iPad Safari crashing regularly

Safari on my iPad is crashing fairly frequently; sometimes when I restart it retains the pages that were previously open, and sometimes not.

Have not yet established a pattern, but it seems prevalent on very large pages (for example pages with many images) and on pages with embedded video (particularly Flash).

Anyone else experiencing the same issue and/or have any further information? Anybody using a browser other than Safari on the iPad?

Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jun 14, 2010 12:29 PM

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1,742 replies

Feb 28, 2014 12:46 PM in response to Rob Bruen

I have an iPad 2 and it crashes with Safari--a lot. As others have noted it crashes on sites with a lot of images, especially eBay which I use quite a bit. Also Pinterest. It gives me "low memory" reports but I have about 3 gigs of unused memory. I tried Chrome but that barely worked so I got rid of it -- too jerky as to make it almost unusable.


I have checked this forum and there don't seem to be any answers other than wiping it out and doing a hard restart. And that solution hasn't seemed to work very well either.


It has been much worse since the 7.0.6 update.


Like many here, my past experience with the Genius Bar hasn't been very good, although I haven't taken it in for this problem. Perhaps I should.


So ... Apple Inc., this problem persists, there have been no real fixes and my iPad is becoming almost useless. It would be nice to have some acknowledgment from Apple that the problem is real and that they are endeavoring to fix it.


Nice product, too bad they've screwed up here.

Feb 28, 2014 1:15 PM in response to Bardium

This is happening with my new iPad Air and the replacement iPad Air. It did not occur at all with the iPad 2 I had.


I have had too many calls and chats with Apple on this iPad Air issue. And have been to the store twice: once to wipe the iPad Air (no restore, started like new with no content); the second trip to get a swap out. I've asked each of the MANY Apple reps if this is a known issue and they say 'no'. I tell them they should read their forums here, and the response I got was that this is for customers to help other customers and that the info you find here is not necessarily accurate. In short, they don't use these forums for much of anything (like customer insight), if they look at them at all.


I have more frequent shut downs since the 7.06 install, and have had other apps (like Pandora) lock up the device. I switched to Chrome a few days ago and things seem better (plus when the browser does crash it restores all open tabs which is nice).


I have very few apps and data on the device since we did not pull down the iCloud backup. So, Apple can't say there is a corrupt backup causing it. They've tried to pin this on that and then on the hardware (thus, the swap).


They also ran diagnostics and through the results, suggested that Google Drive (app) is causing the crash. I suggested if that really is the case, they should take that app off the AppStore until the issue is resolved. I'm running "Drive-less" and the crashes and lockups continue.

Feb 28, 2014 1:38 PM in response to Rob Bruen

If iOS 7.1 fixes the crash/low memory issues, there is still going to be a large problem foe Apple: explaining away all the iPads given away, the refusal of most Apple people to acknowledge the issue, and even the probability of having to admit to a problem that suddenly goes away.


But if iOS 7.1 doesn't fix the issue, Apple will have a PROBLEM.

Mar 1, 2014 12:24 AM in response to Mr.Eee

About new release of IOS 7.1, I think it will be further delayed...


A new IOS flaw has been identified and reported to Apple by researchers from security firm FireEye.

The vulnerability has been confirmed in iOS versions 7.0.6, 7.0.5, 7.0.4 and 6.1.x.


This iOS flaw allows malicious apps to record touch screen presses, and since the touch screen is the primary input interface on an iOS device, this attack is the equivalent of KeyLogging.

An attacker could use the captured touch data -- X and Y axes coordinates -- to determine what characters victims inputted using the on-screen keyboard.


www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/2014/02/background-monitoring-on-non-jailbroken-i os-7-devices-and-a-mitigation.html

www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/539114/new_ios_flaw_allows_malicious_apps_record_ touch_screen_presses/

Mar 1, 2014 3:49 AM in response to Mr.Eee

Isn't obvious that Apple has NO desire or interest in providing support for shareware?

It appears that these devices are categorized as shareware since it is up to the user community to research issues and provide solutions for the current hardware suite and let us forget about the previous hardware generation.


I am not ranting, just stating the obvious.

Mar 2, 2014 1:06 PM in response to Bardium

Funny how it is just the browsers... In my case, safari, mercury, opera, chrome etc


When they crash, it does not show up in diagnostics, it is as though it never happened


My ipad air used to be fine until I updated


It seems to be a memory issue, or rather memory management, I can have loads of apps open and not crash, yet have a few tabs open and it will crash, but why only the browsers....

Mar 2, 2014 4:21 PM in response to Rob Bruen

Well, I can attest that SOMEONE at Apple is reading this thread. They just removed my post that suggested freeing your device from their control in order to correct this problem.


Edited post:


I think it's obvious that the problem here is Webkit. I think it's also obvious that Apple cannot or will not correct the problem. For those of us they stranded on iOS 5 (original iPad, declared EOL after less than two years ownership), the clear solution is to "liberate" our devices and install a different browser that does not rely on faulty code.

Mar 3, 2014 7:19 AM in response to Fabio_from_Italy

FYI, same issue (browser crash) occurs with Chrome.


Since this is happening across multiple devices, it sounds like a software bug, but more alarming is Fabios note about malware involving key logging. Sounds like the best use of the iPad is now reading or watching hulu or Netflix. Curiously, I find very rare crashes when I'm streaming video and have never had a crash while reading using Kindle app. Certainly nothing that involves keystrokes or passwords.

Mar 3, 2014 7:48 AM in response to ldgregg

I always use Chrome so I certainly know that it crashes too, since it is based on the iOS WebKit, and as such, performance are not that different from Safari. And thank you, I am not interested in "reading or watching hulu or Netflix", I don't even know what they are...


I just would like to have a $1000 high-tech wonderful device to be able to browse the Internet without crashing every five (or less...) minutes..and with no multitasking support at all....

Mar 4, 2014 12:43 AM in response to Rob Bruen

As a long time Apple user, this issue has only been apparent since v7 and is defiantly a memory issue in their OS. Arrogance over time will affect their share price. I won't be buying another Apple product, nor will I be recommending their products to my customers. There are many better products available in the market place, and a lot cheaper.

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iPad Safari crashing regularly

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