Q: Safari crashes on iPad after ios 5 update

Ok, it's been a couple of days since the update. I'm bummed. At first I thought there was a big improvement. But now I have all of the same issues back on my ipad1. The software and the hardware are just not compatible. I guess I'm going to have to get the newest iPad. I wish I could roll back to the earlier iOS that worked.

Did you do a full reset/erase then update, then setup as a new iPad? That's what I did and havn't had any issues for a week. That's not to say that there may be some web sites that it may have trouble with, but 4.3 crashed on some web sites also. Even on those sites I found that if I really wanted to read them all I have to do is close all the other tabs, and maybe kill all the background tasks and it read just fine. Some site the iPad 1 just can't handle, they are just too demanding. a lot of those sites will offer a mobile version or an app. In those cases use the mobile site or the app.

You can also go on the web and find instructions on how to down rev back to 4.3. I have no experience with this so I can't give an opinion one way or another other than I heard it can be done. I am perfectly content with my iPad 1 running ios5.1 so I have no interest in doing that. Personaly  I'd try wiping it clean and starting with a clean slate. Sync up first and backup, but Do not restore from backup.

I updated my iPad 1 from 5.0.1 to 5.1 yesterday (backed up first, kept all old files, apps etc).  I had been having very frequent safari crashes under 5.0.1, very very frustrating. After several hours of browsing my normal sites (that used to crash routinely, even w/ safari only app loaded), all seems to work great under iOS 5.1.  No problems at all (crossing my fingers, but definitely the update is an improvement - perhaps a true fix?)

I decided to take a look at the memory usage for my iPhone 4 and iPad 1. iPhone 4 is running 4.x, iPad 1 is running 5.1. First I'll say again: with 5.01 I definitely had a growing memory leak issue that only resolved with restart, with 5.1 I do not seem to see this at all (iPad has been running without restart since upgrade on first release day). Yes some page will crash, but if I look at memory usage after crash with 5.01 I only had a tiny amount of RAM (8-10 MB) free, and relaunching Safari didn't help much. Now if a page does quit Safari the memory usage goes back down to the amount before the crash (or when I close the page), from 7-8 MB back up to 70 MB free. On the iPhone by contrast there is easily over 140 MB free, but keep in mind the iPhone 4 has TWICE the memory of iPad 1.

I guess what I am saying is with all the new features of iOS 5.1, and different rendering engine, I can live with the fact that my 2 year old iPad can't do all pages, but is back to being a fully usable device (with 5.01 I was getting ready to stop using it). Also I am not getting the unresponsive behavior on web pages that probably came from critically low memory handling/garbage collection. To do complex renders of pages with lots of graphics in 70 MB is a bit of a challenge.

I wonder if people who are having crashes regularly with 5.1 have a particular app or setting on that I don't? I sync to iCloud, have push e-mail on, use e-mail, Safari, Notes, Calendar, and some apps daily, but don't have a lot of third party apps running constantly.

I have posted here before on my troubles with an iPad1 and 5.01. 5.1 for me, has resolved the situation. I had one crash of Safari right after the update. I did a hard restart and from there forward, not a problem. Sometimes Safari takes a long time to load a page. In the past I suspect that page would have crashed it. But now it seems to be working things out if I give it enough time. And I've had no problems with Zite, a heavy user of the webkit, and which regularily would fall apart. My heart goes out to ones still having problems. And there remains no excuse for such a long silence from Apple about such issues. But, as they roll, they roll. And it would seem that for me at least, their behind the scenes efforts have made a positive difference. My New iPad arrives on Friday. Now I'm prepared to give the first one to someone else and trust that I won't be giving them a problem.

While I've seen improvement in a number of areas with the update from 5.0.1 to 5.1, I remain quite disappointed that Safari still crashes constantly. I'm trying to use them (iPad 2's) for accessing web based management information systems, OSS (operations support system), a customer information system, and trouble ticketing. Safari crashes immediately on all of them. As may be obvious, I'm trying to use them in a business setting so I'm probably not a common use scenario. I'm sure the iPad 2 works fine for most people who watch movies and surf the Internet but it is apparent that iOS 5 was not designed to handle web pages with complex layouts and JavaScript. There is no multimedia on the web pages, just text inside gridviews, some dropdown list boxes, menus, and textboxes - nothing fancy.

