Google Maps lagging severely after Safari update

This is a recurring pattern. Google Maps often lags in Safari after updates while other browsers stay smooth. It's a Google/Safari interaction issue, not your Mac. Try these in order:

1. Clear Google's cached data. Safari > Settings > Privacy > Manage Website Data > search "google" > remove. Old cached scripts can clash with the new Safari engine. For some users this was the only fix.
2. Change the User Agent. Enable the Develop menu (Settings > Advanced > "Show features for web developers"), then with Maps open: Develop > User Agent > Chrome or Firefox. Fixes the lag instantly for most people. Catch: must be re-set each session.
3. Disable extensions. Turn all off in Settings > Extensions, restart Safari, test. If fixed, re-enable one at a time. Content blockers are the usual culprit.
4. Test in a private window. Some users found the lag tied to being signed into their Google account.
5. Report it and wait. Google historically patches these within days to weeks. Report via "Send feedback" in Maps and feedbackassistant.apple.com.

Go to Safari Settings > Advanced > Privacy and disable "Use advanced tracking and fingerprinting protection". Close Safari app. Run Safari and enable this option in setting again. It helped in my case.

Me too. I reloaded the page with no privacy protections and it worked fine. Click and hold the refresh arrow (see the screenshot - it's the circular arrow at the end of the address bar) and reload without privacy protections.

Safari's privacy protections are causing me daily problems with websites to the extent that I've disabled them all completely.

amd1 wrote:

Hi everyone.

I updated Safari to 26.5 on my M2 Max and the Google Maps website has suddenly started to stutter severely and has become extremely laggy. It's so bad that it's almost unusable. I rely on it a lot and use it every day.

It was fine in the previous version of Safari and it works fine in Brave and Firefox.

Is there any way to troubleshoot this?

Thanks.

I would use the browser that works for you in this case...

if there is some incompatibility you have no control over that, ie latest Safari and a third party website/interface.

Always advised to have more than one browser exactly for this reason; typically I advise browser(s) that have differing rendering engines:

ex.

Safari—Webkit as its core rendering engine

FireFox—Gecko Quantum  rendering engine

Chrome—Blink  rendering engine

Brave uses the Blink rendering engine

Microsoft Edge uses the Blink

Opera uses the Blink

You can try disabling any and all extensions you may have added to the Safari browser to compare your results.

You want to submit feedback you can do it here: Feedback - Safari - Apple

I tried this. It seemed to help somewhat. Google maps is now at least useable. But it is still seems not quite what it was before this change. Seems strange that this method would have any effect at all. But it does seem to.

Experiencing the same phenomenon under the same circumstances described by the original poster (MacOS 26.5.1, Safari 26.5, Studio Mac M2 Max).

The 26.5 update may be a coincidence. I'm still on 26.4, and outa the blue, GMaps started lagging/stuttering for me a few days ago.

ssp12 wrote: Maybe at least attribute your chatbot copy/paste...

Thanks for your post ssp12

Could not agree more....