MacBook Air: Websites freeze during sign-in across browsers

Try turning off "Private WiFi Address" option in the Network System Settings for your particular network being used at the time. Some websites may not like this option.

Use private Wi-Fi addresses on Apple devices - Apple Support

You can run the third party app EtreCheck and post the complete report here so we can examine it for possible clues. It will show any browser extensions & plugins and it will tell us if you are using any third party software known to interfere with the normal operation of macOS.

How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting an EtreCheck Report - Apple Community

jgGumm_22 wrote:

All right, EtreCheck has been run. See if you see anything.

<EtreCheck Report.log>

Sorry for taking so long to get back here.

That is a very clean system.

I would access KeyChain and the Passwords app to see if you do have the password stored there. If you do, then delete the entries for those websites. Try accessing those sites without storing the passwords again. If it works, then you can try storing the password again to see what happens. If storing the password is the only time you have issues, then it may be time to try @KendenupKate's suggestion, but make sure you know all your passwords just to be safe.

Find saved passwords and passkeys on your Mac - Apple Support

You can try creating a new user account. Log out of your main user account, then log into the new user account. Try accessing those sites.

"Solved it!: You need to reset your Keychain / Passwords to default and then do the update. Please Note: If you do something wrong with this you may need to recover your password to your computer so please make sure you have your recovery options set up first (mine is linked to my Apple ID for recovery). Have updated to Tahoe and now have no issues. I can log into every site on any of the browsers."

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Excellent job troubleshooting this!

Report this Bug Fix to Apple:

Do your Part: These are just user-to-user forums. Apple barely reads the forums as it is on their own time and will. Apple will know nothing of this concern, if you do not spread the word to them. So, report it to Apple. They wont get back to you directly, but the more they hear about this, the more likely they will look into, knowing what is going on. They will know knowing of this fix, if you don't report it to them.

1. Go Here: Feedback - iPhone - Apple
2. Select: "Bug Report" for the "Feedback Type"
3. Select: "Applications/Utilties" for the "Feedback Type"
4. Comment: on the issue, the solution, and how you can across it. Include the URL of this thread.
5. Proceed from there as necessary.

jgGumm_22 wrote:

All right, I tried a few things. In the Passwords/Keychain, I didn't do anything there. It said I had "No Saved Passwords". I did see under "Show excluded websites..." there were websites there, but those I assume are just those where you say "don't save" when asked.

You have some sort of Login Item for Passwords & extended support menubar item, so you must have considered it at the very least to install this extra Apple item/feature so you may be using some sort of save passwords.

From the EtreCheck report:

User Login Items:

[Not Loaded] PasswordsMenuBarExtra (Apple - installed 2025-11-22)

Modern Login Item

/System/Applications/Passwords.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/PasswordsMenuBarExtra.app

I now set up a new testing account and am arriving at the same problem - the sign in just spins and spins, not jumping to the 2-step option window as it should normally work.

There may be some built-in macOS system wide feature or setting which has been enabled which may be blocking or affecting access to some sites. I'm not that familiar with all the various new options in macOS, Safari, or third party browsers.

Am I at a point of no more options? I've read often that people bring it in to an Apple Store and they just update your OS without solving the problem, but I wonder if I'm at that point.

You are already running the most recent version of macOS 15.x Sequoia. Do not upgrade to macOS 26.x Tahoe as that will not help you and will likely just make matters worse. Plus a lot of people are not thrilled with the new Liquid Glass look and its various visual "bugs"/"features".

The only thing Apple could do here is to look at macOS & Safari specific custom configuration of settings/options which may impact some websites. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the various options, but I do know Apple has added a bunch of new settings options over the last few years.

Apple may want you to "Erase All Content & Settings" to reset the OS to factory defaults and thereby deleting all your data on the internal SSD & all changes to the system. When using Setup Assistant to reconfigure the Mac, just create a new user account & avoid migrating/restoring from a backup as well as avoiding installing any third party software. Testing macOS under these conditions will tell you whether a clean default macOS configuration will work. If the sites refuse to load under those very specific conditions, then either some of the more recent macOS networking, privacy, security settings are causing the problem, or those particular websites are at fault all along.

I would suggest creating a new Network Location in the Network System Settings & just use the default options just in case something was customized away from the system defaults. I would also suggest disabling some of the more recently introduced network settings options as well.

Use network locations on Mac - Apple Support

***I did just click on the little shield to the right of the search bar on Safari (private window) after typing the above. It says ancestry.com

2 connections blocked

3 trackers prevented from profiling you

Neither of those would have anything to do with the next window that it should jump to, would it?

Trackers should not, but who knows. The "2 connections blocked" is more concerning as it may be blocking something from those affected websites.

