Web pages crash all the time in Safari on iPhone

I encountered persistent issues and contacted Apple Support multiple times. We went through extensive troubleshooting:

1. Verified latest iOS
2. Restarted device
3. Enabled JavaScript
4. Turned off Private Relay
5. Disabled Spoken Content
6. Turned off iCloud Safari syncing
7. Disabled VPN settings
8. Uninstalled VPN app
9. Performed a clean iOS install

Despite these steps, the problem persisted. Finally, we disabled Safari extensions, which resolved the issue.

I figured out the issue on my end, it was one of the Safari extensions that caused the issue. After uninstalling them, I’m no longer having the issue.

As for Chrome, when it comes to iOS, all browsers are forced to use the WebKit engine, which is essentially Safari.

Desktop versions of Chrome use the Blink engine.

The reason Chrome would work is because it doesn't load the Safari extensions.

Hello everyone, if you are having trouble with opening Safari try this, it helped me… • Settings > Safari >Extensions> Turn off all extensions

I'm a software developer, made a web-playable game that works pretty much everywhere except in my iphone 13, which throws that error.

This iphone 13 has ios 17.5.1. My wife's iphone 12 with the same ios version fails with the same error.

But... I have an iphone 10 with 16.7.8 and my game works fine.

So, it is something Apple added in an update, possibly starting with ios 17.

Perhaps some lock so heavy web stuff doesn't ruin hardware performance?

I can't speak for everything that triggers the issue, but the problem is definitely triggered by low intensity webgl applications (I know this because I am developing one). Just speculating but performance problems may be exacerbated by apple's privacy measures, which could be attempting to defeat hardware fingerprinting. The level of application performance I'm seeing on recent iphones is truly pathetic for low poly applications within minimal shader routines, far below what you would expect with hardware of this spec.

Being that so many web applications are crashing on iphone, it would be great if Apple surfaced out of memory exceptions (or whatever it is that happens when you hit the limit with the GPU) so that developers can display a helpful message to the user instead of the current useless text surfaced in Safari. The current state of affairs seems counter to the interests of internet users and developers.

sypoltsystems Said:

"Web pages crash *all the tine* in Safari"

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If an App with Not Respond on an iPhone:

Close All Apps:

An app may not be responding, particularly Safari.. So, close all apps. Hold you finger down as you swipe up. Then, close all of these open apps, by sweeping up quickly for all apps.

In my case, the crash was caused by a third-party Safari extension.

This is definitely on Apple to fix. I noticed the issue possibly as far back as iOS 15. I notice that it happens on pages that load a lot of ads or have long-running JavaScript in the background. Web pages that heavily track users are more prone to crashing as well.

I'm fairly certain this is related to browser protections fighting against webpages. It could be stopping tracking scripts that are reloading and causing an error when they are stopped abruptly.

We'll have to wait on an update from Apple.

Don’t listen to puppybull-toot. The issue has been persistent for years now, and Apple can’t figure it out. If it’s a website bug as she/he indicated, then cnn, ESPN, my bank and about 73% of the websites I visit all have the same “bug.” If that were true, i believe it would actually be critical for Apple to address the issue within safari rather than expect such a large % of websites visited by Apple users attempt to remedy the issue on their end. That expectation would be akin to the proposal of “solving mental health” to reduce mass shootings as opposed to limiting access to firearms… well… it may be time for us all to bail on apple phones.

Dogcow-Moof Said:

"It's a misbehaving web page. Safari detects when the page is working improperly and notifies you rather than crash. I use a lot of different web sites and only see this issue very, very rarely."

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Use Another Web Browser:

So, what are these Web pages to speak of? Note that not all sites are too fond of Safari. Schools and Banks typically have this issue.

It could be that this is happening regularly and people don't care, but when it comes to Apple those of us who have been helping users here for many, many years know that just doesn't happen.

As I've also said before, if you feel it is something not operating properly, either make an appointment to have your phone examined:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

or work with Apple Support directly:

Contact - Official Apple Support

I personally spend hours per day using Safari on my iPhone and have never seen it crash on my iPad or iPhone.

In my case, re: my crashes on iPhone browser (both Safari and Chrome), (and yes, it still happens), it may have something to do that I cannot update to IOS 17, because my phone is no longer supported. I’m on IPhone 8.

I just saw I can update to a new IOS 16, maybe that will help.

It is definitely not on every page, only those with lots of ads going on, pages that are heavy to process, and are messy. It’s a little better with Chrome.

Need to figure out getting a new phone, I guess.

It's impossible to say what the issue is, most likely that your game does not conform with one or more modern web standards.

You may wish to create an account at Apple's Developer site and ask there:

Apple Developer

You talk about “so many web applications” crashing when I haven't noticed any.

Regardless, feel free to leave your feedback here:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

Apple does read and often acts upon feedback left there.

As a developer you can also log issues following the procedure here:

Bug Reporting - Apple Developer

Still haven’t seen it happen, but feel free to let Apple know:

Feedback - iPhone - Apple