Why is Safari so slow after upgrading to macOS Sonoma?

Dear blindkarma,

Could you please explain, what opening Safari while pressing and holding Shift key does?

Thank you

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.

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 have a MacBook Air M1 and never had any issues until they released Sonoma (started with Ventura). Ever since and up to the latest 17.4 version, it behaves very badly. I use Ad Guard, but switching it off does nothing. Some sites, like NYT, have new problems; for example, if I want to recommend someone's comment, I have to refresh the page because the curser goes dead on the link. Other sites that previously had no issues are very slow to open. I've tried all manner of 'fixes' from the Community, but nothing works. Sometimes I have to switch to Firefox because I get so fed up. I finally went over to Mac from MS after having an iPhone for a few years. I don't want to go back, but for the money I've had to dish out, I expect better. Far better.

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.

I am having same problem after upgrading to MacOS Sonoma 14.0. Safari is slow to load, I can't "two-finger" scroll on results, etc. Frustrating.

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.

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.

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...!

Same here! I am also on Monterey 12.7.1 and since Safari got an update, pages like Gmail or Notion became so slow and especially in Notion sometimes it takes second to register each key press and write the sentences or notes I wrote. On Gmail when I move my mouse on my mails, there is a "hover" effect, and it became super slow. On Youtube sometimes the video doesn't even fill the player's size, and I have to adjust it by switching to default view and then back to cinema view. I was like what the heck? I even did a fresh install on my Macbook Air M1 and this problem remained. I thought I did something wrong but it seems like Apple messed up Safari... I hope they will fix it asap!

Update: I noticed the problem occurs after reloading a page, perhaps more than once. After reloading once or a few times and when several windows and/or tabs are open, then Safari may start behaving erratically. There is some event that triggers this issue? It is not consistent and not that simple to replicate the issue though. Other browsers work fine and the internet connection is fine. No proxy used.

Safari in Sonoma is so slow on some sites as to be useless. Can take a minute or two to load some pages. Same pages on Chrome load in a split second, so it cannot be any network settings. It hadn't used to be this slow, which is why I have been using it (now my bookmarks, favourites, passwords are saved in it, I depend on it). I have only Ad Block extension installed, disabling it makes no difference. Apple, please fix this ASAP.

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.

Another day, another bootup and Safari is working as expected. :-))

Shift-launch seems to  prevent windows from reopening the next time you open Safari, so that appears to be the cause that Apple needs to fix.