cleaner tool inside MacKeeper on Mac. Click Open to start it.

When Safari starts acting up and keeps crashing on your Mac, there’s usually a simple way to fix it. Try the troubleshooting steps we’ve outlined above to get it working normally again. If the easier fixes aren’t successful, you may want to look at reinstalling a fresh copy of macOS or checking for hardware issues.

The most effective way to clear temporary Safari caches and other data that can cause your Mac to become slow and unstable is by using MacKeeper’s Safe Cleanup . It takes just a couple of clicks, and it safely removes all hidden junk, freeing up plenty of storage space.

1. What to do if Safari won’t open

First, go force quitting Safari or restarting your Mac . If this doesn’t work, try some of the other Safari fixes we’ve outlined in the article above.

2. Can a slow internet connection cause Safari to crash?

A slow or unstable internet connection shouldn’t cause Safari to crash completely. It may be slow or won’t load webpages, but if it keeps crashing, that’s a sign of a bigger problem.

3. Will clearing Safari cache and cookies delete saved passwords?

Clearing your Safari cache won’t delete any saved passwords, but clearing cookies might, depending on how your passwords are saved. If you use iCloud Passwords or another password manager, there’s no need to worry because all your login details will be saved there.

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Troubleshooting, troubleshoot safari freezes & crashing in mac os x.

Fix Safari crashes and freezing in Mac OS X

Some Mac users have discovered the Safari web browser has become significantly less stable after updating to some versions of Mac OS X system software including OS X El Capitan, OS X Yosemite, and MacOS Sierra. This can range from periodic crashes of Safari that never happened before, to Safari freezing up entirely, to Safari outright refusing to open as it crashes immediately upon launch.

Troubleshooting app crashes can be frustrating, but there are some tricks specific to Safari that may help to resolve instability with the Safari browser. If you’re experiencing Safari crashing or freezing on a regular basis under Mac OS X whether in Yosemite or newer and you’ve already reset Safari to no relief, follow each of the steps below. If all fails to resolve the problem, we’ll offer a reasonable workaround too.

1: Update to the Latest Versions of Software

Often simply updating to the newest version of Safari and OS X is enough to remedy random crashes, particularly if the cause is due to a known bug that has since been fixed. Many users fall behind on software updates, which makes this an easy first recommendation.

As usual, you should do a quick backup before updating system software.

  • Go to  Apple menu > App Store > Updates and install any version of MacOS X and/or Safari that are available

This alone can often fix a problem with Safari crashing of freezing out. For example, if you’re on Mac OS X 10.10, updating to 10.10.1 or later with Safari 8.0.2 may be sufficient to fix the freezing or crashing issues.

Some beta users have reported that Safari has become more stable under the latest beta versions, which typically are a few weeks behind a wider release. This further suggests that updating to the latest version when it is available is a good idea.

When you relaunch Safari, immediately clear the recent web data and try to visit the website(s) that were causing issues. Things just may be working fine now, though sometimes resetting Safari will do the trick too.

2: Ditch Safari Caches Manually

You can manually remove all caches pertaining to Safari by going into the User Library folder and making some targeted moves. We’re going to recommend doing this in Safe Mode because booting into OS X Safe Mode dumps some system caches as well.

  • Reboot the Mac into safe mode by restarting and immediately holding down the “Shift” key
  • From Finder, hit Command+Shift+G and enter the following path:

~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/

  • Remove Safari caches manually by placing them into the Trash
  • Restart the Mac again, this time normally
  • Open Safari as usual

If Safari works fine at this point, you shouldn’t need to do anything else. If problems persist, carry on with the next steps.

3: Disable Third Party Extensions & Plugins

Flash is notorious for causing problems, and many other video and animation plugins can be problematic as well. The Adobe Acrobat reader plugin has also been known to cause issues with Safari in Yosemite. Either disabling or removing these extensions and plugins can often remedy a problem specific to a plugin, like if Safari only crashes when a Flash video or Silverlight animation is loaded.

  • Quit Safari (if it’s open and hasn’t crashed yet)
  • From the Finder, hit Command+Shift+G and enter the following path:

/Library/Internet Plug-ins/

  • Create a new folder on the desktop called something like “Plugin Backups”, and drag suspect third party plugins into that folder – you’re placing these into an accessible folder so you can easily undo the change by moving the plugin back to the origin if necessary
  • Relaunch Safari

This is a bit more advanced, so you should have some familiarity with what third party plugins you installed yourself and what comes native. Focus exclusively on third party plugins, do not remove plugins if you aren’t sure what they are or if you have no idea what you’re doing.

Similarly, getting a new version of Java can also be helpful if the difficulties only occur with sites that make prodigious usage of Java.

4: Safari Still Crashing? Chrome or Firefox to the Rescue

If Safari is still experiencing persistent issues, your best bet may be to use Chrome or Firefox for the time being. Both are free and excellent web browsers, my personal preference is for Chrome but many users adore Firefox. Try out both and going with what you prefer:

  • Get Firefox free from Mozilla
  • Get Chrome free from Google

Using another browser is obviously more of a workaround than a solution. This may be the only option left until another system update to OS X or a bug fix release for Safari is made available, which could remedy a specific problem you’re experiencing.

Have you experienced problems with Safari crashing in OS X 10.11, 10.11.5, 10.10, OS X 10.10.1, or OS X 10.10.2? Did you resolve the issue, and how? Let us know in the comments!

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Related articles:

  • Safari Web Content “Not Responding” on Mac? Fix the Beach Ball with These Tips
  • How to Remove Safari Extensions on Mac
  • How to Turn Off Split Screen in Safari for iPad? Exiting Safari Split Screen in iPadOS
  • Resolving Problems with OS X 10.11.4

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I am, I bet, much older than you. And my story, with the free Apple classes by the Columbus Ohio school system was my first computer contact. I am crying, for I too, miss Steve and his dedication to perfection FOR those of us who purchased his dream. His picture is in full color on my desktop MAC. Sometimes, quality only comes around once. Your comments put you right up there with Steve. Real people still care. Some others do not. P.S. I’ve been looking at new computers ( my Mac os is 14 1/2 years old!!) Honestly , do not know what to do.

Sierra 10.12.1. Safari 10.0.1

Safari crashes the moment I open preferences. Seems Safari trying to connect with Apple payment service (!!?) as I see this in the stackdump and it can’t handle a no-go.

-[PrivacyPreferences _updateApplePayPreferenceVisibility] +30 +[FeatureAvailability isApplePayAvailable] + 38 +[PKPaymentAuthorizationViewController canMakePayments] + 18 (PassKit + 27840) PKHasRemoteDevices + 60 (PassKitCore + 747565) -[PKContinuityPaymentService hasRemoteDevices] + 315 (PassKitCore + 629271)

Came in here looking to see if I could get Safari working again, I been a Chrome and before that firefox user for 6 years. I just hate having software that doesn’t work.

Looks like it can stay stuffed.

Long live Google and all its wonderful apps.

