Safari stops responding on Fox News website?

Hey f86ster,

We see that you're having issues navigating through Fox News webpage because it becomes unresponsive, and we'd like to help!

Do you use another web browser besides Safari? For example, Google Chrome and FireFox. If yes, do you experience the same issue with multiple web browsers as well?

Try visiting the Fox News website under private browser, and see if it makes a difference. Here's how: Browse in private in Safari on Mac

Since other websites function normally besides Fox News webpage, it might be best that you reach out to Fox News for further assistance: Contact Fox News Channel

We hope this helps!

Warm regards.

I am using Safari 13.1.2 on macOS Catalina 10.15.6 (19G2021), and the only issue that I have with the Fox News site is their detection of my ad blocker, which imposes a dialog requesting that I white-list their site. Until I dismiss that dialog, nothing happens, and eventually, with the slight change in browsing progress, that dialog will reappear. Otherwise, the Fox site works fine for me.

f86ster Said:

"Safari stops responding on Fox News website?"

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[scuffs]

That's all fake news - it's been working fine for me all day. I'm having no issues viewing it. So, back to square one...

• Try a new Administrator User:

See if the same issue occurs. If so, then it is an issue with you current user.

• Scan your Mac with Malwarebytes for Mac:

Next, on your Mac, try ridding of transferred items that may have transferred over once plugged in - see where things go from there. Malwarebytes searches for malware(short for (malicious software) and spyware. Those make your Mac act in a mislead manor. So scan with it, and remove what is found from the quarantine. It is created by longtime users of these forums making it the only reliable Security Software for a Mac.

Downloads:

1. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
2. Malwarebytes Uninstaller

Then...

Clear your Temporary Internet Files In Safe Mode:

1. First, Boot into Safe Mode:

[Hold Down: Shift key upon boot] While in Safe Mode, login items do not run, an all macOS caches are set aside, thereby letting everything by default.

Once logged in on Safe Mode...

2. Clear the Temporary Internet Files:

Clear your Temporary Internet Files (Cookies & Cache) of Safari:

• Cookies perform remembrance of certain site-entered data.
• Cache keeps a snapshot of the last time you visited a site.

Go Here: Clear the History and Cookies from Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch - Apple Support

Once Cleared....

3. Restart your Mac:

Log in normally, and see if it now works.

Well, probably hard to get anyone's attention at Apple or Fox News. No doubt, there'd be a lot of finger-pointing, and after all, it "only" affects the Fox News site which I'm sure won't rate priority attention from Apple. 🙂 And Fox News probably isn't terribly motivated to look into / fix something that would allow the user to suppress those pesky ads! 🙂

Are you running any anti - virus programs? Using a VPN?

Try setting up another admin user account in System Preferences/Users & Groups to see if the same problem continues. Also try the Safe Mode. 

Isolating an issue by using another user account   

Safe Mode - About.       

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor.  Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. If the log won’t post, try posting it in Pastebin and provide a link in a reply. After pasting the report in a PasteBin page, go to the top of the page, and copy the address in the URL bar. Paste that in a new reply.        Pastebin.    

Etrecheck – System Information.      

Web site version if required.  https://etrecheck.com

I'm glad I finally found this thread. This is the exact problem I'm experiencing, too, and it's gotten quite annoying. It's been happening for 1-2 weeks, now. As described by other users. the problem only occurs with the Fox News website (www.foxnews.com) which works fine on both Chrome and Firefox. But on Safari, although the page initially loads OK, it becomes unresponsive (scrolling doesn't work, can't click on links, etc.) after 10-15 seconds. I'm running a 2012 MacMini, Catalina (10.15.6) and Safari (13.1.2). I've done all the "usual" things - dumped History, dumped all website data (cookies, cache, etc.), turned off BitDefender's Ad Blocker and Anti-Tracking and browser extensions, etc. -- nothing seems to make any difference. However, I also tried it on my wife's 2012 iiMac running Mojave (10.14.6) and Safari (12.1.2 -- and it works fine there!. Not sure what, if anything, that tells me, as there are too many variables. But it does illustrate that it works with some combination of OS and Safari.

Following this thread in the hope that someone will come up with a solution for this!

This is an issue for many but as usual FoxNews nor Apple wants to acknowledge the issue.

I'm using a MacBook Pro 2017 with everything fully updated, and I've tried all the usual fixes without success.

f86ster Said:

"Safari stops responding on Fox News website?"

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I'm trying to get this to occur. I can't yet.

A Thought of how To Get out of Safari:

Use [command + tab]:

If you get stuck to get out of safari: [Hold Down: command key + tap the tab key until you get to Finder (the Smiley Face)] Then go to the Apple menu, and select Force Quit.

It is an interesting datapoint that this is apparently a well-known problem, experienced by a number of users, and yet, some people (such as yourself) don't have the problem at all. Hard to speculate as to what the difference might be... I assume, of course, that you're running the same basic setup: Catalina (10.15.6) and Safari (13.1.2).

There is, of course, a negative "side effect" to always enabling auto-play: namely, I now have to put up with those annoying "commercials" that auto-play on web pages. I'm sure that's why I disabled that in the first place...

However, I would've done that a long time ago, and this problem (the Fox News site becoming unresponsive) only showed up in the last two weeks. So.... I'm left to conclude that either 1) Apple changed something in Safari (or possibly MacOS), or 2) Fox News changed something in their site.

In any event, it appears to have resulted in an adverse interaction between Catalina/Safari and the Fox News site.

It's always somethin'; if it's not one thing, it's another! 🙂

The FoxNews website is a mess these days—general state of disrepair and in need of a tune-up. Makes me wonder if the folks(company) handling Fox's web presence may have changed or had their budget slashed. Either way, of all the websites I visit daily for news(I'm a news junkie) FoxNews is by far the worse relating to unwanted interruptions.

Good observations. I'm no expert on websites - not by a long shot - but as a Fox News "regular", I have long had the sense that their site just isn't "right". I suspect that for whatever reasons (changes in the development team, budget cuts, lack of experience, etc.) their site is held together by chewing gum, baling wire and duct tape! It "works", but isn't a stellar example of either good website design or maintenance. JMO, of course. 🙂

SOLUTION FOUND!

I had identical problem with Fox News for last couple of months, or more, using High Sierra. Just updated to Catalina and Safari 14.0 and problem persisted unchanged! 

I used no Content or Ad Blocker but the reply by VikingOSX on Sep 5, 2020 made me think of checking the “Pop-up Windows” blocker and the “Auto-Play” item under Safari's Preferences/Websites.

Changing the “Pop-up Windows” control for Fox News’ website was useless.

BUT, THE PROBLEM STOPPED IMMEDIATELY after changing the “Auto-Play” setting from “Never Auto-Play” to EITHER  ”Stop media with sound” –OR– “Allow all Auto-Play for Fox News website

You must also RESTART Safari for the change to take effect.

BTW, “Stop Media with Sound” setting does NOT prevent the audio track from Fox’s videos from playing!

While this solution does not seem to follow the description for how Auto-Play works, as described in the Help window reached by clicking the “?” in the bottom right corner of Safari/Preference/Websites,  IT NEVERTHELESS WORKS and solves the problem with Fox News on Safari 14.0.