Newsroom Update

New features come to Apple services this fall. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Why does Safari hang in OS X Lion?

Hi. A restart after installing Lion got Mail and Twitter going. Not Safari though: it starts to load pages then hangs. I've had to switch to Firefox. Any ideas?
thanks,

Aidan

Macbook Pro 320GB 4gb RAM, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 11:16 AM

Reply
132 replies

Sep 6, 2011 2:44 PM in response to VictorGurarie

I am seeing Safari 5.1 hangs on multiple machines. The problem seems to occur only when there are multiple Safari Windows open, and most often when filling out a form. If I quit Safari and immediately restart and Safari "remembers" and reopens the previously hung window, the hang is cleared and I can complete the form successfully. My wife is more effected by this than I am, but then she often has several Safari windows open at the same time.


Speculating this problem may have its roots in Safari's infamouns memory leak, we have been able to reduce the frequency of these hangs by quiting and restarting Safari more frequently. I have used and like Safari from its very beginnings but this is becoming annoying. By-the-way I have tried other browsers such as Sunrise and LIghtening that are based on Apples Webkit and I have not encountered similar problems.

Sep 7, 2011 3:00 AM in response to Aidan Byrne

I have a similar problem.

My safari will freeze even I just boot the Lion OS.


Just to share: My apps hang or freeze when i'm on Energy Saver:"Higher Performance". So when I change to "Better Battery Life" it would not freeze anymore.


Please let me know if that really help as I am not quite sure this will help because It might caused by my faulty graphic card. Please share!!


alfred.koh@me.com

Sep 8, 2011 3:46 PM in response to Aidan Byrne

I am having the same problems since I upgraded to Lion (10.7.1). In Snow Leopard Safari would ocassionally hang. Now it hangs A LOT. I don't like force quitting apps, so I usually exercise patience and give it time to get out of the mud. But there's a limit to everything. Firefox is working well, but I would rather continue using Safari, as long as it works properly.

Sep 9, 2011 9:11 PM in response to think.pagan

I'm not sure what else is going on on your system, but in several hours of web surfing a day I never see this behavior on either my 12 GB MacPro or my 4 GB MBP 2009 era MBP.


I wonder if there's a system extension somehow causing this or if there's something else networking-related going on.


(It certainly could be Safari, but I don't understand why I don't see it, though I do not use tabbed browsing.)

Sep 12, 2011 5:07 PM in response to Aidan Byrne

With as long as I've been with Mac -- (since the mid 90s) this is the worse experience I've had with upgrading my MacBook Pro. Safari craps out... MS Office 2011 ... and when you look at the Task Manager it says not only is the app not responding but it's the Finder not responding and you're forced to do a hard crash.


I've had this for a week and am regretting that I upgraded to Lion. Note: I had less problems with Lion prior to upgrading to 10.7.1 -- so I've no idea what you're talking about.


Furthermore, I agree with the others who are also jammed up. Stating that you're not experiencing the problems doesn't mean that there isn't one.


Severely disappointed and not looking forward to wiping my machine to re-install Snow Leopard. Shame on Apple.

Sep 13, 2011 9:54 PM in response to kindraf

kindraf wrote:


With as long as I've been with Mac -- (since the mid 90s) this is the worse experience I've had with upgrading my MacBook Pro. Safari craps out... MS Office 2011 ... and when you look at the Task Manager it says not only is the app not responding but it's the Finder not responding and you're forced to do a hard crash.


There's something seriously wrong with your system - either hardware or some piece of software you've installed that doesn't like Lion.

Oct 11, 2011 4:41 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

I had the same issue with web pages hanging. I'm running net barrier for secondary security. I turned off banner filtering and the issue seems to have been resolved. Not to say that everyone is running net barrier but if you have any non apple security or internet security apps running you may want to check the config for any sort of internet site content type filters and turn them off.

Oct 12, 2011 8:01 AM in response to Aidan Byrne

I don't run Lion, but the latest version of Snow Leopard and I have this problem too. It began when I updated to Safari 5.1. I don't have any third party extensions installed and I've done all the lame stuff recommended on the various sites like reset safari and downgrade Flash to 10.1, Nothing makes a difference. Apple needs to recognize they have a problem with this latest version and fix it. Meanwhile I'm using Firefox, which runs perfectly.

Why does Safari hang in OS X Lion?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.