Safari Web Content high CPU usage

If you have any items in your reading list, clear them. You might like to clear them one at a time, then quit and restart Safari to see which one is to blame.

If this doesn't work, try clearing all website data:

In the Privacy tab of Safari -> Preference, click the button to "Remove all website data". Accept all options to delete everything.

This worked for me, on a brand new 2013 MacBook Pro Retina.

Cheers,

James.

I tried everything and none worked - UNTIL - I tried the Rapport deletion.

Webkit / Safari BEFORE removal - almost 100% usage

DELETE RAPPORT and restart Safari

Now - CPU usage minimal (istat menus only reports the top five processes and Safari . webkit does not list now)

I have the same problem (only realised my fan has been going crazy while leaving idle a couple of days ago). Safari Web Content (Not Responding) in red colour and eating up CPU usage.

However, found out that by cleaning up my recent Bookmark list solved the problem.

Somehow, my iphone created a bookmark folder with about 10 youtube links.

iCloud must have sync it to my MBP.

Deleted that bookmark folder on my MBP's Safari and fixed the problem right away.

Maybe you can try focus on your bookmark list that links you to site with video streaming for a start?

Hope this helps.

Why would links to sites with video streaming be any more RAM hogging than any other link? They are all just links, not the actual site, so nothing is being streamed. If that were the case we could never bookmark anything on YouTube, Soundcloud, CdBaby, and hundreds more, including internet radio stations, et al.

I've tried deleting all website data, running with extensions disabled, etc, and it still runs up the RAM usage, resutling in very slow going, or Safari's Web Content constantly rebooting, or it just crashes....

No other browser I use acts quite this lame, and why should the one browser supposedly most compatible run the worst of all? I don't do anything different with Safari than with FF, Chrome, or Opera, yet I can run, say Opera for days on end with no slowdown, no freezes, no sudden refreshing, or crashes. Safari won't function for at most a few hours.....

Having read through the thread there does not appear to be permanent solution thus far. However, I appear to have eliminated the problems described for days to weeks by purging the system caches using OnyX, a free downloadable utility.

As stated, it is not a permanent solution but it provides respite for extended periods.

It's unlikely that you'll find a permanent solution here because there are so many different reports, most without sufficient specificity to make a diagnosis; and because the most recent version of Safari, beginning with Safari 7 in Mavericks, treats each web page as a separate process instead of the whole browser. Many of the complaints in this thread precede Safari 6, so it might be time to close this thread.

I experienced the problem and tried many of the resolution steps offered.

I solved my issue by checking the "Do not preload top hit in the background" under the privacy tab. I had a "Top Site" cached to an authenicated webpage which I was no longer logged into. Safari got hung up on this.

So here's a thing that fixed it in my case: Disabling Top Sites.

I now open new windows and tabs with top sites and I don't seem to have the problem as much / at all. I'll leave it for 24 hours and post again if this seems to fix it.

again - why I find this general topic so frustrating is that people simply describe what they did (e.g. disabling top sites), but fail to mention the specific problem, and neglect mentioning what version of Safari/OS X they are using, and on what hardware; and with what other software. Does your Dropbox, your Evernote, your Growl extension, or something installed by your printer or scanner interfere with the use of Safari or any other software?

Another example: the current version of Safari does not run Flash without explicit permission each time, so a recommendation to remove Flash is pointless. Also, Onyx cleanup runs (or re-runs) OS X regular cleanup (which runs in the background and at regular intervals, in any case), and groups things like cache cleanup and log cleanup that, if separated, might actually give you a clue to your specific problem. Activity Monitor is only a gross indication of a problem and, if a Safari web process is stuck at 100%, is it Safari, a plugin, the web code, or some other factor (e.g. have you logged into a guest account or a new user on your computer and reproduced the problem?)

Troubleshooting is a systematic effort to observe problems. This particular thread is mostly about shooting-from-the-hip. There can be a list of useful methods (disabling all plugins, creating a new user, updating software, clearing caches, opening web pages one-by-one, examining crash or hang records in the console, etc. etc.). That is not what this thread is about, and this thread is no longer "safari web content high CPU usage" because it conflates too many unrelated problems and assigns them to high CPU.

This topic is frustrating and annoying as it is of no use and personally, I am not in for a troubleshooting process, but to get rid of the results of an annoying bug. That's why I removed Flash Player and after that no more high CPU from web contents. The problem is not confined to Safari only. Also Mail is causing high web content CPU.

As far as I can see it, it's the relation between OS X and Flash. We all know how Apple is against Flash and not only for security reasons.

I noticed that you're still on Mountain Lion or is your profile not up-to-date?

In my case it started after installing Mavericks.

To an extent I agree with JohnMM about the frustrations of this topic. However, it has provided users with various ways of resolving issues causing similar but maybe not identical problems and, it appears, certainly not identical causes.

I am a simple user looking for a solution to a problem I am not qualified to accurately diagnose. I have tried several of the solutions suggested in this thread with varying success.

Onyx cleaner appears to do a job, which Mavericks' own clean up operation is unable to do. My CPU usage certainly never spontaneously disappeared, and without regular (weekly) use of Onyx, life with Mail and Safari would have been VERY painful.

I run Mavericks on a late 2012 MacMini. I never had the problem before upgrading to Mavericks despite some people suggesting that similar Mountian Lion problems would be solved once upgrading. The only Safari extensions I run are Twitter, Pagerank and Awesome Screenshots. Both Flash and Rapport are installed in the latest versions.

The fix that appears to have permanently solved my Web Content High CPU Usage for both Mail and for Safari is to tick the box to 'not to preload the Top Hit in the background. in Safari Preferences. Why it has solved the Mail issue as well I have no idea.

In my case the cause of 100% CPU usage of Safari was Trusteer Endpoint Protection plugin. Turning it off in the System Preferences solved the problem. It is worth to mention that CPU usage problem appeared with Maverics upgrade, so I doubt that the culpruit is Trusteer.

I have been having similar prolems and have tried many of the proposed solutions on this post and others with no effect. I have cleaned out all website data, turned off all extensions, etc.. While investigating this problem, I have had only one tab open and still my CPU was running at 100%. I came across an old post http://forums.macresource.com/read.php?1,1120323,1124043 and out of desparation decided to try it. This involves deleting the folder HD > Library > Google. It Worked!! My Safari Web Content usage dropped from 100% to 2.1%. I did not zip the folder before putting it in the Trash. I still have a couple of QTKitServer Safari Web Contents (Not Responding), but everything appears to be running as expected with 87% idle CPU.

After reading this discussion thread and trying numerous tips, I didn't resolve my issue. However, the ideas presented got me looking around in areas I hadn't previously gone.

My issue was resolved when I noticed that I had loaded what appeared to be 2 printer assistance apps - seen in my system preferences. I had a app called 'handyPrint' and also loaded Printopia for AirPrint use. I trust the Printopia app which I had 'purchased' more than the handyPrint that I believe was a freebie. So went into my /Users/USER/Library/PreferencePanes and deleted by way of terminal session. 'rm - rf handyPrint.prefpane'

The system settled down straight away but I did a restart to confirm. Yay! I'm happy now. Back to normal. System typical usage of less than 10%.

This issue is probably particular to my situation, but if it helps point anyone else resolve an issue. Bonus.

I too found that turning off al extensions etc did not solve the problem Removing Trusteer Rapport however has solved Safari's CPU hogging issues for now.

I am going to be monitoring the situation for a while as I have just re-enabled Trusteer. So far the CPU usage is normal, but I can see that rapportd is not responding currently. So it may hog once again if it starts resonding.