OS X 10.11.4 – Safari 9.1 – Macbook Air i7 (2011). Safari hangs. A lot. I check my activity monitor and it’s because the Flash plugin has stopped responding. I kill the process and all is well. For a minute or two. Then the whole process has to be repeated.

The curious thing is I also have an iMac i7 (2011), same level of OS X and Safari and it never crashes.

I put up with this for months. I could go days w/o a hang, now it’s almost constant. Finally changed my default browser to Chrome. Are they even supporting Mozilla anymore? I have not liked to use FF for years.

Periodically, I go looking for a fix. Try any number of “this worked for me” fixes, that didn’t work for me. Maybe it can be figured out one day.

iMac, 20.5 late 2009 3.06, 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 ATI Radeon HD 4470 256 MB

Yosemite 10.10.5

I upgraded to Yosemite (from Snow Leopard) quite a while back. In the last couple of weeks or so, Safari has started freezing and no sequence of keys will unfreeze it. This happens too often to my wife. After I do a Restart, I can go to the same exact site; and it generally does not freeze again. I use Firefox most of the time, but my wife only uses Safari.

You may find OS X El Capitan to perform better than Yosemite, it usually does on most Macs. As long as you backup with Time Machine first, you can always reverse course if you decide to later. Always backup before system upgrades.

Chrome also performs quite well typically too.

Something to consider, anyway.

no one knows

none of this worked safari still crashes

Update OS X, it works. If you have junked up the Safari browser with weird plugins and cruddy extensions then you have mucked it up yourself so you need to remove all that crud and don’t install it again.

Otherwise use Google Chrome, the CHrome browser is reliable alternative. Do not install browser extensions, anywhere.

I just need to tell you how much you helped me with this article. THANKS. In fact, whether or not Safari continues to crash, which only happens occasionally (and i only did Steps 1 and 2), you’ve shown me how to free up over 9G of space on my hard drive. I’m so impressed!

On my Mac it says safari cannot run as it is being updated (or something like that) but it is saying that since 2 weeks, pls can someone tell me why of how I can fix it

Safari was running fine for me until I upgraded to 10.11

Same here. I’ve been having constant issues ever since the update.

RIDICULOUS! My business runs software on the web and it cannot be accessed with a 2000$ computer. Safari freezes, chrome freezes, firefox freezes and yes, opera freezes the software i need to run my business. F YOU APPLE!

All, my safari crashed continuously after I upgraded to OS X Yosemite. Thought that was the cause. After lots of reading and trying different things, the solution for me was to remove Genieo, a malware

Hope it may help others to.

Hi I have yosemite and i had also the same problems with safari especially with Facebook. Tt didn’t run, always freezing. i have done all the steps but the problem was still happening.

when i uninstalled the AdBlock i noticed when i clicked on a link a window of Mackeeper opens, i searched and it was a malware. I followed the steps to scan. After restarting safari seems to run normally especially with Facebook.

hope that may help.

The Apple I used to love is ROTTEN! Upgrading to Yosemite (mac mini) and OS-8 (iPad 2) has been the worst experience I’ve ever had since the launching of Windows Vista. ESPECIALLY with Safari. In both devices I cannot run multiple pages, and opening anything is a matter of luck. No wonder I just pulled out from the drawer again my very old Dell-PC with Windows 7, which is incredibly more stable than that Apple crap that has become close to useless! I just hate the dictatorial way Apple has to block users from downgrading. It costs you an arm and a leg for an equipment that you can’t even call yours.

I don’t think the issue is the OS. I bet the OS works perfect on a new Mac. I think the issue is Apple doing something with each update so you have to buy a new mac every 2-3 years.

OS X Yosemite is just a terrible software update, it runs poorly on everything. OS X El Capitan is much better, and so is OS X Mavericks. Use either of those, do not use OS X Yosemite, it’s a piece of garbage on any hardware. I do not recommend it to anyone.

Well, here is the miracle cure that worked for me. I was having trouble with Safari not launching, not opening dialogs, sluggish Finder, mail, system prefs — EVERYTHING was snail-paced. I tried resetting Safari, deleting files, repowering many times, alternate browsers(functional but also slow). Then I did GetInfo on Safari.app. In the permissions it showed 2 entries for everyone. One was set to read-only, the other to read-write. I had not seen 2 settings for everyone before, so I set the second one to read-only. Bingo – instantly everything was full speed again. I rebooted to be sure, and all is wonderful again. Good luck.

Weird indeed… in the info under Sharing & Permissions there are two entries for Everyone?! One was set to ‘custom’. After changing the ‘custom’ to ‘Read only’ things started to get a bit more responsive again. No crash yet… :)

I had given up on Safari after the release of Yosemite. Slow performance, hangs, freezing, etc. Safari had become non-functional. I tried all of the remedies listed above, as well as others, but after brief period of nominal performance, Safari reverted to the unusable state described above.

With the release of OS X 10.10.3 and Safari 8.0.5, I decided to give it another whirl. To my amazement, Safari is now working like a charm. I have made it my default browser again, and will use it unless and until the old Safari problems return.

The only change I have made was to upgrade my MacBook Pro with an SSD drive.

Do you suppose Apple finally fixed it? And why did they have to pretend that there was nothing wrong for the last four months? It’s like dealing with North Korea!

Can Apple be held legally responsible for the effects of Yosemite?

If seems that everyone who updated to Yosemite, now has a problem with their computer. I can’t believe that Apple didn’t know of the effects this would have on older macbooks! With the salaries they are on, surely they must have tested this program before releasing?? I’m afraid Yosemite is a virus which damages your programs and Apple should provide compensation!!

Yosemite has damaged my computer and I am furious with Apple. Why was this program not tested before being released!? After many many years with Apple, I have finally decided to go back to a PC. Apple has messed up big time and I’m not going to be ripped off any more!

I think its funny how the Apple Keynote boasts its head off, about Safari, but that safari is almost deprecated on most modern multimedia websites, and is getting worse and worse. I call it ‘Netscape 2’

They even brag ‘more powerful’ which means ‘we switch off all plugins, flash, ajax, json and java, to give you a dead web page experience with loads of non functional aspects of the page. This is all in order to allow our weak piece of a browser to pretend its ‘more powerful’

They are so busy bragging their heads off about how good they are, that they don’t even realise that their OS is getting worse and worse, instead of better. Me, I’m still on iOS 8.1 and OSX Mavericks because of it. I tested Yosemite Beta and saw immediately how the messages and mail app and iCloud went ‘boom’ and stopped working, and when i saw they were going to take away my favourite slideshow movie maker (iPhoto) with the new ‘Photos App’ – well, that was it for me. As for youtube and Safari.. all i can say is that safari is almost completely deprecated, and not worth using for Youtube or any other similar websites with Video or Flash, Json or AJAX based scripts.

The moment I installed Yosemite, Safari stopped working.

It freezes and will not open (pinwheel of death)

Force Quit is not an option, whether from the Safari icon in the dock or from the Apple menu bar (whole Mac is frozen)

No other programs are usable (whole Mac is frozen)

I have to power-button-shut the Mac down and reboot.