On another point often mentioned here, I understand that busy web sites will crash Safari but that tells me there's a memory management issue. If Safari can't handle a web page, it should raise a warning dialog box rather than just crashing. I don't feel that I should give Apple a pass on this like it is to be expected. It's not what I expect for a properly designed OS and a native application that runs on it.

I've had my personal iPad to the genius bar many times and even post iOS 5.1 to make sure they see the problem and afford them every opportunity to try what they can to fix it. No luck so far.

Does anyone have proof that there were actually enhancements to 5.1 that improved memory issues for the iPad? The 5.1 release notes don't say anything about fixing memory issues:

• Japanese language support for Siri (availability may be limited during initial rollout)
• Photos can now be deleted from Photo Stream
• Camera shortcut now always visible on Lock Screen for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
• Camera face detection now highlights all detected faces
• Redesigned Camera app for iPad
• Genius Mixes and Genius playlists for iTunes Match subscribers
• Audio for TV shows and movies on iPad optimized to sound louder and clearer
• Podcast controls for playback speed and a 30 second rewind for iPad
• Updated AT&T network indicator
• Addresses bugs affecting battery life
• Fixes an issue that occasionally caused audio to drop for outgoing calls

I know these are "among other things", but I see no difference in how my iPad 1 behaves between 5.0.1 and 5.1. I'm curious if others are seeing improvements simply because they rebooted their iPad and cleared the memory, but the issue will present itself in time.

Thoughts??

--Sean

I have an ipad2 and was experiencing a lot of crashes.  Since the OS update I haven't had any.  I've been monitoring my memory with an app and there is a definite improvement.  It's not just due to reboot and clear. 

I also watch my Diagnostic and Usage list and while I'm still seeing low memory instances and apps jettisoned (apps that are in the multi-task area) none have caused a crash.

So for I would say that they did try to address the leak and were somewhat successful.  I'm sorry for the iPad 1 users.  It may not have helped you but my ipad2 is running as it did before 5.0.  Hope it stays that way.

Sean,

After installing 5.1 I did reboot the iPad, but since rebooting didn't do squat with 5.0.1 I'm sure it's the 5.1. Today I experienced App Store app crash on me so I need to have a few more days.

Previously suffered routine crashes with 5.0.1 in my iPad I

Downloaded and installed  iOS 5.1 last week when it was made available. So far no crashes and this is day 4. Not entirely conviced yet, but hopeful and encouraged.

Just FYI update on my ongoing experience (iPad 1, updated to 5.1). Have yet to experience safari crash after another handful (5?) hrs of browsing my typical sites (Washington Post was notorious for me).  Note: I went to my Settings before I started this note, to remember details of my iCloud and Location Services settings (which I think have been suspected contributors to battery, and perhaps crashing issues(speculated re memory issues?).  I haven't been using iCloud, and that remains the same. However, the apps (incl Find My iPad)  that use location info were all shut off (and no longer listed). (potentially important - Sunday, after ios update, I had updated all apps that called for it).  Just now, I opened GPS HD to re-invoke loc services, turned back on Find My iPad. No others. Will let folks know of any changes in behavior of my good ol' iPad as I move along...

Re Pirali's question on apps used - in my recent post, I meant to add that I use imap email, not pushed; use Calendar that syncs w/ googlecal (and my cal on OSX 10.6)

my 2 cents.

My iPad 1 still crashes after upgrade to 5.1. It is still kinda unusable.

It's a **** shame because I was looking forward to getting a iPad 3(been looking forward to better resolution) but now I think I'll wait and see instead. When it's almost 1000$(local price) out of my pocket, I tend to be a bit more careful about how I spend them. So I will research other options first.

It's been a smooth first week sice the iOS 5.1 upgrade, but this morning Safari and NPR apps crashed on me a few times. No critical events so far since then, but will have to keep an eye on it.

My daughter's ipad1 had many crashing problems in safari and ibook. We turned off all the iCloud settings, but this didn't fix it. We had to do a power cycle, then all worked fine. So I don't know yet whether it was the iCloud, or it just needed a power cycle.

FYI: You have to be really careful before upgrading and ios device. I allow my old iphone 3G to get upgraded and it simply got to the point where it took 5-10 seconds to respond to the touch screen. Apple doesn't let you downgrade, so be VERY careful and don't upgrade unless you ABSOLUTELY have too.

I am a software engineer. I hope this helps.