Safari freezes on startup in Monterey 12.2

I should have mentioned in my original post that I have had issues with Safari crashes on my MBP16 M1, since the very first day. Safari would immediately freeze on various websites, but could potentially freeze on any website. The issue only became much more prevalent following the "emergency security update" of Monterey 12.2. Following that update, Safari, for all intents and purposes, became totally useless. Fortunately, I was able to force quit the Safari app, without having to restart the entire OS. As long as I only used Firefox, everything was OK (other than various less critical issues).

Over time, I scaled Safari down to the bare essentials: NO extensions, no pre-loading favorites, etc, etc. Nothing helped to remedy the issue.

Then, with the release of 12.3.1 (21E258) update to Monterey, all issues with Safari went away. So, while nobody in Customer Support was aware of the problems (or was allowed to admit to them), this update did solve my Safari problems!

I wanted to give it a few days before declaring victory, as one never knows what might happen as soon as you do so. But it would seem that someone in the development group actually read some of my numerous crash reports and figured out what was wrong.

THANK YOU, APPLE! It's good to be back in the fold! I've been using Apple products exclusively for far to many decades to ever consider returning to a MicroSoft product!

That's interesting, Gabriel. I don't know whether or not Safari was trying to "open all saved bookmarks", but the suggestion sounds reasonable. Good luck with that... I don't even guess how many tens of thousands of bookmarks I've saved over the years. I almost "freeze up" just trying to imagine. Surely I no longer need them all, but having been a developer for several decades, I frequently use a good many of them, finding it much quicker and easier it is to search within my [well-organized] bookmarks, prior to Googling for new references to any given topic. That's to say little of the immense time investment that would be required to sort through and slim down my immense collection of bookmarks.

GOOD NEWS THAT MAY HELP OTHERS WITH THIS ISSUE...

As I mentioned in my initial post, it took me over 14 hours to do the original emergency security update from macOS 12.1 to 12.2. This unreasonable time allotment was do to numerous crashes during the update(s), causing me to start the download(s) all over again from scratch. As I indicated, I was able to reinstall Monterey 12.2 using the Public Library's, faster and more secure WiFi. Although I repeated got the message that the update would take 5-1/2 hours, it actually completed in about 2 hrs.

Since the reinstall, Safari now froze up within seconds... no longer allowing me to load ANY pages. It did so, while attempting to load tabs and/or windows that had previously been opened. To resolve the issue, I would force quit Safari, then upon reopening it, I immediately closed the front browser window as quickly as I could. Typically, it would then freeze again. I continued this process until all tabs/windows were closed. I then opened a new private browser window. This seems to have stopped the crashes. And (knock on wood) I have not experienced any more freezes... yet. It's a bit early to make a final judgement, however.

Hopefully, this information will help others who have also been experiencing Safari lockups. I have no problem with the concept of using "private browser windows". But I have to wonder why one can now ONLY use Safari within a private window. This was never an issue for me prior to the 12.2 update and I'm confident that the update was indeed the cause of the issue.

I do hope this information helps others with the same problem. And I would love to hear feedback from anyone else who did have similar experiences.

I have NO extensions loaded in Safari, nor are there any non-standard settings other than the activation of the "Develop" menu option. Also, I experience these issues in BOTH of my Admin accounts.

Safari has always slower than Firefox (or other browsers) on my current MBP16 with Monterey. But on Safari, under the macOS 12.2 "critical update", it's only a matter of time [a short time] before I get the "spinning beachball of death". There seems to be little consistency with regard to which sites will cause the issue. When it does happen, I cannot even access the menu bar to force quit Safari. If I have another app running in the background, I can usually switch to it and then select "Force Quit..." from the Apple Menu.

If this continues, I'll have to return to my 2015 MBP15, running under High Sierra. At least that one works consistently. Surprisingly, it's even faster than my 2016 MBP16 M1 (and I get all my precious 32-bit apps back). Don't know what I was thinking.

Yes, I did try all the steps listed in the article... all to no avail.

And, yes, I did call Apple Support... also to no avail.

I think it's time to give up and go back to my 2015 MBP, running under High Sierra. That combo worked flawlessly, until some of the keys on my keyboard started loosing functionality. I just wish it had done so sooner, so I could have replaced it along with my batteries. Why can't "planned obsolescence" be better coordinated? ;-(

Thanks for the feedback, albeit to no avail.

I just drove to a Public Library today, where I had access to a faster WiFi to reinstall Monterey 12.2. Two + hours later, it finally finished. I indeed noticed a difference. Safari now crashes (freezes) immediately, regardless of the website! Should I consider that to be "progress"?

It looks like I spoke too soon. Although using "private windows" did reduce the frequency of crashes, it didn't fix the problem completely. Unless I can go back from Monterey 12.2 to 12.1, I'll be installing a new keyboard in my 2015 MBP 15 (running under High Sierra), so I can get back to a productive environment and finally get some work done again. to be honest, that setup ran faster and more efficiently than this 2016 MBP 16 M1 anyway.

Hopefully, Apple will someday fix Monterey, so I can use this again... too much time and money invested to just throw it in the closet!

Thank you, Gabriel... I'll give this a shot. I'm pretty sure I've covered all of the items in this checklist, but I will do so again in the specified order just to be sure. (As an FYI, I have already reinstalled macOS 12.2 twice, to no avail.)

In the interim, I have identified numerous other issues that surfaced with the 12.2 update as well. I'm tempted to close the lid on the new MBP16 M1, until 12.3 comes out to hopefully fix the latest new bugs. By the time macOS 13 comes out, 12.xx should be relatively stable.

I appreciate the feedback! I'll let you know.

As it tuns out, I had actually tried ALL of the steps provided in your link already... all to no avail. I went back and tried them all again nonetheless... still to no avail. For a moment, I thought it was fixed. A "moment", however is a hardly a solution. I do appreciate the suggestion, however.

I'm glad you got your situation resolved.

Jack