I use Chrome now mostly, and Opera a bit (I used to love Firefox but it uses over 1 GB of RAM now). I use “Choose Wisely) which allows me to select which browser to use for everyone out-of-browser link, but every now and then something will try to an OS system-initiated auto-open using Safari and I’m screwed.

Really angry with Apple about this one.

I have the exact same problem, having to hard restart since nothing is usable once Safari locks up. I even took my mac to the Apple Store to no avail. They told me to clear the cache and plugins and it should work ok. This problem has been going on for some time. I think since 10.6. I’m running iMac 27, late 2009, with i7. I have a Macbook Pro early 2011; never happens on the Macbook.

My problem with safari in OS X 10.10.2 is when I navigate in Youtube: My macbook pro completely hangs. But when I navigate in others websites (not youtube) all is fine, responsive and never hangs.

3 days without navigate in youtube and all works fine, 1 day using youtube 1 time hangs all.

I gave up using Safari on several sites. When I getting login window and starting to type my username Safari shows the running rainbow wheel and freezing. The rainbow wheel disappears and the mouse pointer as well. Killing the Safari helps to get the mouse pointer back. I have tried cleaning up cache, history and all kind of solutions from different forums. Nothing helps. The only one solution what was working is install Firefox. Firefox just doing what it needs to be done; starting up, getting to my site after typing URL, giving me the proper window to be able to login. And all of it already for many weeks without cleaning up the cache, history, reboot etc.. I have no any idea why Safari has problems with it but I just gave up, good bye Safari, hello Firefox! ;)

I think after 10 years i will be going back to a pc problems with the iPhone 6 my iMac shotty customer service, i have had enough with apple. I knew this would happen when Steve Jobs died

i have same problem and finally i decide to reinstall Os after this my problem is solved

I suspect when the final history of the Mac (and Apple) is written, 10.6 Snow Leopard will be regarded as the “High Water Mark” of the Mac’s sweeping evolution.

I have been a loyal Mac user for DECADES, going all the way back to the 512k “fAT mAC” that I first booted up as a high school student. I have been more or less a fan ever since. I even held on through the last few painful iterations of OS 9, which essentially collapsed under its own weight. Enter (er, re-enter) Steve Jobs, Next OS, cum OSX, and all of that pain – we were led to believe – was history.

Now, it seems, history is repeating itself.

The last few iterations of Mac OSX – 10.7 through 10.10, have all in various ways offered headaches that (IMHO) more than offset the marginal benefits of any improvements they provided. The iPad was (and is) an incredible product. But in their efforts to turn our Macs into an extension, and in some ways a clone, of our iPads, Cook and Co. are destroying the Mac and the future of the Mac ecosystem.

My G4 Powerbook would run for months – nay, years! – on 10.4 without need for a reboot. Just put it to sleep, and it would wait patiently until you are ready to work again. The system was solid as a rock and bulletproof. And it would cold boot – if you wanted to – in less time than it took you to take a sip of coffee.

10.5 was the first sign that Apple could mess up OS-X if it set its mind to, but happily 10.6 / Snow Leopard provided a return to the streamlined code and architecture that OSX Macs, prior to 10.5, were becoming famous for.

I hear my detractors telling me that – well Yosemite can do all these things like dial your iPhone and take calls!!! Am I the only one that remembers 10.4 offered BT connectivity to just about any bt-enabled cell phone and it would dial your calls for you also, until Apple decided to strip that function out of the OS?

When Apple was running “Im a mac and I’m a PC” and they told you just to plug it in and it “worked”, did you see whole forums like this one devoted to error trapping in Safari and what caches to delete in order to be able to use the Internet?

Against my better judgment I recently upgraded to Yosemite from 10.9. It has gone from bad to worse. My most modern MacbookPro, which is about a year old, is current and crashes at least once a day. Sometimes 4-5 times a day. Meanwhile, my 2009 Macbook Pro, which I intentionally never updated past 10.6, runs for weeks at a time, like a tank, just like my old G4 Powerbook (which is still running, by the way!).

And the even sadder truth is it is not just OSX – look at the recent evisceration of Pages and Numbers. Fairly great – but not miraculous – software that has now – in the new iterations – been rendered nearly worthless and (again, IMHO) completely unusable for the professional user. And what about what Apple has just done to it’s loyal Aperture use base? Don’t even get me started on that one….

The fact is Apple made fun of the “crap-lets” that used to come pre-installed on most Windoze PCs, but the App Store (another hallmark of iOS that was migrated over to the Mac) has for the Mac (again, IMHO) generally degraded the overall quality of software in the Mac ecosystem — to include OSX, what remains of Apple’s application software offerings, and even – sadly – the stuff from third party developers. It appears that, in the software marketplace, the end user may have benefited from certain barriers to entry for producers that the App store seems to have eroded, if not eliminated. An astonishingly high proportion of the software in the App store is just crap. Including, even more astonishingly, a lot of the stuff that has Apple’s name on it.

I miss Steve Jobs. I miss the Apple I remember circa 2004. I am starting to look around for the “next” solution that I will embrace. I would not buy a Mac today with Yosemite on it.

Wow, thanks for letting me rant. I feel better!

yes, right. Mostly cache/memory is the culprit to freeze and crash Safari. Moreover, I open many tabs simultaneously to see that Safari works well or not.

I wouldn’t currently recommend Firefox as an alternative. Since Yosemite Firefox, my default browser for many years, is constantly freezing and crashing. Erratic performance and slow speeds have pushed me towards Safari and I have (yet) to experience any issues with it.

I have been experiencing this issue for quite a while. For the most part I would say, it’s the flash content that is been causing the sluggishness and the spinning beach ball.

I have used the latest versions of OS X for the past 5 years without any issues on my late 2009 iMac. Yosemite changes all that. This release is a disgrace for Apple. My system fails and automatically reboots 2-4 times a day; takes more than a minute to reboot; locks up at times. I constantly send reports to Apple and have done most every suggested action to fix the problems. Nothing works. Model Name: iMac Model Identifier: iMac10,1 Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz Number of Processors: 1 Total Number of Cores: 2 L2 Cache: 3 MB Memory: 12 GB Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00 SMC Version (system): 1.52f9

I have had no issues with safari except for a random “This page is not responding” which ends up it is working just fine. Mac Mini mid 2011

I had issues from upgrading to Yosemite – the first website visited would always take around 30 seconds to render, even the Google search page. It also did this in Firefox.

A lot of searching and trying the usual fixes never worked, but my bank had pushed security software on me last year, called Rapport. I was never happy about this, so in the end, I uninstalled it completely.

All my problems vanished, Safari works perfectly now.

And…I can still access my bank without Rapport, so why did I need it?

It seems this is used by a lot of banks, so worth checking.

Just check the title of the posts here. Lately, most are fixes and repairs more than how-tos and enhancements. Shows well how Apple has been releasing defective stuff lately.

Excellent, thank you! I wish that had been explained correctly on the other sites that suggested the Library. Which file would be my history preference file, the history.plist?

