Laggy Facebook (Safari)

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Same issue here with a new MacBook Air with the M1 chip. Everything is updated - nothing pending at the time of this post.

Seems like SAFARI is the problem. Going into the activity monitor will show Safari hugging lots of memory (in the gigabytes...) while Facebook is running. This cannot be reproduced when using Chrome in the same website.

The sad thing is that Chrome works in the same computer, and the same FB account without lag - super smooth. It's a shame reading all comments and apple not addressing this. Again...Chrome seems to be OK.

I'm using Safari 14.0 on Mojave 10.14.6 on a flashed 2009 (2010 now) Mac Pro with a 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon, 48 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM and a Radeon RX 580 with 8 GB of RAM. That should be overkill for running Safari and it is. Except for Facebook.

I don't know what happened, but out of necessity, I've taken to using Opera when I go to Facebook. It is a clunky work-around, but it seems to be the only thing that lets me do what I want without bogging down, running into severe typing lag, unresponsive page scrolls, clicks, and the annoying message about the page using significant resources. Opera moves at near instant speed when I visit Facebook.

None of these problems occur on other sites. Just Facebook.

As an added note, I'm not running any ad-block extensions.

There is no reason I can think of that Facebook has such a negative effect on Safari, but it happens.

This isn't an apple issue. Facebook is not optimized for Safari. You'll also notice that you can't make Facebook Messenger video calls from safari. It prompts you to use a "supported browser" such as chrome. This is something Facebook needs to fix on their end.

Rummage around with the Facebook support website, and see if they’re aware of this?

We all have the feedback app on our Mac. If enough of us file a bug report this should get their attention.

The more you scroll the more memory is consumed. This happens with sites other than Facebook. One will think something like this is a memory leak with Safari as it doesn't happen with Chrome, Chrome's cousin Microsoft Edge nor Firefox. And if you leave Safari open it just keeps consuming memory until it closes or reloads the tab.

Hi,

The same problem. It started when I got the newest update Safari for my MacBook Pro 15 2019 i9. I also have MBP LATE 2013 with Mojave without the newest Safari and it works perfectly. I'm really angry I spent a lot of money for MacBook and SW and it absolutely not working!

TO Apple. Please RELEASE UPDATE and FIX IT or Call to Facebook to fix it!!!! Or Do you want to use FIREFOX where it works great?

It has been 6 months and no release any fix or update! I have already tried to reinstall a new system=THE SAME!!!!

after about 3min of looking a Facebook on Safari it really starts to lag to the point its not worth looking at and get a message at the top that says "This webpage site is using significant memory. Closing it may improve the responsiveness of your Mac." and then realize I have wasted 3min on Facebook.

You can turn off the online status and chat via the Mac messenger app. Makes it a little smoother.

Hi

I use Safari as my main web browser an it works fine face book was great then as soon as they updated the new Facebook the problems began, I could scroll through a couple of pages no problem but when I tried to wright a message the keyboard would work so slow its ridicules but when I went back to the old style of Facebook it worked perfectly could scroll down for hours an hours (I know hours an hours on Facebook book I need to get a life) no problem an no problem typing any messages everything working as normal but as soon as it went back to the new Facebook the problems happened again an ive done all the normal stuff an nothing works but if I open another tab on safari it works just fine any help to fix this would be amazing please excuse my spelling an grammar am dyslexic (Imagine someone who has problems with grammar an spelling trying desperately to spell dyslexic the person who named it this needs to have a word with themselves) many thanks Chris

I too have this same issue with Safari and Facebook as well as a few other sites. I'm on an i9 16" MacBook Pro with 16gb of RAM so the hardware definitely should not be the issue. Safari has some kind of awful memory leak it seems.

I had this "drag, lag, snag" since Catalina before Big Sur. I confirm that FB messenger is not accepting my photos I attach since I upgraded to Big Sur; however, it has not changed the poor performance in Facebook.

It' not only Facebook that's choppy in Safari now. It has been my number one browser since 2003, but now I have to say that I'm forced to use Chrome more and more because Safari is so choppy on sites like Facebook.

The main reason I have to switch browser is that I'm working as a Salesforce Developer, and using their new Lightning-interface is extremely choppy and behaves strange in Safari.

Performes well on Firefox, Chrome, and even the latest MS Edge with their new engine on macOS.....

I would love to have just one browser, just like I've had in the past, because I love the integration and device sharing features of Safari.