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Why is Safari so slow after upgrading to macOS Sonoma?

I have an M2 MacBook Air with 16GB memory. I do not use a VPN, and I do not have any extensions in Safari. I have not changed anything before installing macOS Sonoma. Yet, Safari has become unusably slow. Web pages take minutes to load, and sometimes don't even load. Searches don't execute for tens of seconds. I have switched off "Hide my IP Address", but even this did not help. Does anyone have any idea what else I can do other than switching to Chrome?

MacBook Air, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 2, 2023 5:32 AM

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Posted on Nov 1, 2023 12:49 PM

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 :)

38 replies

Jan 11, 2024 10:00 AM in response to unisfromcapetown

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.

Jan 11, 2024 11:27 AM in response to blindkarma


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.

Oct 30, 2023 10:43 PM in response to unisfromcapetown

In addition to the slowness of pages, I have also noted regular errors when opening 10 or so tabs at a time:



This error makes no sense, as I have 16GB of memory and around 200GB of unused disk space...


I have also noticed that upgrading to Sonoma 14.1 did not resolve anything.


How do I make Apple aware of this issue that seems to affect a wider group of users?

Nov 15, 2023 2:57 PM in response to unisfromcapetown

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.

Why is Safari so slow after upgrading to macOS Sonoma?

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