Amanda, there is an entire article that tells you exactly what to do to troubleshoot Safari freezes and crashes, including what cache files to remove and where to do it. You should start by reading that article, the link is here:

https://osxdaily.com/2015/01/18/troubleshoot-safari-freezes-crashes-mac-os-x/

This begs the question, how did you possibly end up here in the comments without reading the article about fixing Safari?

The above tutorial explains what cache files to remove, the history data can be removed from the Safari menu. This explains clearing history and other data from Safari.

https://osxdaily.com/2014/11/28/clear-recent-web-history-safari-mac-os-x/

Both should be helpful as you troubleshoot whatever issue you’re experiencing with Safari

What on earth do I do if I have no Safari folder in my library? At all. Nothing.

I’m guessing that’s strange? I certainly find it strange.

If you use Safari you have a Safari cache folder. Make sure you’re in the proper user ~/Library folder and not /Library, they are different.

After upgrading to Yosemite, Safari was the only “problem app” I had. It crashed, immediately, upon launching (i.e. went unresponsive), necessitating a force quit. Deleting the cache didn’t fix the problem.

After hours of troubleshooting, it turns out the issue, for me, was my browsing history. I removed the history preference file from the Safari folder in the user Library, relaunched Safari, and it was working fine. I was able to replicate the problem by removing the newly generated history files and restoring the history files from my back-up. I relaunched Safari, my old history was back, and it completely locked up, again. Getting rid of the “old” history files and returning the “new” ones back in place fixed things, again.

I didn’t want to nix my history, but it was the only way for me to turn Safari from a paperweight back into a web browser that was capable of…you know…web browsing.

Other than that unfortunate problem, Yosemite has worked great on my 2010 MacBook Pro.

Really? So the random reboots during usage, and having to wait through 2-3 reboots during a cold start don’t bother you? How about when you tell the system to Shut Down and it starts back up, that isn’t something you consider a problem?

It used to be that when I was done using Windows at work, it was a relief to get back to my Mac. Now ever since I installed Yosemite it’s been completely the opposite. I’m really concerned about where Apple is going these days – it would be nice if they would confirm that Yosemite has all these problems and outline a roadmap on how/when it will all be fixed.

I haven’t tried it, but good detective work. Why can’t they do that in Cupertino?

Here in rural urban Southern Central Africa we have NO problems with the new OS 10.10.1 (waiting for .2 we do) and know how to stop the Black Screen Boot that was a problem on my MacPro Retina 15′ machine of recent purchase and ALL the available upgrades. Our ‘broad band’ is not as fat and wide as it should be but hey man, we have all the time in the tropics to chill and just enjoy this magic AMERICAN YOSEMITE OS … well until the next crazy OS10 is conceived and ‘C’ sectioned under much pressure from all of us ‘wanna up grade to fixing som’ting whats not busted’ mass gathering thingies …:-)

I’m glad things are going well in Africa. Visiting Africa is on my bucket list. You make an important point. Maybe we do expect too much. But that’s how we work in the the Apple culture. Steve Jobs (whom I miss as a human being as much a the head of apple) said “we will not put out crap the way other companies do.” I had my first run-in with the Safari issue yesterday. I re-installed the OS (no, it doesn’t erase your data), and felt extremely let down. I was going to a beta tester for El Capitan, but after this debacle, thank you, but no. I pay more for Apple because I expect more of Apple. If anybody thinks this is a problem, I have one word to say. Microsoft. Version 8 will make you laugh if you’re not crying. Apple will go to hell if we don’t keep our expectations high.

I’ll continue to use Mavericks as well until 10.10.03 emerges. I’ve heard nothing but ‘bad news’ from folks who have updated to Yosemite. For the novice user, especially having to jump through so many hoops to enjoy an average experience on the internet, it seems the logical choice.

Yes, I get crashes, but not too many. I am now on Beta 10.10.2. My ugly issue is Safari, preferences, passwords I cannot delete any line in the password file. This started when I went from Maverick to Yosemite, no help yet, and the Apple store Genius bar said it is software specific. I reported it a few ways, but no help from anyone yet.

I agree, Maverick worked like a charm, did what it said, and how this hassle with Yosemite. I have about 10 things that do not work correctly all attributed to Yosemite. I move from Microsoft to Apple because of things like this, and now I am in the same sinking ship. I hope Apple bails us out SOON. Bill

I am still running Mountain Lion because I would wait a month or so after a new OS X release and would go to the APP store and read the reviews. A lot of them were bad, negative with several different problems so I would stay with what works. I have my iMac for a little over 3 years now and I usually buy a new iMac every 5 years. When i buy my next iMac, I will then be using the operating system that is most recent then. It is a shame that some people are afraid to update because of all the bugs and problems they read about. Apple should be made aware of this and see what this does to how they feel Apple is being run. I Hate to say this but Steve Jobs made Apple better and it is not the same since he passed away. At only 56, Jobs should have lived for another 20 to 30 years.

You should be able to upgrade to mavericks without any serious issues. Don’t go to yosemite yet though.

Good advice. Maverick, from what I read, seems to be fairly stable.

Just listening to all the pain makes me happy with Mavericks. Actually Mountain Lion worked even better except for not having the multiple display and built in calibration which is a help. Yes! It does appear Apple has worms in it now, the bite on the side must be oxidizing it rapidly. My Safari refused my FB page yesterday until a complete reset, including removing Web Content. The new Firefox works great but not as fast as Chrome. For the Sea conscious go for Chrome. For the discreet user, Firefox is a good alternative, but what about your key chain? I use 16GB Ram BTW.

Yes, but mavericks had it’s problems too that took a few months to work out if you will recall. I know I do, lol. Yeah, mountain lion worked better from the start. Yet again illustrating what most of us are saying here, which is apple is getting sloppier as time goes on. Or as I say, the longer tim cook is CEO, the worse things get.

As far as keychain, the problem with it is that apple doesn’t allow you to export password info. On purpose of course, that way you won’t use anything else. As far as web browsers, I’ve been online since 1993. I started out with windows until about 6 years ago when I got sick of that mess and changed to apple.

One thing that has been consistent for those 22 years is that web browsers on windows and mac are ALWAYS give and take. One will do certain things that others won’t and vice versa. There has never been and most likely never will be the one perfect browser.

There are certain sites that I can’t even run a video from their site on safari or firefox with all extensions disabled. Then it will play in chrome though. So often I use all 3 when I wish it could be just one.

I have had absolutely zero issues with Safari since upgrading to Yosemite. I have a few extensions installed along with Flash. I’m also running Java 8 downloaded from Oracle. My only issue with Yosemite has been on my MacBook Pro. There seems to be a bug with discoveryd that causes a problem with DNS after waking from sleep. This problem has persisted from 10.10 to 10.10.2. As of the latest 10.10.2 beta, I have not had this problem. Hopefully, this means that this bug has finally been squashed.

Ok, so you bring me to speak about the third out of many bugs that I have experienced. When yosemite wakes from sleep for me, it usually takes about 3 minutes before I can get control of my mouse and keyboard again. It seems to only happen when it sleeps for 5 or more hours.

