Q: iPad Safari crashing regularly

I had the same problem with my iPad1 and saw some of the earlier posts suggesting to turn on the Safari Debug Console in Settings. The recurrence of the problem seems to have significantly reduced since I did that. Safari still crashes occasionally (once a day or so) but much much less that before (several times a day).

It seems that by turning this feature on, issues that cause Safari to crash are caught by the Debug Console. You can see the errors and a lot of them seem to be related to Javascript.

Thanks to the contributors to this suggestion.

There is an autofill option in Safari Preferences. Onepassword is available for the ipad. Clearing cookies is a diagnostic measure. We just want to know whether it works. Besides, we are primarily interested in the cache, not the cookies, although cross-site cookies are problematic.

I have posted just such a new thread.  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3674062

Sam, like some others, I view wiping cookies as the last, worst option, akin to shooting my own foot.

However, I have some experience clearing cache.

Before the latest upgrade, that experience was involuntary clearing; nearly every time Safari crashed, the cache was cleared in the process.

After the upgrade, I think it was to 5.0.1, I cannot remember a single incident in which the cache was erased in the crash. I did once clear the cache to test whether that would relieve the perpetual crashing, and I can report that it didn't help at all.

I hope this is helpful information.

The reason clearing cookies may help is that Facebook imparticular embeds iframes into sites calling facebook cookies into memory. I have seen problems with this on Mac computers. I recommend temporarily clearing the cookies, and using the Facebook app (either Friendly or the official Facebook app) to update your Facebook.

Please consider contacting Applecare and paying them $30 to attempt to resolve your issue. Remember, they do not get paid unless your issue is fixed, and you can call an unlimited number of times with regard to safari crashing.

Did you try turning on the debugging console? Let me know if you need instructions. settings app --> Safari-->Developer-->Debug Console-->On.

5.1 is in beta testing, so if you do report it to Apple, there is a chance it can be fixed if it is a bug and not a hardware specific issue like I worry it is in some of these cases.

--Sam

P.S Could you also start posting your router brands and model #s?  those with 3g ipads could test by turning wifi off and surfing on 3G. Note this is only a test, not a permanent solution.

Well, my 3rd iPad crashed in less than 24 hours.  Did all the suggestions, turned on debug, tried to use Opera as browser.  Love Opera for Android.  It crashed anyways using iTunes no less...  So it's not a Safari thing, it's not a YouTube thing.  It's not iOS 5 b/c I purposely kept it downgraded on 4.x.  It's a basic OS or something fundametal like bad memory/components, etc.  The behaviour is not application related b/c it happens anywhere but it is what makes it crash.  It acts like an old school memory parity error where everything resets/reboots...not sure if there is a iPad equivalent.  It could be a bad batch of them b/c my only experience as been with a refurb iPad 1 and it's refurb swaps.

Not sure what I'll do but for certain I'm going to stop swapping iPads b/c it does nothing...unless I could find a replacement that is not part of the same litter.

This problem is like a phone that drops calls.  Not bad enough to chuck the phone or service but just enough to make one dissatisfied and always have the feeling like I hope it doesn't drop it in the middle of an important call.

I've had the same problem for the last frew weeks.

When I looked at the Diagnostic & Usage Data following the About link under General, most of my crashes were for low memory.  I found I had many programs open that were using up memory. Try this:

Hit the Home button twice and you will see the open Apps on the bottom bar. Hold down one of the Apps until the red minus sign appears and the App shakes. You can now close the Apps by hitting the minus sign. This seems to have worked for me.

Consider that it may be your router at home, and not the ipads. Try replacing with a Linksys WRT160N. You could even try an apple router if you wanted to.

--Sam

Then how is it that it crashes when using 3G for internet.

Many of us have done ALL the "restores resets, closing apps etc" advice to no avail.

We need it fixed.

Use the System Status App and check how much Memory (RAM) you have left. Low memory are the main cause of iPad crashing. The more free memory the better.

Memory with two Apps running.

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/1723c731.jpg

What app are you running to get those memory statistics? Is it available in the app store? We only support apps from the app store here, obviously.

I believe it is the System Status app he mentions in the post...

System Status App

http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee374/Diavonex/d49b6e8c.jpg

It says system status can release memory being used. Have you tried those features?

(from the app store description)

does it list which processes or applications are using memory?

Perhaps one or more of your apps is not properly releasing memory after you launch them. This doesn't really make sense within the iOS's sandboxing model though.

Can you skip over to the processes tab and give me a screenshot of that?

Thanks for educating me about this app. I didn't know about it.

--Sam

P.S I just read the post again. It's not clear you were having problems, but i still would appreciate a processes tab screenshot.

http://www.simplehelp.net/2010/04/03/how-to-take-a-screenshot-of-your-ipad/

The Memory page displays detailed information about memory usage and some low-level page statistics.

By pressing the refresh button in the top right corner you can release about 35% of the system memory.