Safari Web Content high CPU usage

Resetting Safari completely and clearing the Cache.db (this may have been redundant) made a big difference for me. The CPU utilization dropped down to 0-1% (it was ~10-15%). Safari's "WebProcess" was hammering system resources to the point that the fans would kick into high speed.

Thanks.

Hawaiian_Starman's suggestion worked for me. I was having the same slowish interwebs. In the Activity Monitor I killed the "Safari Web Content" process and it instantly freed up the system memory. Then went in an killed the extensions.. there was a DivX extension I didn't even know about. Killed it and can now watch youtube videos without wanting to kill myself.

Had the same Safari high CPU usage problem on my Macbook after 11 months of no trouble when I was talked into installing internet protection software. Removing the protection software extension did the trick, performance back to normal.

I arrived here experiencing some Safari problems, mostly when I had multiple tabs (15+) open. I'm surprised at the haters who think Apple has to solve this. Apple's creating a sandbox, and some of the things we use don't work there. I use at least two browsers (Safari & Chrome) on a daily basis, and wouldn't think it unusual to use four, or more (I find FireFox slow and unintuitive, but ymmv). Over two years of comments, no one has detailed the extensions they use, the software they've installed (especially those that have startup items), or who have consistently reported clearing caches and/or cookies in any repeatable format. Safari is a very competent web browser, both fast, and feature-laden; it's hard to give up, and Chrome doesn't provide a simple substitution.

I have Safari 6.0.2 on OS X 10.8.2. My CPU usage approaches 100% when I have about 20, or more, tabs; but quantity is not the only criterion that seems to reproduce the problem. I can archive the web pages (Pocket is more efficient than Reading List, which seems to have its own problems), and Safari works again if those tabs are closed. I use AdBlock and a few note capture extensions (Evernote, Pocket, DevonThink) that I'm not yet willing to disable. I have uninstalled Flash, and use Chrome primarily to see Flash content, and for my web host accounts and FaceBook. I have both used the Safari reset, and Onyx to delete cache, cookies, and other web files. I use LaunchBar, but have eliminated most automatic startups.

I suspect FaceBook, LaunchBar, and AdBlock; maybe someone can confirm my suspicions. Until then, closing most tab in Safari seems to solve the problem. I'm not even sure everyone here is talking about the same problem.

Well, if closing most of the tabs we have open is the best way to have Safari work properly, well.....what's the point then? I delete cache frequently, purge inactive memory often, close tabs I really don't need open, have flash disabled except when I want to view something, and as for extensions, if Apple makes them available for their browser, don't you think they should first test them before doing so? If every time someone has a problem they must disable all extensions, and then one by one, add them, which means closing & restarting Safari over & over, isn't that a bit ridiculous?

Apple is not supposed to be Windows, "seamless integration" is supposed to allow for much smoother operation. However, Safari has grown it's RAM appetite over the years, to where I feel I must have 12 Gigs of RAM just to keep up, so I don't bogged down even more rapidly than I do now. And when some updates are backwards moves, like the ridiculously cumbersome Autofill, which used to work wonderfully well, or iTunes 11, which is a horrible downgrade, we are right to expect more from the company we've supported for many years of being loyal customers...

I suppose this is a place for complaining, too, but I'll rephrase what I said above: this two-year old topic has yet to have a level of documentation from the people with problems that even suggests it is the same problem, and no one has suggested a cogent procedure to consistently fix the problem, no less offer a smoking gun. For instance, right now I have 18 tabs open and Safari runs fine, but yesterday, with a similar number, Safari grabbed 100% CPU (I also noticed that Chrome periodically used 100% CPU during my monitoring, so I'm not sure Chrome is the answer). Is it Safari, or a rogue extension, or a bad plugin, or corrupted preferences, or corrupted cookies, or bad RAM, or... ?

Chrome, FireFox, and Opera don't exactly make me jump for joy, either, and the basic issue of having a problem (that I might be able to solve) seems more important to me than any entitlement I might claim for being a "loyal customer". When something goes wrong, it is often a painful process to troubleshoot and solve that problem, and these discussions are filled with hundreds of such incidences. It may be hard, in this context, to see that we're a small percentage with problems that the great majority aren't troubled by.

JohnMM wrote:

I suppose this is a place for complaining, too, but I'll rephrase what I said above: this two-year old topic has yet to have a level of documentation from the people with problems that even suggests it is the same problem, and no one has suggested a cogent procedure to consistently fix the problem, no less offer a smoking gun. For instance, right now I have 18 tabs open and Safari runs fine, but yesterday, with a similar number, Safari grabbed 100% CPU (I also noticed that Chrome periodically used 100% CPU during my monitoring, so I'm not sure Chrome is the answer). Is it Safari, or a rogue extension, or a bad plugin, or corrupted preferences, or corrupted cookies, or bad RAM, or... ?

Chrome, FireFox, and Opera don't exactly make me jump for joy, either, and the basic issue of having a problem (that I might be able to solve) seems more important to me than any entitlement I might claim for being a "loyal customer". When something goes wrong, it is often a painful process to troubleshoot and solve that problem, and these discussions are filled with hundreds of such incidences. It may be hard, in this context, to see that we're a small percentage with problems that the great majority aren't troubled by.