Are they wireless? I don’t ever put my Mac mini to sleep, but after a reboot, I often have to click the button on my trackpad and hit some keys on the keyboard to get them to wake up. I can honestly say that I’ve never had a problem with any OS X upgrade that was really severe. They’ve all been easily resolved. It’s this discoveryd bug that I can’t fix, and it’s very annoying. It seems to pop up only when I really need my laptop the most. To make sure that I can get email after waking my MacBook Pro, I edited the hosts file in the etc directory to have the IPs of the email servers that I connect to. If DNS is not working, I will still be able to send and receive email.

Yes it is wireless. It SHOULD not make a difference though. Here again, we are trying to figure out how to fix bugs that apple shouldn’t have put out to start out with.

The “Reset” option linked above says there is a reset option available when Safari is clicked, but that has evidently gone away. Where can Safari be reset? Thank You.

“Go to  Apple menu > App Store > Updates and install any version of OS X and/or Safari that are available”

I suggest instead:

Go to System Preferences>App Store>Check Now

…if you don’t have automatic updates on. Of course, this is where you can set your Update preferences the way you want, if you haven’t already done so.

What’s stupid about this is that Apple assumes everyone uses automatic updates so they took the “Software Updates” shortcut out of the  Apple Menu, so, no matter which way, it takes more than one step to get there.

Also, I am on the public beta and I have to say Safari is slightly better, but will bog up and have same issues. Sometimes, closing and reopening Safari, it clears up on it’s own without resetting. At first Safari 8 is faster than Safari was with Mavericks, and it can return to being fast, but, it does not seem all that stable.

I think there are two factors to the real issues with Safari.

1) Memory…how things are being handled, memory allocation with the OS. I haven’t tried it, but, maybe turning off “Preload Top-Hit in the Background” would help, but, I doubt it because of 2):

2) With Yosemite Apple changed the way it accesses the internet. It’s technical and I don’t know if I can get my head around it, but, there’s an article that describes “as of OS X 10.10, mDNSResponder has been replaced by discoveryd” here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/01/why-dns-in-os-x-10-10-is-broken-and-what-you-can-do-to-fix-it/

For these reasons alone, I suggest, if you have not yet updated to Yosemite OS X 10.10, wait for 10.10.3. I used to wait for 10.x.3 on all previous releases, except Mavericks, because it will typically be more stable by then.

Lol. Yeah…… That brings me to speak of yet ANOTHER yosemite bug. I have mine set for automatic updates, but it doesn’t work. I still have to go in and do it manually.

As I type this, I am looking at my appstore app at the bottom with the same red 1 for the past 5 days. Meaning there is an update that isn’t installing itself. Waiting for me to do it. I am VERY computer knowledgeable and I am definitely not doing anything wrong.

I see a lot of supposed “fixes” on this thread. Most of which don’t work according to you guys. How about a new idea? Like apple getting it right for a change. Like the good ole days. Anyone remember those? Like when Steve Jobs was alive.

This makes me wonder, is the problem Safari? Or is the problem OS X Yosemite? Or is the problem both? Because Apple software is sure sloppy lately.

iOS 7, iOS 8, OS X Yosemite… what a mess. Can’t believe this is the richest company on earth and the software quality is this bad. Remember when things “just worked”? Can we get that again?

Or is it third party software?

Who knows which it is. Probably both. At any rate, yes they are getting VERY sloppy. I have been reminding people lately that the apple pipeline was set up to run pretty much on auto pilot for 3-5 years after Steve Jobs death.

That is to say, he already had things laid out and products designed for the next few years after he died. In other words, tim cook has had to do nothing more than follow through on Steven’s instructions.

Oh… about now, those few years are up. So now we get to REALLY see if tim cook is a good ceo. So far, EPIC fail! I had hope in him, but I’ve almost totally lost faith at this point.

I don’t care about his sexuality one way or another, but I think maybe he needs to turn over the CEO reigns to John Ivy and go do his gay pride parades, and push gay legislation. That’s where his focus seems to be lately. It’s damn sure not on apple!

Now they are talking about coming out with a stylus perhaps. I know that one certainly isn’t steve’s design. I’ll bet he’s cursing tim from his grave at this point.

Funny, but the only people who have to say “I don’t care about his sexuality, but” are people who then go on to say something bigoted. If you were hoping to slide by with the upfront disclaimer, you failed. Big Time.

It’s OS X Yosemite, it crashes and it’s just plain awful.

The new design direction that Apple took is terrible too with these tiny tiny font sizes. Has anyone found a way to increase the size 6 font in the Safari URL bar? Or has anyone found a way to make the light grey size 10 font in the title bar to be BLACK and size 14? Good lord Apple, who do you think uses your software? Can anyone out there read size 6-10 fonts?? Please give us an ability to adjust all fonts like there is in iOS, Bold and Size, this thing gives me a headache to use.

Yes, no doubt yosemite itself is a major problem. But so is safari. It has it’s own problems separate from yosemite.

Yosemite has turned out to be very unstable. Its a beta quality OS. While this doesn’t mean every problem you run across in Safari is due to Yosemite, I can tell you that I never use Safari (I dislike it) but I run into all kinds of problems in other browsers since “upgrading” to Yosemite.

After checking for updates, the first and most effective troubleshooting step is to create a new user account and test Sarai in that.

If it works in a fresh account, you will know that it is something specific to your normal account. If not, then it is a bigger problem.

Glad I’m not the only one with Safari issues. It sometimes runs ok other times I get the ‘pinwheel of death’ when loading a website and I have to do a force quit. When going into the first site after starting Safari I usually have to refresh the page before it’ll load properly. Never had any issues in Mavericks. Just hope they fix it ASAP

If you have the 1Password5 extension installed in Safari, remove it. It causes Safari 8.0⁄8.02 to crash and baulk.

I’ve had NOTHING but problems out of safari since updating to yosemite. Everything from netflix to youtube acts up. Along with just typical web surfing. It’s been on MAJOR pain. I have been considering the past couple of weeks moving back to firefox. JUST when I had started thinking safari had advanced enough to make it my browser. Which I did about a year ago.

Sidenote: Has anyone noticed the ungodly amount of ram that safari takes? About 5 gigs with just 5 open tabs on my imac. This is pathetic. Come on apple, start fixing stuff before you become the next microsoft.

Well, I do notice the ungodly amt of ram safari took up. but it normally occurs when I have too many facebook tabs opened. it must be something to do with the contents.

Nope. I rarely go on facebook and it is the same regardless. I can clean the cache, etc. Still no change. It’s an INCREDIBLE memory hog.

Yes facebook uses a lot of Json and AJAX. But thats the fault of Safari for not de-deprecating itself. It is not the job of the modern web and its development into the future, to slow down for Safari. it is up to Safari developers, to keep up with the race. Which they are not doing, and it will become a deprecated browser, most certainly.

Been using OSX in beta and continue to. Had a few issues in beta but no issues since it was officially released. Not sure what programs people are running. My guess it’s more likely third party apps not keeping up with updates. OSX has worked as good as any of the other OS Apple has released.