I'm already at my limit of specific macOS software & configuration options here and unfortunately I don't have the time to look up other possible macOS settings options which may be at play here. Hopefully some other more knowledgable contributors will chime in here.

Solved it!

You need to reset your Keychain / Passwords to default and then do the update.

Please Note: If you do something wrong with this you may need to recover your password to your computer so please make sure you have your recovery options set up first (mine is linked to my Apple ID for recovery).

Have updated to Tahoe and now have no issues. I can log into every site on any of the browsers.

"Thanks for the feedback. I don't know if I even am using Keychain, though??? (all this password/Apple ID stuff confuses me and I try to avoid as much of it at all costs). But I'm so glad it worked for you. I'll have to sit down with it tomorrow and do some research."

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To Find Out If Using Keychain:

Use Spotlight Search, to find it and open it. See if you are then prompted to start using it. You'll need your User Password to access it. See the screenshot.

1. Hold Down: [command key + spacebar]
2. Type: Keychain App
3. Select: Keychain App
4. See if you are recommended to set it up.

Screenshot:

jgGumm_22 wrote:

Hi HWTech, did you see KendenupKate's response about resetting Keychain/Passwords to default? Any thoughts? I'm going to look into it tomorrow, but try the EtreCheck, too, maybe. Though, it sounds like it didn't tell Kenden... anything.

I don't generally use the KeyChain/Passwords feature.

However, you mentioned issues while signing into those sites, then more issues afterwards. The issues after signing in should not have any bearing on the KeyChain/Passwords.

I know that the password associated with KeyChain/Passwords can be changed, but the only experience I had with that was after changing the main account password which then required updating access to the KeyChain. This was some years ago, so I don't recall the details other than being presented with several options which were not exactly clear which was the best option (it was not my computer, but one for another user account for one of my organization's laptops who was using KeyChain). Like @KendenupKate says, make sure you know all of your stored passwords just in case you get locked out of your stored passwords in the KeyChain/Password.

Personally I would first start with non-destructive things such as providing an EtreCheck report so we can see if anything there provides any clues.

No matter what, you need to make sure you have good backups especially before making any changes. EtreCheck does not make any changes to the system, but just provides a report of the system and some performance metrics all of which you can review before posting it here. There is no personal or private details within the EtreCheck report.

jgGumm_22 wrote:

I actually don't have anything saved on this computer yet except a Keynote doc. I did save a copy the other day. Why do you ask? I won't get locked out of the MacBook, will I?

No, dealing with the KeyChain/Passwords app should not affect them. I think I may have added that to the wrong thread although people should always have frequent & regular backups of their computers and all external media (including the cloud) which contains important & unique data. There are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all of the hardware, software, and security changes.

I guess I'll jump into the Keychain/Passwords idea...but I 100% know I've never saved web account passwords anywhere digitally.

It may have been accidental.

Thanks for your continued advice. Looks like this might be a weird mystery that I hope I can solve by updating my OS.

You are already on macOS 15.7.3 which is the latest patch level for Sequoia. Upgrading to macOS 26.2 Tahoe is not a good idea at this point because it is unlikely to solve the problem, but is likely to complicate matters & possibly introduce new problems for you.

Fix the problem with your current version of macOS before upgrading to Tahoe.....and then, only upgrade to Tahoe on your own terms after you have researched & confirmed everything you do is compatible with Tahoe & you can tolerate the visual difference & visual "bugs" with the interface.

Again, why I could sign in to those accounts after an update, but then not after I restarted the machine again, I don't know...

Hard to say, but some things may be cached & accessible until you reboot where some of those things may be cleared & reset.....it is why people always suggest rebooting a system to attempt to fix a problem. With some things, it may actually reveal a latent issue as well.

I am getting this same issue.

Every single website that requires any sort of authentication fails on the Mac.

It works on Windows and other devices, so it is not a website error. My computer is same model MacBook Air M4 and only a few days old and I have been desperately trying to find the answer as it is rendering all the website I use for work unusable as I cannot get past the authentication. I have tried Safari, Chrome, Edge for Mac ...

I tried turning off the Private Wi-fi address and that didn't change anything.

I tried the Etrecheck and it said no issues.

I am looking at what else it can be and will post back here if I manage to resolve it

jgGumm_22 wrote:

Would it make sense to upgrade to Tahoe 26.2?

It may or may not solve your issue, but you absolutely should upgrade.

About Apple software updates - Apple Support

jgGumm_22 wrote:

Additional Question: Would it make sense to upgrade to Tahoe 26.2? It's available in my software updates. The previous update solved this issue for one day only. I wonder if the same would happen with Tahoe?

You should resolve the issue before upgrading to Tahoe since macOS 15.7.3 is still fully supported. OS upgrades usually introduce more issues which can cloud the problem even more.