Q: iPad Safari crashing regularly

Ok now I think I may have found the cause. Switch of javascript in your settings and ar least for me pages like theverge that would crash regularly stop crashing. So its clear to me this rubbish broswer cannot handle pages with javascript well. Perhaps long running javascript cause the crash. Decent browsers like firefox and explorer at least report long running scripts and offer to terminate them.

I know its asking a lot to do but can we all try running sadari without javascript switched on and then report here if this helped. Note you will have to switch it back on to post here...lol.

Ok. If they won't address the issue, then all of us should use these 'pad, go into an apple store, and use the friggin thing as a frisbe!

Would that get Apple's attention?

Pretty well, this is all this thing is useful for being a brick!

It just dawned on me...may be this is a contest!?!?!  The 25 billionth post wins $10 grand...just like the app store!  That's why they're not responding and/or fixing this issue, it would ruin the contest!

The unquoted Google search term - safari ipad crash - is right at 5 million. Prizes should be forthcoming.

Maybe new CrApple CrashPads for everyone!

Meek123, I can verify your solution works but without JavaScript on my iPad it is useless on most websites. For example I could not respond to this forum without turning JavaScript back on.

I used Alohaglides directions yesterday to fix ipad1, is still going strong...no crashes and it still has javascript on. I have been on it about 12 hours now, before i could not last ten minutes. His fix is easy as it is not the long tasked factory new restore many have already tried, five minutes at the most.

I also recommend using the Dolphin HD Browser as a replacement for Safari. Very stable, fast and functional.

gogega

Before anyone goes ahead and does any resetting, deleting of preferences, or losing their iCloud information, can I ask one question — Are you syncing Safari bookmarks?

Go into iCloud and turn off Safari bookmark syncing (you can keep the bookmarks).

I did this and I can't get Safari to crash anymore, no matter what I throw at it. Needs to be tested by others though, to confirm or negate.

Many of us are not using iCloud.  So no help

A good point and well worth a try.

Well I am sincerely happy that some are claiming a successful "fix", however; with everything disabled, cloud account deleted, yada yada yada, and after combing these boards for EVERY POSSIBLE fix I can report that NONE....repeat NONE work on my iPad2 which was working just fine before ios 5.0.1.

This search for a cosmetic fix really misses the point I'm afraid.  Apple has affected a couple million customers, without meaning to I'm sure, but for the purposes of MARKETING will not even offer a glimmer of hope to those of us affected as it might tarnish their next big roll out if they acknowledge a problem.  Their cash flow depends on mystique, and NOTHING, not even a few million customers having problems, many without even realizing it, will cause them to damage that mystique.

It sours the whole thing for me.  Worked great while it had the previous ios.  Now its a brick, and I have to just hold my breath and hope that Apple blesses me with a software update sometime in the future.

I hope you all are successful with your "fixes", but face it, right now you have a defective product, and no one is trying to help, at least not publicly.  Still fanboys and girls, well good on ya.  Not me I'm afraid.

Stopping the synching of Safari bookmarks has worked for me. I can even view the Washington Post site now.

Even with the safari crashing issue the iPad is no "brick". It remains a very versatile machine and most of its apps work very well indeed.

I have no visited my local Apple store (Cambridge UK) 3 times regarding this:

1st time (iPad still under warranty): Nothing we can do, not aware this is a problem

2nd time: 2 mins at genius bar, yeah, it's annoying but there is nothing we can do

3rd time (with what seemed to be a senior staff member): We know there's a problem and I believe that a fix is coming shortly (the guy I spoke to said he had the same problem with his iPad 1 - and to be fair he all but admitted that it was pretty shoddy from Apple that a product became partially unusable less than a year after purchase).

My frustration is the my main iPad use is casual web browsing, now a v frustrating experience.

I have tried every fix on here but it always reverts to crashing. So frustrated. I wish Apple would just acknowledge this problem - after all, the iPhone 4 antenna issue, which wasn't really an issue, got dealt with very quickly!

icloud is on by default. so is safari bookmark syncing, which is not part of icloud, but part of itunes. Please try disabling safari bookmark syncing and post again. And make sure icloud is completely turned off in settings.

Well, I did do two things:

1. Disable iCloud bookmarks synching.  Seemed to help for a little bit, but then reverted back to the constant crashes.
2. Full powerdown and restart.  This seems to aleviate the crashing problem for a while.  It doesn't fix Safari completely, and the crashes come back after a some time.  I guess, rebooting your iPad every day may be a "solution".  But then, buying an Android tablet instead of iPad may be a solution as well, right?

I am not going to spend countless hours doing the full reset of my iPad, backing it up, restoring all the original apps and settings, etc.  This is just crazy.  Moreover, from the messages in this thread we can all see that it only helps temporarily.   So advising the factory reset is what the "Tech Support" does to get rid of you for a while, and give you something to do while they hide ("What, PC crashed?  Have you reinstalled Windows?  That's the first thing you should have done!").  It's dishonest.  Safari never used to crash before iOS 5 "upgrade".  Other applications don't seem to be crashing (although the alternative browsers I tried did crash as well).  This is Apple's issue to fix.

Safari doesn't crash on every site, so JS is most probably the culprit.  Disabling JS helps you, and you can live without visiting JS enabled sites - good for you.  Not good for me though.  Any of the DailyBeast blogs (Sullivan, Frum) is almost guaranteed to crash iPad 1's Safari, especially if you start moving around the page before it's fully loaded.  And to fully load those pages takes quite a long while.  Sometimes Safari would just crash with no apparent reason (perhaps, one of the JS refresh timers kicks off?). 

Now, how come there isn't more noise about this issue?  Why are the major tech blogs all silent?  Why is there still no class action lawsuit?  That's what I want to know.  iPad 1 is out of warranty, so it's OK to render it useless by a "software update", is that it?