I run OS X 10.10.2 on my Mac and honestly I can’t tell the difference between it and the very first release of Yosemite. Safari freezes up on busy websites frequently but then resumes normal activity after about 10-15 second pauses. I think it’s a memory issue, and I have noticed that OS X Yosemite overall uses a lot more RAM than prior versions of OS X, so there is a lot of virtual memory usage. 8GB of RAM should probably be the lower limit.

Initially Chrome crashed a lot too but the new version seems to fix that, so update Chrome or download the latest version. At least that’s easy to fix.

All in all, OS X Yosemite remains a frustrating piece of software, haven’t experienced something like this on a Mac in many many years, perhaps since System 9. I wonder if it runs any better on brand new Retina iMac? Hard to want to spend $2999 when the experience is this sour on a barely 1.5 year old Mac, though.

I should mention I also tried out these terminal commands which were recommended on another site:

defaults write com.apple.Safari ShowFavoritesUnderSmartSearchField 0

defaults write com.apple.Safari NewWindowBehavior 1

defaults write com.apple.Safari NewTabBehavior 1

They did nothing for me to end the Safari stalling on page load thing, but there could be some success with others.

https://georgegarside.com/blog/how-to-fix-safari-8-crash-since-yosemite-dp4/

The only website I’ve had consistent trouble with is Comedy Central’s Daily Show. I can watch the videos on Firefox, but not Safari.

Otherwise, Safari seems to be working (barring the occasional beach ball).

Yep Yosemightwork reminds me of DOS ,sometimes it works usually it doesn’t . It’s even brought Firefox down to Safari standards. Sad end to my customer relationship with Apple after 20 years.

I upgraded to Yosemite on my Early 2011 15″ MBP and it now crashes every two days or so; NEVER HAD A SINGLE CRASH EVER before the Yosemite upgrade. My brand new Early 1015 13″ MBP also crashes randomly. Aside from all the apple apps that came with the new MBP, the only common 3rd party software on both machines is Parallels 10. I believe that I will try to go to Firefox for awhile and see if that solves the issue.

I’m with you G. Been using OS X since 2001, never had it crash before Yosemite but now it happens about once a week on my 2008 MacPro! Not to mention a bunch of other weirdness. IMO, Yosemite is not stable and should still be considered BETA.

Interestingly enough, I am going crazy with that problem too, and was blaming the hardware. Has anyone tried to do a clean reinstall of yosemite?

My machine is a beast iMac core i7 32gig ram and i am still having problems with slight random pauses especially while using safari. I would use an alternative browser but on the whole think Safari works best with the mac.

This also happens to me on safari since the update, however safari simply pauses for say 2-5 seconds max. However this is still enough to drive me mad, Before the update my iMac was buttery smooth but its not quite to that standard now even though the machine is very well specced.

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Safari Keeps Crashing on Mac? How to Fix

Quick Navigation

Solution 1: Clear Browsing Data

Solution 2: disable extensions, solution 3: disable or uninstall virus scanner, solution 4: delete safari preference files, solution 5:clear safari cache, solution 6:uninstall flash player on mac, solution 7: update your mac.

Summary: Is Safari freezing or crashing on your Mac? This post will help. Just follow the step-by-step guide on how to fix Safari when it freezes or crashes.

Some people complaint that after updating MacBook Air to macOS Sierra (10.12), the Safari keeps crashing every time they open it. So is there any idea on why Safari keeps crashing? And how to fix Safari on the Mac?

Why does Safari keep crashing or freezing up?

There are many reasons why Safari keeps crashing on iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air.

  • You are opening too many tabs at a time on Safari.

There are too many applications running on your MacBook, especially when your MacBook is running out of storage.

  • The site your are visiting has heavy flash, videos, plugins or other elements that overload Safari .
  • Safari has old or corrupted caches, cookies or downloads .
  • An extension or plugin in the Safari cause the problem.
  • Safari bug. For example, on January 2016, Safari on iOS & Mac OS X quit unexpectedly becaused of a bug caused by Apple's Safari Suggestions.

And to fix crashing Safari on Mac OS X, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey and more, you can try the following methods.

Quickest solution you can try: Force Quit & Restart Safari

You know, there's an old saying, there's a problem and reboot first.Rebooting can automatically fix many unexpected problems.

How do I restart my Mac? There are two ways to do this:

1st Way: Simply go to Apple > Restart from the menu bar to restart your device.

2nd Way: Press and hold the power button on your Mac until it turns off. After a minute, press the power button again to start your Mac.

If you are in an emergency situation, try the following steps first and then read the following knowledge to prevent the next crash.

When your screen crashes together and you can't click on the screen: Press Option + Command + Esc on your keyboard to automatically force you out of any application.

Force Quit | safari crash on mac

Step 1: Locate to Apple from the menu bar, click Force Quit.

Step 2: Select Safari and then click on Force Quit.

Select Safari | safari crash on your mac

Step 3: Wait thirty seconds and reopen the app to see if this resolves your issue.

Clearing old and corrupted browsing history (caches, cookies, etc.) can help stop Safari from crashing. Since you cannot open the browser right now, you can clear browsing data without opening Safari with Macube Cleaner , which can clean browser data, system caches, and more on your Mac.

  • Install Macube Cleaner on your iMac, MacBook.

Free Download Free Download

Click System Junk and hit Scan. When the scan stops, choose App Cache , find Safari cache and click Clean to get rid of the browser cache.

safari crashing osx

  • Choose Privacy > Scan > Safari. Click Clean to delete cookies, internet history, download history of Safari on your Mac.

safari crashing osx

Now you can open Safari and see if it crashes or hangs again.

Tip : If Safari or other applications keeps crashing because of insufficient storage on your Mac, you can also use Macube Cleaner to clean up the Mac and free up more space.

If you have installed extensions in Safari, it could be one of the extensions that cause Safari to crash.

  • On Safari, choose Safari > Preference > Extensions .

Set all extensions to off and see if the Safari quits unexpectedly again.

  • If not, you can narrow down the problematic extension by enabling them one by one.
  • When you find the extension, uninstall it.

safari crashing osx

Virus Scanners usually take much efforts to keep Safari clean. If there is something wrong with the virus scanner, it could make the Safari stop working.

  • Disable virus scanners on your Mac;

If your Safari stops crashing after that, uninstall the program and switch to another virus scanner.

Some users find the Safari start working after deleting preference file.

  • Click Go tab and hold down Option button until you see Go to Folder;

IEnter ~/Library/Safari/ and hit Go.

Delete all files on the folder.

safari crashing osx

However, the cache can accumulate over time, causing Safari to crash. To clear Safari's cache, go to the Safari menu and select Preferences. Next, select Advanced and click on the 'Show Develop menu in menu bar' checkbox.

Clear Safari Cache | troubleshoot safari on mac

Finally, go to the Develop menu and select Empty Caches.

select Empty Caches | fix safari crashing on mac

Flash player enables us to watch videos and play other interactive content on the web. But since now most websites have switched to HTML 5 or other technology, most websites works fine without Flash. So it is totally okay to uninstall Flash player on Mac.

