Why is Safari so slow after upgrading to macOS Sonoma?

Hi, I had the same problem with my Safari. Read through a number of posts so I went to my Wifi Network settings and under Proxies I disabled 'Auto proxy discovery' and under TCP/IP I renewed my DHCP Lease. Happy to say that my Safari is now back to normal.

Same on Mac Mini M1 16GB.

Safari 17.0 with Sonoma 14.0 is incredibly slow and unusable. Many pages taking 10-20 seconds to load. Some so slow it takes a minute or more. I have no VPN or extensions installed. Chrome works normally by comparison.

Behaves like throttling, but WiFi and internet are fine on MacBook Pro and other devices here, so not the connection.

I cleared cookies and Safari was much faster for 20 minutes. Quickly bogged down while visiting 10 other sites. Within an hour, it was unusable again. Correlates to the amount of cookies acquired. Something is very wrong.

Turn off automatic proxy in WiFi settings.

Settings - WiFi - Click on more/details on the the WiFi you are connected with - Proxy’s - Turn off automatic proxy detection

It should fix the problem because it did with mine. When I turn in on again the problem happens again.

You’re welcome :)

This fix worked:

1. Force quit Safari. (Option + Command + Esc)
2. Restart Safari while pressing and holding shift key.

Pages are now loading quickly when visiting Dropbox, Nextdoor, Craigslist, Amazon and Apple Community, etc.

blindkarma

Posted on Dec 8, 2023 12:31 PM

Try this:

1. Force quit Safari. (Option + Command + Esc)

2. Restart Safari while holding the Shift key down.

This seemed to good to be true, so dismissed it as hocus pocus. Just tried it out of desperation because the other fixes re wifi didn't apply and....it worked!!!

So far, every site I visited loaded instantly, including Yahoo.finance, which I read was slow loading.

Thank you Blindkarma.

Update: I disabled Avast Anti-Track and cleared cache etc, and with the latest update, Safari response time has improved. I tend to use Chrome now anyway, as a 'go to' browser. Its a shame the 'proprietary' Apple one doesn't work better on the Mac.

Same on Mac Mini M1 16GB.

Safari 17.0 with Sonoma 14.0 is incredibly slow and unusable. Many pages taking 10-20 seconds to load. Some so slow it takes a minute or more. I have no VPN or extensions installed. Chrome works normally by comparison.

Behaves like throttling, but WiFi and internet speed test fine and MacBook Pro and other devices are working normally here, so not the connection.

I cleared cookies and Safari was much faster for 20 minutes. Quickly bogged down while visiting 10 other sites. Within an hour, it was unusable again. Correlates to the amount of cookies acquired. Shutdown and restarted a few times with no difference. Something is very wrong.

Renewed DHCP lease under TCP/IP. Auto-Proxy discovery is already off. Still slow.

Have you tried force quitting Safari then holding down Shift while relaunching it? Worked for me on my Mac Studio.

I had this too.

Emptying caches didn't help.

I found that shutting down the MacBook and restarting it fixed the problem for about 24 hours.

My guess is that Apple programmers forgot to write in commands to empty old data; things keep piling up until Safari bogs down too much to use.

This fix is not about restarting the Mac in safe mode. It is opening Safari-only while holding the shift key.

Normal quit followed by shift-opening Safari seems to fix this. Initial operation, not observed over time yet.

Hmm.

Have you tried reinstalling Mac OS Sonoma in Mac OS recovery? Or repair your drive also in Mac OS recovery?

I would recommend calling Apple support if not done so yet if you need a manual. There a few critical steps you need to follow when you want to try repairing your drive. And don’t forget to make a back up if you reinstall Mac Sonoma. You files should still be there, but just in case.

Try this:

1. Force quit Safari. (Option + Command + Esc)
2. Restart Safari while holding the Shift key down.

I am having the exact same issue. No issues before Sonoma. Tonight, a 1.37GB file was going to take 2 hours and 18 minutes to upload with Safari. I switched to Chrome and it took six minutes. Absolutely a Safari issue that needs fixing ASAP.

I thought the problem is cured with deleting and regenerating the Wifi module in Systems Settings Network.

However this is not the case. The problem seems to affect all network connections - not only Safari.

My work around is to switch off network connections (via pulling the ethernet cable and switching off Wifi) and switching it on again. Again and again.

My unprofessional guess is that there is a problem with new network connections within the System. Old ones (like the same webpage domain) seem to be less affected. If this is true - we have to wait for an update by Apple.