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DuckDuckGo becomes unresponsive in Safari

Running macOS Ventura 13.6, Safari 17.0 (18616.1.27.111.22, 18616).


Since I updated to Safari 17.0, DuckDuckGo has become unreliable. The page often locks up, at which point it doesn't allow me to scroll, click on a link, or type in the search box on the webpage. It's the only website that seems to have this issue.


Is this happening to anyone else, and is there a way of fixing this issue?


Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023)

Posted on Oct 18, 2023 8:42 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 24, 2023 8:09 AM

Things started working smoothly for me again once I went into Safari > Settings > Search and unchecked "Preload Top Hit in the background".

44 replies

Jan 21, 2024 6:22 AM in response to wilbur808

OP here. Since I upgraded to Sonoma 14.1.2 and Safari 17.1.2 about two months ago, I haven't had my problem with DuckDuckGo locking up (or any other webpage, for that matter).


Currently on Sonoma 14.2.1 and Safari 17.2.1. Things are still good for me now.


For the record, in Safari Settings "Preload Top Hit in the background" is turned on.


If you are still having issues, I would make sure you're up to date on software updates. Good luck!

Oct 18, 2023 10:24 PM in response to wilbur808

The same thing going on with me with the same setup (Ventura, Safari 17)


I tried to reinstall the OS without wiping anything but no dice. When I reinstall MacOS, Safari goes back to 16.6 and DDG works perfectly fine. Not seeing any traction on the net with this so hopefully this doesn't go on for a while.

Oct 26, 2023 3:22 PM in response to wilbur808

Still the same on 17.1 for me. DuckDuckGo just lags, and Apple's engineers are absolute garbage sometimes. May have to wait for the hip and cool new supposed new Mac OS release with a bunch more features we dont need to fix it.

DuckDuckGo becomes unresponsive in Safari

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