  • Follow the tutorials on Adobe to uninstall Flash player on your macOS/OS X.

If the Safari crashing problem is caused by a bug or you cannot get the browser working after the above steps, your last resort will be software update. Since Safari is included in macOS, there is no way to update Safari separately.

  • To update Safari, you need to install the latest macOS on your iMac, MacBook.
  • If there is no update available, switch to Google Chrome and Firefox for a while and wait for the new Mac version to come out.

Safari on your Mac should stop crashing right now. To avoid the problem, you may clean Safari with Macube Cleaner from time to time to keep the data up-to-date.

clean Safari with Macube Cleaner from time to time to keep the data up-to-date.

Q1: How do I update Safari on my Mac?

Step 1. Open the App Store on your Mac.

Step 2. Click on the "Updates" tab located in the top toolbar.

Step 3. If a Safari update is available, you will see it listed here. Click on the "Update" button next to Safari.

Step 4. Alternatively, you can also click on the "Update All" button to update all your apps, including Safari.

It's worth noting that Safari updates are usually included as part of macOS updates. So, if you are running an older version of macOS, updating your operating system will also update Safari to the latest version.

Q2: Can conflicting extensions or plugins cause Safari to crash?

Yes, conflicting extensions or plugins can indeed cause Safari to crash on your Mac. Safari extensions and plugins are add-ons that enhance the functionality of the browser, but sometimes they can conflict with each other or with the browser itself, leading to crashes.

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safari crashing osx

If an app freezes or quits unexpectedly on Mac

When an app on your Mac stops working, try these suggestions.

safari crashing osx

If the app quit, reopen it by clicking Reopen in the dialog that appears.

Restart your Mac by choosing Apple menu > Restart.

Make sure the app is compatible with your version of macOS.

Open another file in the app. There may be a problem with the original file.

Check for updates to your software.

Disconnect any peripheral devices you just connected (for example, a printer). They may not be compatible with your version of macOS.

Uninstall any app plug-ins or enhancements from other manufacturers.

If you recently updated the app or macOS, a plug-in or enhancement you installed may no longer be compatible.

Diagnose problems on Mac to learn whether hardware you installed, such as additional memory, is incompatible, improperly installed, or defective.

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How to Read macOS Crash Reports to Troubleshoot Your Mac

Alexander Fox

App crashes on the Mac are generally pretty rare. But when they do happen, you might want to trace their cause. And if you’re a developer, you need to understand why your app is crashing. Here’s how to read macOS crash reports and sort through the cryptic language.

Also read: 8 Ways to Fix Unresponsive Apps and System Freezes on Mac

Opening Crash Reports

how-to-read-crash-reports-1

When an app crashes on your Mac, it automatically generates a crash report. You’ll see this appear after the crash with a warning dialog saying “ [App] has quit unexpectedly. ” That crash report is available to read immediately in that window by clicking the “Report …” button. The crash report can also be found in the Console app.

1. Open the Console application by typing “Console” into Spotlight or navigating to “Application -> Utilities -> Console.app.”

how-to-read-crash-reports-2

2. Click on “User Reports” in the left menu, then click on the crash report you want to view. All these files will end in “.crash” and include the date and crashed application in the title. The details of the crash report are available in the pane on the right.

console-read-crash-reports-2

Reading macOS Crash Reports

Let’s navigate the crash report from top to bottom.

What crashed?

console-read-crash-reports-3

The first part of the crash report tells you what “process” or application crashed. The most important part for the average troubleshooter is the process name.

When did it crash?

console-read-crash-reports-4

The second part tells us when the crash occurred. It also provides a little information about your system.

What caused the crash?

console-read-crash-reports-5

The next part is the most illuminating. The”exception type” provided by the application tells us what caused the crash. The log also reports which thread crashed: in this case, thread 0.

Apple lists some common exception types in their technical documentation:

  • Bad Memory Access ( EXC_BAD_ACCESS / SIGSEGV / SIGBUS ) – the program attempts to access memory incorrectly or with an invalid address. Appended with a code explaining the memory issue.
  • Abnormal Exit ( EXC_CRASH / SIGABRT ) – abnormal exit, typically at the hand of an uncaught C++ exception and calls to abort()
  • Trace Trap ( EXC_BREAKPOINT / SIGTRAP ) – like SIGABRT, but this exit gives the attached debugger the chance to interrupt the process at a breakpoint and trace the error.
  • Illegal Instruction ( EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION / SIGILL ) – the processed issued an instruction that wasn’t understood or couldn’t be processed.
  • Quit ( SIGQUIT ) – the process was terminated by another process with sufficient privileges. Typically, a watchdog process terminates a misbehaving process.
  • Killed ( SIGKILL ) – the process was terminated at the request of the system. A termination code will be appended to explain the exception.

As we can see from our crash report, the application tried to access unmapped memory. This is due to a programming error in the application or an unusual user state causing the application to map memory incorrectly.

What lead to the crash?

console-read-crash-reports-6

After that we see a reverse chronological list of what lead up to the crash. These are sorted by thread, starting with thread 0.

There are four columns to this report. The first reports the event’s number in reverse chronological order, starting at 0. The second is the process’s identifier. The third is the address of the process in memory. The fourth is the name of the program’s task.

This “backtrace” can be somewhat baffling. It’s “symbolicated,” meaning some of the memory addresses have been replaced with function names or application tasks. Sometimes this can’t be done completely, leaving unreadable memory addresses scattered through the report.

We see this in the crash report above: com.trankynam.aText is not symbolicated. Even with complete symbolication, it can be hard to read the backtrace. Sometimes developers include useful notes about application tasks and events. Other times, they’re cryptic titles or numerical code. If you can make sense of the symbolication, you might be able to understand what’s happening. But it’s equally as possible that you’ll need to have coded the application yourself to make sense of the backtrace.

Conclusion: Is This Useful?

If you’re a developer, reading crash reports is essential. It helps you understand what part of your application is crashing and why. If you’re a user, they’re not as helpful. But if you have a persistent crash, the crash reports can help you troubleshoot the issue or work with the developer to fix the problem. You might get a useful error code to Google or be able to provide tech support with the right information. If you want the gory details, you can read all about it in Apple’s technical note on crashes .

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Alexander Fox

Alexander Fox is a tech and science writer based in Philadelphia, PA with one cat, three Macs and more USB cables than he could ever use.

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How to Use the Mac Console App to Diagnose a Crash

Tom Nelson

And while an occasional crash can be frustrating, it’s generally not something to worry too much about. Stuff happens, and you can think of it as one of the many reasons you have a good backup system  in place. (You do, don’t you?)

Now, when a crash starts occurring on a more regular basis, or you notice it always happens when x event occurs, it may be time to start delving into the crash and discover what may be causing the problem.

In this Rocket Yard Guide, we’re going to take a look at using the Console app to track down the cause of a system or app crash. With any luck, the Console app will be able to help you resolve the problem that’s causing the crash, or at least give you a good idea of what’s going on.

