Anyone else having memory bloat issues with Safari (5.0.5)? Since the last update, It loads up a ton of memory and doesn't release it. I have 16 gig on my Mac tower and Safari is currently taking up 9.5 gig as I type this. I think this vers. has a serious memory leak. Any thoughts?
DF
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)
It is evidence of some process or other still running - Acivity Monitor should reveal it.
Clear you cache and history files regularly.
Restarting Safari will clear it.
AM is where I first noticed the problem... and of course restarting it will clear the memory...
the point is, it clearly isn't right for this app to grab over 9 gb of memory and not let it go until quit... besides, it didn't do this in previous versions... i can understand an app like Photoshop taking that much memory but it always releases it when it doesn't need it... this doesnt - indicating a possible memory leak...
This is happening to me as well ever since I updated to 5.0.5. Although I have 2GB Safari takes up around 500-600MB after a while and slows down the whole computer. Used to use only 60-200MB.
Damir --
You are emptying the Safari cache & history list regularly, right?
Have you Reset Safari via the main Safari pull down menu yet?
Clearing cache and history doesn't release any significant memory when it gets into the 2+gb range... the only thing is to quit and restart...
I'm somewhat relieved to see that someone else has a similar problem - I was beginning to think it was something entirely peculiar to my system and configuration. Perhaps its also compounded by the fact that i have a lot of physical memory, and Safari just takes as much as it can get... ?
As a test, I've copied v5.0.4 from a back-up and I've been running it instead of 5.0.5... So far it seems to behave differently... Although memory usage does go up, it doesn't increase as much or as quickly as in v5.0.5, and it hasn't gone up over 1gb. (yet) Clearing cache and history releases some memory but not as much as i would expect - closing tabs and windows clears some memory but not nearly as much as it took to create and load them. I've done a quick comparison test with Firefox... It too grabs increasing amounts of memory, sometimes a lot, especially if you open a lot of tabs - but unlike Safari, if you close things, it releases everything eventually and goes back to a reasonable amount.
Hmm
I'm also having this problem. It is something that puzzles me a lot. It doesn't make any sense that the browser doesn't free any memory when you close the web pages.
It is a fairly stupid waste of resources to have such amount of memory in use by Safari, when you don't even have any page open on the browser. I can have more than 500MB in use in Safar, even with all the tabs closed and no pages open.
I don't know what to do with this... I like Safari, but probably I have to change to another browser until this problem is solved.
Yeah, I'm experiencing them more frequently too. Beach Ball spinning if I left Safari open, especially after waking from sleep. DRIVING ME BONKERS! It also does it occasionally while I'm browsing, so no matter what state it's in, it happens. It slows everything down to the point that it's so unresponsive, that I have to force shutdown. Tried repairing disk, tried safe boot holding shift key while booting, it does seem like memory leak! I'm on SL 10.6.7 and Safari 5.0.5, Mid 2009 13" MBP.
Apple, hope your reading this and working on plugging the hole!
yes i have the same problem
Safari eat a lot of memory,im not rich so i have the deafult 2 gb ram for my macbook alu and safari takes 500 mb for 1 page,Apple fix this right nowwwwwww!
Add me to the list. My wife and I are both running SL 10.6.7, Safari 5.0.5, Glims 1.0b28 added, Extensions on. My wife has no Extensions added, and plug-ins we both have installed are QuickTime, Java, Java 2, iPhotoPhotocast, Google Earth, Microsoft Office Live, Quarts Composer, and Shockwave Flash and Shockwave Director. Extensions I have are AdBlock, Translate, Papers, InvisibleHand, TinEye, JavaScript Blacklist, Fireballed, and Click To Flash. Auto-update is on, and all the extensions are the latest version. I also have Citrix and Silverlight plugins installed.
Her MacBook (2006 ed) has 2GB of RAM, Safari opens with 60MB or so and after a few days of intermittent use (with all windows/tabs closed) is using 230MB of real RAM.
My MacBook Pro (mid-2009 ed) has 4GB of RAM, Safari opens with 150MB or so and after 5 hours of heavy use (maybe 200 pages loaded, lots of multiple tabs, some YouTube H.264 videos, etc.) and then everything closed is using 700MB of real RAM. If I leave it open with all windows closed for a few days it will be using 1.5-2GB of real RAM.
I’ll be doing more thorough troubleshooting over the next few days, but this is definitely a big issue as I have to quit Safari after every use or my MacBook Pro slows down. This wasn’t always the case, so it’s probably an interaction between an extension or plug-in with Safari 5.0.5.
Mike --
How about getting rid of the AdBlock, just to test.
Quite a few posters have found that one to be a real problem.
GlimmerBlocker works great, and takes up very little room.
(It's the only haxie I have on here, and I'm quite happy with it.)
I'm getting a sneaky suspicion that this is flash related... Mine seems to occur when I leave Safari open after viewing sites that use flash and the computer goes to sleep. We all know how Mr Jobs LOVES flash media (sarcasm) Is this their way of getting us annoyed at adobe, so we stick to HTML5? lol. I hope someone from support is reading this. I can't control which sites use it, and those that don't. I'll keep looking to all my running processes and memory usage to spot abnormalities... any one else feel free to check their own for comparison.
The consensus seems to be that this is definitely a problem that needs addressing and troubleshooting. It may very well be a Flash related issue... Flash does use a fair bit of cpu and memory, but that too should be released back to the system when its no longer needed - Does the latest Flash plugin have a memory leak?
I recently left my Safari session with several tabs/sites (some with Flash) running for 3 days without closing the app... Safari broke the record and eventually took 12 of my 16GB! That's totally insane!
Flash Player (Safari Plugin) CPU was at 100.1% and the memory usage was climbing. My 13" mid 2009 MBP was nice and warm on my lap. Wonder if this plugin needs updating then for Safari 5.0.5. I'm checking Adobe site now...
I’ve tried turning off all extensions for a few days, leaving all plug-ins off for a few days, or both. There’s not been a real change. Within a few hours, Safari 5.0.5 is using 600MB or more of real RAM, and within a day it’s using at least 1GB (25%!) of real RAM.
Fingers crossed it will be fixed with Safari x.x in Lion, as I doubt Apple’s going to focus too much on Snow Leopard too much between now and that release.
I’ve tried a variety of things to suss out the issue: all extensions off, all plug-ins off, just the AdBlock extension off (as it’s been linked to memory leaks on a variety of blogs), updated Flash to 10.3.181.14, created a new user account with fresh prefs, and rebooted in safe mode. None of it made a differences when compared to wife’s MacBook.
The one thing that has made a major difference is 32-bit mode, which is the only way Safari can run on my wife’s MacBook. Having Safari run in 32-bit mode on my MacBook Pro has resulted in Safari staying at around 500-600MB of real RAM even after being opened for several days. While this is higher than my wife’s 300MB or less after the same time period, given that I have double the RAM and plenty of real RAM still free I think it’s more than acceptable. My system no longer bogs down after leaving Safari open as it chews through all of the remaining real RAM over the course of a few days.
So maybe 32-bit mode is the answer? I haven’t noticed any performance lags or any other issues since making the switch.
Safari memory issues...
