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Ipad Safari freezes whenever entering URL in address bar

I have an iPad 1 with latest software update. Whenever I use Safari, I can go to websites if I select them from the bookmarks menu or if I use the Google search and then select the website. Whenever I try to type in a URL however, I cannot get past the first letter. For example, if I'm trying to type in "www.apple.com" all that I can type is "w." The onscreen keyboard stops responding and the key I pressed remains highlighted. I cannot switch to another field in Safari or do anything. I can switch to other apps or escape to the home screen and the iPad works just fine. Only Safari has the issue. Safari will crash after approximately 30 seconds of being frozen. Safari will still show up in the program switcher if I double tap the Home button and if I select it opens to a BLANK page, not my normal home page. If I attempt to enter a URL, same problem. What is this?

iPad, iOS 4.3.2, 64GB, 3-G, WiFi

Posted on Jun 9, 2011 9:06 PM

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21 replies

Jun 9, 2011 9:24 PM in response to Wallace-izm

Absolutely. This ONLY happens in the address bar. As I mentioned, other browsers and other apps have no issue. I can open websites by using bookmarks in Safari or using the google search bar. I can even type full URL's in the Google search area of Safari with no issue. Only the address bar causes the freeze and crash.

Jun 9, 2011 9:34 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

I meant changing settings such as "display bookmark bar" and other like settings, though admittedly there was little or no chance of them affecting the situation since they do very little. I tried Atomic Web browser, Opera, Fast Web Browser Free. So far, all of them work fine. Safari is the only browser that seems affected by this issue.

Jun 9, 2011 9:45 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Yes, I cleared those settings and no joy. I may as well try a restore though. I agree it shouldn't be needed, especially with other browsers being fine. I think this may have something to do with Safari searching bookmarks when you type in a URL. I have a ton of bookmarks that I synched to the iPad before this occured. Once I restore, I'm going to try importing NO bookmarks and see if this works as well.

Jun 15, 2011 4:56 PM in response to JPHuff

I want to see a good solution on this as my experience is identical: latest updates faithfully installed, cannot enter more than one character in the URL address bar of Safari. On the second character Safari either freezes or crashes. The google search field works just fine, bookmarks works just fine, the alternative browser Opera works just fine. Clearing, restarting, -- none of that has any effect on the problem. My only work-around -- and I hate doing it -- is to enter the URL I want in the google app, and then choose "open in Safari".


I'm screaming in frustration over the lack of an answer to this.

Jun 15, 2011 5:49 PM in response to karenfrombuckley

Well, a full restore didn't fix this either. Now the MacBook this iPad is synched to is out getting logic board replaced so I can't yet test functionality without importing/synching bookmarks from the laptop. I suspect this is the issue though. If you have a bunch of bookmarks I'm betting it crashes Safari do to either a bug or running out of memory.

Jun 16, 2011 11:56 AM in response to JPHuff

Deleting every single one of the bookmarks on my iPad and then restarting has done the trick. I've had to change the sync settings when I plug in to my MacBook Pro so that bookmarks don't get loaded back in automatically. I now suspect what was happening was that silly (in my opinion) automatic complete "feature" was kicking in whenever I'd go to enter a URL in the iPad. The list of possible URLs was soo long that things timed out and hung up before it got to the end of the list. Whether my suspicion is anywhere close to accurate or not, I'm now up and running and I thank you for suggesting I delete bookmarks.

Jun 16, 2011 4:59 PM in response to karenfrombuckley

Karen,


Thanks for trying this. As I mentioned, the MacBook Pro this iPad is synched to is out of commission at this point so I couldn't. Too bad we don't have detailed error reports on the iPad but as I mentioned before I think you're right about the bookmarks. They get searched for the 'auto-complete the URL' feature while you're typing and with a BUNCH of bookmarks I too believe Safari's either timing out and crashing or that perhaps Safari is running out of memory (wouldn't think this TOO likely though so I'm betting on the time out right now). Just curious if you don't mind as I can't check until I get the MacBook Pro back; how many bookmarks did you have when you were synching them? I'm curious to see if there's a limit like say 300 or 500 bookmarks and you crash? I'm going to submit this as a bug in the developer forum as well. I'll have to see if iOS 5 has this problem still as well.


Thanks again!

Ipad Safari freezes whenever entering URL in address bar

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