What is the Console App? Back in the early years of computing, the console was a terminal that was attached to a computer to monitor the status of the system. If you go back even further, the console may have been a bank of meters, lights, and switches that indicated how well the computer was operating.

safari crashing osx

The Console app included with the Mac is a modern-day version of the old computer console; its primary job is to help you monitor how well your Mac is operating. It can do this because of its ability to display logs, status, and error files your Mac’s operating system and individual apps generate as they’re running.

Log Files There are a number of different types of files that apps, processes, and the system generate as they work; you can think of them as a journal or diary of what’s going on at any point in time. While there are diagnostic files, crash files, log files, and a few other types, we’re going to refer to them collectively as log files. And for the most part, they can all be read by the Console app.

safari crashing osx

The Console app can also look at process messages, and a few other real-time events, but we’re going to concentrate on looking at log files to discover what happened in the past, such as when the system or an app crashed.

Introduction to Console Even if you haven’t experienced a recent system or app crash, or an unexpected restart, go ahead and launch the Console app, so you can become familiar with the interface.

Launch Console, located at /Applications/Utilities.

Console may look a bit different, depending on the version of the Mac operating system you’re using. Most changes from system to system are cosmetic, such as a few name changes here and there, although there was a significant change going from OS X El Capitan to macOS Sierra. The primary change was the removal or relocation of some troubleshooting tools used when looking at real-time events. Since we’re not developers trying to track down bugs, that shouldn’t have much effect on our use of Console to review log files.

With the Console app open, you’ll see a multi-pane interface, with a sidebar used to select either real-time messages or log files for display, a toolbar across the top, and in new versions of Console, a search bar and tab bar just below the toolbar.

Accessing Log Files

Log files you may be interested in reviewing for information about what caused a crash are found in the Console sidebar under the heading:

  • User Reports (User Diagnostic Reports in earlier versions of Console) :  Crash reports for user processes and applications.
  • System Reports (System Diagnostic Reports in earlier versions of Console) :  Analytics, diagnostics, and crash reports for system processes.
  • System log:  A log of current system events and messages.
  • ~/Library/Logs:  Application logs for the current logged in user.
  • /Library/Logs:  Application and process event logs for all users.
  • /var/logs:  Log files for maintenance scripts used by the system.

To access a log file, select the category in the sidebar you’re interested in. If the category has a chevron next to its name, expand the chevron by clicking or tapping on it.

A list of log files will be displayed, either within the sidebar or in the main viewing pane, depending on the Console version you’re using.

safari crashing osx

Select one of the listed files to view its content.

The log file names usually contain the process or app name that generated the file, the date, the name of the Mac, and finally, the file type, such as crash, diag, or analytics.

For the most part, the crash logs will be the ones you’ll be interested in for troubleshooting system or app crashes, but the diag ones are also interesting to review, since they may contain information about unusual memory usage or high levels of CPU usage.

Understanding Reports Crash reports are broken into multiple sections, with the first section containing all the information about what process crashed:

  • Process:  Lists the name of the process, such as TextEdit.
  • Path:  The process location.
  • Identifier:  The unique process name, such as com.apple.textedit.
  • Version:  The version of the app or process.
  • Code Type:  The processor type the code is meant to run under.
  • Parent Process:  If the process that crashed was spawned by another process, it will be listed here.
  • Responsible : Usually the app or process name or developer.
  • User ID:  The user ID in use by the app or process.

The next section tells you when the app or process crashed:

  • Date/Time:  The date and time when the process or app terminated.
  • OS Version:  The version of the Mac OS that was running at the time of the crash. An interesting side note: Console still uses OS X as the operating system name, although the version number is correct.
  • Report Version:  The version number of the crash report style in use.
  • Anonymous UUID:  This is a long string of numbers and letters that are a unique identifier of the process.
  • Time Awake Since Boot:  How long the system has been running, displayed as the number of seconds.
  • System Integrity Protection:  Shows status of SIP.

And finally, the meat of the problem: what caused the crash.

  • Crashed Thread:  Which process thread was running when the crash occurred.
  • Exception Type:  This is the actual event that caused the crash.
  • Exception Codes:  Additional details about what caused the exception type.
  • Exception Note:  Message, if any, generated by the crash.
  • Termination Signal:  The name of the signal type used to tell the process to quit.
  • Termination Reason:  The category for why the termination signal was initiated.
  • Termination Process:  Which process initiated the termination.

The next long section of the report lists what led to the crash in reverse chronological order, starting with the thread listed as the cause. This may seem like a goldmine for discovering what caused your crash, and it is. This section and the next, which is called a backtrace, can be very helpful for the developer to troubleshoot a system or app crash. However, it’s usually not very helpful for most users.

safari crashing osx

What Can I Do With This Information? One of the best things you can do is contact the developer, open a support ticket, and send in this crash report. Developers need this type of information to troubleshoot and refine their apps or code.

Depending on the version of Console you’re using, you can either:

Use the Save As command under the File menu to save a copy of the crash report, which you can then send to the developer. Or, if you’re using a later version of Console, you can use the Share button in the toolbar to attach the crash report to an email.

You can also right-click on the crash report name and select Reveal in Finder from the popup menu. You can then use the Finder to make a copy to send along to the developer.

safari crashing osx

If you’re trying to resolve the crash on your own, pay attention to the exact time the crash occurred, then check the diagnostic logs and analytics logs for unusual events that may have occurred at or near the same time. You’re looking for excessive memory or CPU usage, as an example. You may find, for example, that WebKit, a core component of Safari, was using a great deal of RAM when the crash occurred, something you may be able to correct by adding more RAM . Or, perhaps CPU usage was so high that on a hot summer day, your Mac couldn’t cope with the high temperatures.

Another thing to look at is the app version that was crashing. Many times an app crash can be caused by an out-of-date version. Check with the app developer to see what the current version is, and which version, if any, is recommended to run on your version of the Mac OS.

For more information about using the Console app, you can find details on advanced usage at Apple’s support site for Console Help .

Other Topics You Might Like:

The run diagnostics screen on an M1 Mac

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This is a gr8 interpretation of a crash process and its constotutive elements. Do you have a ‘blueprint’ for any log files, e.g. how each line of log output is structured (PID, service name, error code level, etc)?

But what if the app that is crashing is an application component of OS X system software itself??? For example I have an app called lockoutagent which launches automatically and relaunches and recrashes. Once I click Ignore on the “quit unexpectedly” notice, it launches and crashes again. How to even find out what keeps launching the task repeatedly to shut it up long enough to be able to deal with solving the crash without the stupid crash notice popping up interrupting what you are doing taking focus off your current window so you can’t type anything unless you leave the cr5ash report on the screen which blocks an annoying amount of screen space. Curiously I also found in Console that there system.log is “unreadable”.. huH?

If you find a suspicious error message, try entering it into a search engine. Others may have faced and solved that problem. About six weeks ago doing that provided me with enough information to solve a problem that was leaving my Mac mini almost paralyzed.

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