Apple Vision Pro is now available in the U.S.

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

Reply
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

Oct 26, 2023 2:49 PM in response to wilbur808

Update: now running Safari 17.1 on macOS Ventura 13.6.1, and turned off the "Preload top hit in the background" option in settings. Still having occasional issues with DuckDuckGo locking up after typing a search term in the URL box.


I can get the page to be responsive by reloading the page a few times. But still not a great experience.

Oct 19, 2023 2:52 AM in response to brbo

DuckDuckGo is my default search engine. I can search normally by typing a search into the Safari URL box.


It's that when DuckDuckGo loads up a page with search results, sometimes the DuckDuckGo web page will freeze and become unresponsive. This doesn't always happen, but it happens often enough that it is very annoying.


It's not an issue with locking private tabs/windows. This happens with regular tabs/windows.

Oct 18, 2023 7:59 PM in response to wilbur808

Re: "DuckDuckGo becomes unresponsive in Safari". "It's the only website that seems to have this issue".


Wondering if DuckDuckGo is your default search engine:

Choose a search engine for Safari on Mac - Apple Support

and

if so, what happens if you type your search terms in the Safari URL / "Smart Search" field, instead.

or

If not, maybe the default search engine is conflicting somehow. (You could experiment by using that to search.)

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Re: "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".


Am assuming "the page" is the DuckDuckGo webpage itself, the one with the search field.

Wondering if you may accidentally: Lock private browsing windows in Safari on Mac - Apple Support

_______________________________

Re: "Is this happening to anyone else"


All seems as normal on my Mac using DuckDuckGo with same MacOS and Safari version (am in Australia).

________________________________

Re: "is there a way of fixing this issue?"


Troubleshoot:

Try making DuckDuckGo your default search engine, and just enter your search terms in the Safari URL field

or

You could check whether DuckDuckGo is down / has problems / if it becomes unreliable again:

(Choose your country by clicking on the tiny globe with "US" under in the top menu of linked webpage below.)

https://downdetector.com/status/duckduckgo/


If needed: Safari Support webpage (info. / support / contact options etc.)

Safari - Official Apple Support


All the best :-)

Oct 19, 2023 1:54 PM in response to wilbur808

Thank you kindly for your reply and added info., wilbur808.

Seems it would be a good idea to send feedback to those who work on Safari behind-the-scenes. They will likely not reply, yet your feedback will reach those who can make changes, and, if others are also sending feedback on the issue, we may see an update that addresses the issue.

Web-form for feedback:

Feedback - Safari - Apple


Oct 19, 2023 9:26 AM in response to wilbur808

Similar issue: MacOS 13.6, DuckDuckGo, and sometimes the page won't scroll with the trackpad or scroll-wheel, sometimes after scrolling part-way down the page stops responding to trackpad or scroll-wheel scrolling. Reloading the page sometimes works. But I don't think this is limited to DuckDuckGo as I've had the same issues on other sites in Safari since updating the 13.6. Think this is a Safari issue as Chrome which I use roughly as much on the same Mac I've not had any issues.


I suspect the problem is triggered by some ads that display. A common trait with all the sites I've had issues with is all display ads.


I enabled a Safari extension I had previously used (Ka-Block!), and this week haven't had weird scrolling or lockups with DuckDuckGo or other sites. Also forgot how fast browsing is without the constant barrage of images and videos loading trying to get your attention.

Nov 18, 2023 8:30 AM in response to wilbur808

New update: I haven't seen the frozen DuckDuckGo webpage bug in a while. I'm on Safari 17.1 (19616.2.9.11.7) and macOS Sonoma 14.1.1 (23B81). Not sure if the recent updates fixed things, or if the DuckDuckGo people did something on their end, but it's been good for the recent past.


As an experiment, I'm turning the "Preload top hit in the background" option again to see what happens.


Hope things stay this way.

Nov 20, 2023 10:48 AM in response to brbo

I’ve got exactly the same problem.

I backed up my entire configuration (favorites/passwords).

delete the complete safari config and start from scratch.

after that the problem was solved.

It has nothing to do with the search engine. I think it’s more an upgrade problem (old settings with newer patches, something like that).

if you have iCloud backup enabled you simply could backup your safari config as described above, after a while safari gets its configuration from the cloud and everything went back to normal.

Dec 3, 2023 4:41 AM in response to wilbur808

New update: Currently on Sonoma 14.1.2 and Safari 17.1.2. The "Preload top hit in the background" option is turned on. No problems since my last update 2 weeks ago.


I'm not sure what resolved the issue. It could be something within Safari, or on the DuckDuckGo website coding. But it looks like it's resolved for me at least.


My suggestion for anyone still with this issue: update macOS.

Jan 16, 2024 8:00 AM in response to wilbur808

It's not just DuckDuckGO, it happens to me on facebook.com as well.

What I noticed is when I try to scroll the frozen page (and realize it's frozen) and then resize the Safari window, the content jumps to the scroll position where I blindly tried to scroll. It still remains frozen though, but clicks on links work. So behind the scene every user action works but not rendered until the window is resized.


DuckDuckGo becomes unresponsive in Safari

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.