The fact that no one has suggested a "cogent procedure to fix the problem" is because if there were such a thing, then no one would have problems any longer. Plus, Apple would be the most logical purveyor of such a one solution fits all revelation. Of course, everyone has variations of issues, but the hogging of RAM is a pretty universal one. And there are certain methods & practices which can help, and those are all over the forum, are easy to find, yet are not a cure, only coping mechanisms. Maybe no browser will run perfectly, all the time, yet we "loyal customers" would appreciate an upward/forward movement with upgrades, whereas we have seen instances of the very opposite occurring, and that's on Apple, not us. We didn't screw up the Autofill, or iTunes 11, or the myriad of issues which hit as soon as Safari 5.1 hit, confirmed by the Apple higher level tech I spoke with early on. However, in later calls that was denied, disavowed, and I suppose I must've been hallucinating when the tech guy said they were aware of the issues, and that a fix was being worked on as soon as possible...

So, sure, often problems can be a user's own doing, but there's a fair share on the backs of Apple. And to believe that because you don't see thousands of people posting with issues, they're only a small minority, is to ignore that many simply read the posts, and many others post to other user sites, go to Apple Store genius bars, or seek help from other sources...

JohnMM wrote:

...I'll rephrase what I said above: this two-year old topic has yet to have a level of documentation from the people with problems that even suggests it is the same problem, and no one has suggested a cogent procedure to consistently fix the problem, no less offer a smoking gun. ...

Not the same problem? No way to reproduce it?

In 10 years of Safari use it is still the same problem. Prolonged Safari use = excessive memory use = hard drive cache = slow computer

We are talking about hardware from PPC G3 to Intel Core i7 now with 16GB of RAM

I have never used extensions in Safari until last week, trying to block out flash & ads; trying to see if that helps curb it.

No procedure to fix the problem?

How about there is none. You can quit safari, clean/clear it all out and as soon you've used it for a while it'll go back to its own ways.

I completely understand the benefits of caching data, web pages, etc but there's no way that browsing some web pages in an hour should gobble up a GB of RAM. Let alone not release said RAM when those pages/tabs are closed.

If other browsers can curb their appetite, so should Safari.

My point was that it is YOUR prolonged used of Safari that resulted in excessive CPU cycles, and that you won't document any specific problem with Safari on any specific web page or with any specific plugin or extension or third-party software. You can't also document how prevalent this problem is - as far as you know only you and the ten or twelve people posting here have that problem. So then we must blame Apple? I'm not seeing the logical connection. You (and @Saxman) assume this is the tip of some iceberg. There is little usable information in this thread, including my own posts. I still use Safari every day, and experience the problems posted here only a small proportion of the time. You and others, frustrated with a lack of answers, avoid a solution and switch to another browser. Because your Dodge can handle dirty fuel doesn't mean that your Ford, when it doesn't, is a bad car, or needs to be redesigned.

Complain and snark as you will. It's easier to complain than to troubleshoot. Have you removed your entire Safari folder in your user folder;? in your root folder;? have you attempted to create a new user and used Safari to access your most-used accounts to see if the problem persisted? If the answer is yes, please accept my apologies. If not, please tell me why you would wait ten years to do that, and complain about how Safari doesn't work.

JohnMM wrote:

My point was that it is YOUR prolonged used of Safari that resulted in excessive CPU cycles, and that you won't document any specific problem with Safari on any specific web page or with any specific plugin or extension or third-party software. You can't also document how prevalent this problem is - as far as you know only you and the ten or twelve people posting here have that problem. So then we must blame Apple? I'm not seeing the logical connection. You (and @Saxman) assume this is the tip of some iceberg. There is little usable information in this thread, including my own posts. I still use Safari every day, and experience the problems posted here only a small proportion of the time. You and others, frustrated with a lack of answers, avoid a solution and switch to another browser. Because your Dodge can handle dirty fuel doesn't mean that your Ford, when it doesn't, is a bad car, or needs to be redesigned.

Complain and snark as you will. It's easier to complain than to troubleshoot. Have you removed your entire Safari folder in your user folder;? in your root folder;? have you attempted to create a new user and used Safari to access your most-used accounts to see if the problem persisted? If the answer is yes, please accept my apologies. If not, please tell me why you would wait ten years to do that, and complain about how Safari doesn't work.

You are the snarking one, assuming we are all lazy idiots, and that we've done none of things you've mentioned in all these years. Another thing we've done is see years & years of users complaining about mainly the same issues, so if you wish to believe there's only "ten or twelve people complaining", you go right ahead. I think your statement about these posts having so little "usable information" "INCLUDING YOUR OWN POSTS", about sums up the level of thinking your comments display.... Perhaps you ought to repair your own car before tossing stones....

