Safari 14 on Big Sur: How to prevent a webpage from automatically reloading because it was using significant memory?

I have the same issue while streaming on Disney+. First, the message "This webpage is using significant memory" appears and then it automatically reloads and and shows "This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory".

This happens every 5 - 10min or so and makes streaming shows and movies no fun. Especially because it doesn't start right where it was interrupted.

Same. I just bought a MacBook after having Apple products for everything but my computer for years. I have been so happy with it that I'm debating on selling my desktop for a Mac mini or iMac. So I start watching a recorded Zoom lecture on Safari, and it keeps crashing and saying it's using too much memory. I often play these on Safari on my iPhone while I'm at work and never had a problem. Ugh. Guess I'm holding off on the new desktop.

I have the exact same issue on my m1 mba 16gb. There is a recorder google meet lecture which was mistakenly left to record for 8 hours and it will refresh on its own. So annoying. Im running the latest version of MacOS

Big Sur 11.2.1 M1 Macbook Pro, safari still has the same issue. Watching Disney+ or Netflix is impossible. also, i was doing a checkout and the browser restarted so i lost my registration details.

This is a very frustrating issue, i would prefer we have an override so that it can "snooze" for couple of hours so we know what we are getting into. Some sites are not designed properly but the browser should be more accommodating else we would just switch to Edge or God forbid, Chrome (shudders)

I was using an ARCGIS application and received the same message "the application is using too much memory". Reloaded the page and i lost my original marker as well as all the filters that i used on a property lookup. Used to be only Microsoft that thought their operating system or browser acted for you. Now it's Apple and Google doing the same thing.

APPLE: I do not appreciate you deciding what do do for me, please return the option so I can turn this behavior off otherwise I will not use Safari.

Welcome, 12whocares34, to Apple Support Communities!

Were you using «an ARCGIS application» within a browser? If so, what browser?

If not, then this is a different issue.

(Incidentally, I expect «an ARCGIS application» to use significant memory. If you were using it through a browser, they should program it to use Server Side storage for its, very significant, needs. They should not be abusing your browser’s resources.)

They should not be abusing your browser’s resources

How come when i run the movie from disneyplus on Chrome, the browser uses limited memory resource while the same on Safari, the usage creeps up in GBs... Does that not mean, Safari is doing something fundamentally different in the new version than what it was doing before !

deepanshu

DeepS Tunes wrote:

They should not be abusing your browser’s resources

How come when i run the movie from disneyplus on Chrome, the browser uses limited memory resource while the same on Safari, the usage creeps up in GBs...

That’s interesting …

This is the result I would expect if «disneyplus on Chrome» were using Server-Side storage, the way they should, while not doing so on Safari.

… Does that not mean, Safari is doing something fundamentally different in the new version than what it was doing before !

To answer that, one would have to compare «the new version» vs. a previous version, in terms of memory use. (As far as what Safari does when a website uses too much memory, it looks like Safari has changed that behavior.)

eepanshu

Welcome, jacopo14, to Apple Support Communities!

What is this about «RAM usage», «RAM saturation», and «RAM usage optimization»?

Why do people fixate upon such things?

With the use of Virtual Memory (VM)—which the macOS has always done since 2001, at least (with Mac OS X)—any time you have any FREE RAM, you have wasted RAM.

(I have, also, noticed a possible Activity Monitor issue, with regard to Memory reporting, in Big Sur vs. Catalina. However, since I no longer have any Catalina systems, I haven’t been able to investigate it further.)

If certain websites cause very high VM usage, in a given web-browser, then such a site is abusing the local resources of that web-browser.

As for Safari on Big Sur vs. Safari on Catalina, this could be a browser identification change that causes the website to treat the two browsers differently.

This is, almost certainly, the case between Safari vs. Chrome.

(There will be smaller variations due to how different browsers cache websites, run scripting [JavaScript], and such.)

I’ve been trying to find websites that do such things that I can use for testing purposes.

I will try to reproduce the issues with Disney+ and Netflix, since I have subscriptions to both, but have never used web-browsers to access either.

(I do wish I still had a Catalina system to test, as well. Someday I may set up an external Catalina boot-up drive on my one system that used to run Catalina.)

Thank you for your reply and sorry for using incorrect terms.

What I meant is that whenever this problem occurs, if I open Activity Monitor, I see the web-page specific process starting to use more and more memory, without stopping. If no "corrective measures" are taken (e.g. pause the video-lecture), memory usage value continues to rise until, after a certain threshold is trespassed, the infamous banner appears at the top of the window and the web-page is reloaded forcefully.

I agree with you in this being a browser identification/compatibility issue and not a performance issue (since by doing everything else, even the same tasks with a different browser, the Mac works perfectly), but it's a big issue nonetheless.

I have the same issue, can't watch a zoom recorded lecture without safari reloading the page.

Netflix and other streaming platforms seem to work fine though.

My system is a brand new Macbook Pro M1 with 8 GB RAM...

Have you found any solution?

I read someone saying using chrome helps, but I'm not really fine with just using another browser.

I've been having this same exact problem for a while, also while trying to watch recorded zoom lectures. I've been waiting for some update to fix this, but nothing yet. Hopefully Apple addresses this soon.

I have a brand new MacBook literally two weeks old and today is April 4, 2021, my system uses the OS Big Sur 11.2.3. I am completely ticked off because my zoom video for my class and I’m trying to watch it recorded because I missed class literally reloads every three minutes and I have to start over at the beginning and then slide to where my place was on the page. Apple needs to do something about this, my 2011 MacBook which I just sent back to recycle never had this problem

Welcome, jahme_cozzi, to Apple Support Communities!

Have you provided this Feedback to Apple? Perhaps also to the company that makes the lecture watching website?

Apple isn’t here. We are but your fellow users.

Welcome, marisanantonio, to Apple Support Communities!

Have you provided this Feedback to Apple? Perhaps also to the company that makes the website you’re using for your schoolwork?

Apple isn’t here. We are but your fellow users.