Why is Safari so slow after upgrading to macOS Sonoma?

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 :)

Try this:

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

safari 17.1.2 so slow!!!! grrrrrr. Sort it out/ have done all the usual things cleared cache, hold shift on boot. Completely new system install Sonoma 14.1.2 ! STILL SLOW///. ran Mojave for years way better// Apple are you going backwards/. I started using Chrome again...!

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.

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.

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 problem with safari 17.1 on Mac M1 Monterey 12.71.1. Pages load slow, scrolling a page is jumpy with blank screens often showing until eventually populated seconds later. Filling out a text area takes several seconds to register each key press. Safari has become unusable for me. Safari 17.0 worked fine.

Good question. To the best of my knowledge, Safari stores a preferences file in the System. That file can get corrupted. Restarting Safari with the shift key down resets the preferences file.

The situation has worsened after updating to 14.4.1. Safari is excruciatingly slow. This is on a fresh macOS installation with no extensions, and certainly no spyware. It's just sluggish, much like every other Apple app (Apple TV, Apple Music, App Store). Like, I have to at least reconnect 3 times before the I got a connection with the App store, the same with the Apple Tv-app and the Music App. I mean, come on?

I ran a speed test on Safari and only managed a maximum download speed of 174.20 Mbps (see image 1). In contrast, using Opera GX, I hit 567.19 Mbps. So, what more is there to say? Safari has long lost its claim as the "fastest browser." Apple really needs to focus on quality updates. I'm done reading tips like "reset internet, log out and log back in, reset this, reset that. No, fix this! The latest update seems to have significant issues, and I'm clearly not the only one affected. There was a time when I trusted Apple's quality more than I do now—it feels like profits are now prioritised over quality.

When I first upgraded to Safari 17, I had absolutely no issues. In fact, I was rather surprised at how snappy it felt. (I can't recall for sure whether I upgraded Safari before upgrading macOS to Sonoma, unfortunately). Sometime after I customized some of the new Safari settings (mainly around profiles), it became horrendously slow on startup, taking up 4–6 CPU cores for a good few minutes before calming down. It now does this every time I start up the app. I've tried clearing the caches for all profiles to no avail. I had really wanted to switch to using it as my main browser; imported my bookmarks from other browsers and everything. It's really a shame that it barfed. Weirdly, this has been my experience with Safari for several versions: on initial install of a new major release, it's snappy as dadgummed tarnation (apparently Apple filters out "h-e-double-hockey-sticks" 🔥; seriously?), and then it degrades to feeling slow and bloated. This time (Safari 17) has been the worst by far, though. Really disappointing.

I have a new M2 MacMini with latest SonomaOS. Safari goes down to zero speed often, a force quit is needed to restart it. Safe mode restarts help temporarily and then it goes back to atrocious. My old Mini (2010 and 2014) did not have such problems. The slowness appears to be exacerbated by web-sites such as Yahoo.finance. the proposed wi-fi fixes are not involved in my case. Wish more proactive action on Apple's part were forthcoming earliest.

New Monterey and Safari 17.4 update is out. I am curious if this will fix my issue with Safari which I've had since last November.

What I have experienced is after 10-20 minutes of using Safari it started to lag, scrolling was super slow, typing was also delayed 2-3 seconds and typing was not in real time, doing actions like clicking on a youtube video or opening a new website was super slow.

I installed ARC browser and used it parallel with Safari but I am still hoping that they will fix this issue.. Tried to delete all browser data, force quit and launching it by pressing the left shift button, but no success. With this new version I hope it will be good as it used to be.

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.