JohnMM wrote:

I suppose this is a place for complaining, too, but I'll rephrase what I said above: this two-year old topic has yet to have a level of documentation from the people with problems that even suggests it is the same problem, and no one has suggested a cogent procedure to consistently fix the problem, no less offer a smoking gun. For instance, right now I have 18 tabs open and Safari runs fine, but yesterday, with a similar number, Safari grabbed 100% CPU (I also noticed that Chrome periodically used 100% CPU during my monitoring, so I'm not sure Chrome is the answer). Is it Safari, or a rogue extension, or a bad plugin, or corrupted preferences, or corrupted cookies, or bad RAM, or... ?

Chrome, FireFox, and Opera don't exactly make me jump for joy, either, and the basic issue of having a problem (that I might be able to solve) seems more important to me than any entitlement I might claim for being a "loyal customer". When something goes wrong, it is often a painful process to troubleshoot and solve that problem, and these discussions are filled with hundreds of such incidences. It may be hard, in this context, to see that we're a small percentage with problems that the great majority aren't troubled by.

JohnMM wrote:

My point was that it is YOUR prolonged used of Safari that resulted in excessive CPU cycles, and that you won't document any specific problem with Safari on any specific web page or with any specific plugin or extension or third-party software. You can't also document how prevalent this problem is - as far as you know only you and the ten or twelve people posting here have that problem. So then we must blame Apple? I'm not seeing the logical connection. You (and @Saxman) assume this is the tip of some iceberg. There is little usable information in this thread, including my own posts. I still use Safari every day, and experience the problems posted here only a small proportion of the time. You and others, frustrated with a lack of answers, avoid a solution and switch to another browser. Because your Dodge can handle dirty fuel doesn't mean that your Ford, when it doesn't, is a bad car, or needs to be redesigned.

Complain and snark as you will. It's easier to complain than to troubleshoot. Have you removed your entire Safari folder in your user folder;? in your root folder;? have you attempted to create a new user and used Safari to access your most-used accounts to see if the problem persisted? If the answer is yes, please accept my apologies. If not, please tell me why you would wait ten years to do that, and complain about how Safari doesn't work.

JohnMM wrote:

Wow. I came here to help out, but decided to leave instead.

Thread has become a breeding ground for trolls and their caretakers.

I don't want this crap in my inbox.

Maybe next time you could try to offer help without being condescending and accusatory of other forum participants. Because, anybody who has seriously used their mac has suffered slow downs & excessive memory use - and - for anyone involved in some level of mac support, it is common knowledge Safari has memory issues.

Don't deny it.

And, don't ask others to prove to you step by step with urls etc, that there is a pattern of memory use, that's actually been around for nearly a decade!

I believe the combined force of complainers, believers, nerds and amateurs might eventually make this thread very usuable for all bugged by high CPH or RAM usage related to Safari.

In my case I have fought the issue of high Safari CPU usage for a long time trying all the many options found on the net. The biggest issue was Facebook which would take Safari to a grinding halt while Firefox worked just fine. For me the solution turned out to be a two step process.

Step one was to reinstall Mountain Lion - not a clean install - just a dirty one on top of the old copy. Safari / Facebook became a usable combination again but most of the time still at a CPU usage of 30+ %.

Step two was done when I finally nailed the culprit and it turned out to be the extension FastestTube. Turning this extension off resulted in a CPU usage drop to 5% or below....

Try it, test it and see if you can get the same result!

I wrote to the developer at addons@kwizzu.com but they have not cared to answer. Maybe because they know there is a problem and dont want to admit or maybe not.

Who knows, who cares as long as my beloved Safari is back in a healthy shape!

:-)

There may be two issues here. One involving extensions, and the other with too many tabs open.

Safari should have a mode that suspends the all tabs over say 20 that have been opened. So once you get to 21, tab 1 goes into a held state until you come back to it and then it attempts to update itself. (the actuall tab that goes into the held state would be whichever one has been "idle" for the longest amount of time). Having all these tabs try and be "active" at all times is a major memory hog but sometimes I have to do it as I am tracking certain things down on the internet. It's is just dumb that a simple browser can cause this much havoc from having too many web pages open at once.

The reason I use Safari is because no other browser supports Applescript (to the degree that Safari does). If I could get the source of a webpage from Firefox or Chrome, then I might go to one of those. The other big feature that I would be missing would be the ability to call some Javascript code from within the browser itself (handy when you want to count the number of images that javascript see's on a page). There are workarounds for both of these two things, but I worry that it would majorly slow me down.

Please Apple, you are only hope to fix safari!

I follwed leoofborg's advise and installed ClickToPlugin. My Safari Web content memory use went from 2.76 GB to less than 600 MB INSTANTLY!

I will try other thigs to try to correct this, but that is the greatest and best change I've seen after trying any thing.

Try using maps.google.com for a while and Safari soon becomes unusable (esp. if using it in more than one instance). Safari has, however, never been good on handling such web content ... . Apple & Google apparently cannot afford to spend money on fixing the most obvious problems they have.

I am increasingly forced to use several browsers in order to get anything done. Opera is a good choice, but also Firefox. Chrome is getting less good in my experience. Safari is still quickest/best before it gets stuck as it always do after a while ... no matter what system/machine you have.