Q: Safari running slow in Yosemite

When I first start my MacBook, Safari works, as does my Mail with emails that have images embedded in them. Once my MacBook has gone to sleep for a while, when I wake it up and log back in, Safari stops working altogether & any emails with embedded html content don't pull that content any longer. The only solution I have found to resolve this is to fully reboot the MacBook. Clearly, there is a problem with Safari being able to reconnect to the Internet when the MacBook wakes up, even though every other browser & app that uses the Internet is not having any problems getting content. This is a serious enough problem with Yosemite that I may have to stop using Safari altogether and make a different browser the default, which I've never had to do before. Who knows  when Apple will take the time to fix Safari.

There are so many issues that it's hard to believe this is even true. It's serious enough that whoever is responsible for this at Apple should be going live on TV in tears and on his knees while whipping himself, bowing and asking for our forgiveness. I can't believe I'm saying this because I love Apple computers but if I can no longer work reliable I will have to switch to Windows, which I really don't like. But it's that or I won't be able to work and pay my bills.

So I've gone ahead and made Chrome my default browser for the time being. I don't want to deal with the Safari issues until Apple puts out a fix. It's disappointing to me that Apple would release Yosemite with these kinds of problems with something as fundamental as a web browser. When Apple first released Mavericks, I was having so many problems with Mail that I had to buy a different mail app and use that until Apple finally put out a fix. Apple doesn't spend enough time testing their software products before releasing them.

Looks like there's a class action coming up. I'm not taking part but I can understand how some people have a problem with lost productivity.

You must quit Safari prior to emptying the Trash.

Im on an early 2013 MBPro Retina with 16gb or Ram and I'm also getting the colored wheel, seems to be happening when I'm loading graphics/image intensive webpages. Definitely was not an issue pre-Yosemite. Hopefully Apple fixes this soon but in the meantime I'm off to Google Chrome

Running Yosemite on a 2011 Mac mini (16Gb ram). I'm a Firefox user ... got an invite from Apple to try Safari ... tried it ... what a dog ... tried many suggested fixes noted in this post (C. Samit's in particular / Thanks!)... some marginal improvement but still get the spinning beach ball on just about every activity.

I run a pretty straight forward configuration.

Message to Apple: Before you invite folks to the party, make sure your kit is up-to-par

exactly, this is unacceptable, I need to get work done on my computer now my whole system is left completely in wreck. I'm gonna tell everyone to stop buying apple this is about the biggest slap in the face a customer could imagine.

this is just... im not even sure what to call it. I just installed Yosemite (fresh install) 3 times and the result is always the same. i've tried to clean and delete the cache file and still nothing. Every time  i open Youtube on safari in full screen, all gets slow. -.-

Need help...

I have the same problem too.When I type text into address bar it just froze there.And you have to wait.I have tried to delete the cookies, cache, or extensions.But nothing changed.Finally,I changed the search engine to Bing.It worked!!

Carolyn, my ability to use Safari is almost nonexistent.  I can barely get some websites to open, but most just sit there.  I have tried your earlier suggestions to sethok45.  I updated both my iMac and Macbook Pro.  My Macbook while working slower than before, is at least useable but my iMac is not.  Such a shame to have such a beautiful computer and can't use it now.  Do you know of a way to redownload Maverick?  This might at least allow me to use the computer. 

Thanks.  Change bing then solved too..

Thank you very much Carolyn! This worked like a charm!

There is a marked improvement with Safari after changing the default search engine to Bing. Thank you Carolyn for suggesting this! Whether this resolves the other issues I have encountered of Safari being unable to reconnect to the Internet after the Mac sleeps for a while is to be seen. While I'm not using Safari at this point (I switched to Chrome as my default browser), some apps (like Mail) are still using Safari for showing image content and stops working after the Mac sleeps for a few hours. Again, the only solution that I have found for this post-sleep Safari lockup is to reboot.

Here's another "me too" post with the same problem.

Safari slows to a crawl and the entire system becomes unresponsive.  A reboot fixes the problem, until it reoccurs after the  computer sleeps.

I ended up restoring Mavericks from my Time Machine backup in order to have a usable machine.