Safari hangs when loading websites on new M4 MacBook Air

You have already done the basic trouble shooting covered on Part 1 of 2 below

So suggest start from ➡️. Part 2 of 2 ⬅️ below

Part 1 of 2

Restart the computer in Safe Mode 

Do the issues persist ?

Sometimes a Safe Boot followed by a Normal Boot will just put things right.

If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up. To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac. Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.

If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.

➡️ Part 2 of 2. ⬅️

To Drill Down further and to avoid a session of Q&A, Q&A  and Q&A  

Download the Application Etrecheck  ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.

The Application is Not a " Silver Bullet "  and is  only a tool to examine the Hardware / Software used on this computer 

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer Hardware / Software used on this computer 

The application is free or paid from added features. 

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 

Post back the Full Report - Share Report >> Copy , then  paste  >>>> using the Additional Text Icon  <<<<

Deborah Shadovitz wrote:

My M1 MacBook Air was hanging up for a minute when going to many websites. I bought a brand new M4 MacBook Air. Clean install so no gunk in the system. Same issue. Sequoia 15.7.2 updated to 15.7.3. Safari 26.2. No better. WHAT IS GOING ON??

I noticed it happens with pages with referral code after the "?" linked from emails or other websites. Maybe that's a security check? Is it built into Safari or also a web test in the OS? But it's also slow on a first load of just something like CNN.com which I've not been to on this Mac. WHATEVER IT IS, IT CANNOT KEEP HAPPENING! I NEED A FIX. 15.7.3 wasn't a fix. I read that the next OS is still loading slowly.

I read older posts with advice. Shutdown isn't a fix. Restart isn't a fix. Clean install wasn't a fix so creating a new User isn't the fix.

Does anyone know what Apple has done and recommends? I sure hope someone from Apple sees this and gives me (and everyone else) the solution.

Details: Brand new M4 MacBook Air, 500mb SSD, 258.64 gb free. Clean install, not bringing apps over. Installed only Default Folder X which requires permissions. Installed A Better Finder Rename. Installed PopChar but not launching it. Manually transferred only a few files.

Definitely follow Owl-53's (always good) advice to post the Etrecheck report. This will help with troubleshooting.

Something is different about your setup that I think is causing this problem. It might be something revealed by Etrecheck, but also do check your router and internet connection setup.

I don't think having "many web sites" open is the problem. Last week I migrated my daughter's computer (a 2019 Macbook Pro) to a new Macbook Pro M4 Max and I migrated only her account and files, no apps or other software. She uses Chrome mostly (against my advice) and I was horrified to see that she routinely has 50+ tabs open under Chrome, so many web sites should work (not sure if you are using Safari, which of course is different than Chrome, but Chrome uses a lot more resources than does Safari).

I would check how your router is configured, any unusual network security tools, custom DNS or other user-configured network things.