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Safari slow

My Safari browser has been very slow for about two months now. It possibly coincides with my upgrading the OS to Yosemite but I'm not sure. I have been getting drop outs of signal, so that I have to reload Safari. Also, pages can take 10 - 15 seconds to develop or sometimes the page won't develop at all until I hit the refresh button or reload.


I have got rid of all extensions to no avail. I have also checked my internet plug-ins from the system library folder by removing them one at a time to see if there is any difference in speed of browsing. Nothing seems to work. My router is about two years old and I connect wirelessly. The router is a Thomson router provided by Plusnet, my internet service provider. I intend to ask them if they think their router might be incompatible with Yosemite, but I thought it wise to get the input of some Mac buffs first as I know from experience there is a lot of good advice to be had from these discussion pages.

Posted on Feb 20, 2015 1:53 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Feb 20, 2015 4:30 AM

Go step by step by step and test.



1. Power off the router. Unplug it from the wall. Wait a while.

Plug it back to the wall. Power the router on. Wait until all the lights are lit properly. It will take a while.

Restart the computer.


Start up in Safe Mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14204



2. Delete Caches.db


Close all windows and quit all applications.

Hold "option" key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.

Select "Library" from the dropdown.


Library > Caches > com.apple.Safari > Caches.db

Right click the Caches.db file and select "Move To Trash.

Close windows and relaunch Safari.



3. Empty Caches


Safari > Preference > Advanced

Checkmark the box for "Show Develop menu in menu bar".

Develop menu will appear in the Safari menu bar.

Click Develop and select "Empty Caches" from the dropdown.


4. Delete Cookies


Safari > Preferences > Privacy > Cookies and other website data:

Click “Remove All Website Data”.

3 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Feb 20, 2015 4:30 AM in response to Ken W

Go step by step by step and test.



1. Power off the router. Unplug it from the wall. Wait a while.

Plug it back to the wall. Power the router on. Wait until all the lights are lit properly. It will take a while.

Restart the computer.


Start up in Safe Mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14204



2. Delete Caches.db


Close all windows and quit all applications.

Hold "option" key down and click "Go" menu in the Finder menu bar.

Select "Library" from the dropdown.


Library > Caches > com.apple.Safari > Caches.db

Right click the Caches.db file and select "Move To Trash.

Close windows and relaunch Safari.



3. Empty Caches


Safari > Preference > Advanced

Checkmark the box for "Show Develop menu in menu bar".

Develop menu will appear in the Safari menu bar.

Click Develop and select "Empty Caches" from the dropdown.


4. Delete Cookies


Safari > Preferences > Privacy > Cookies and other website data:

Click “Remove All Website Data”.

Feb 20, 2015 3:00 PM in response to Ken W

Please answer as many of the following questions as you can. You may already have answered some of them. In that case, there's no need to repeat the answers.

Back up all data before making any changes.

Have you restarted your router and your broadband device (if they're separate) since you first noticed the problem? If not, do that now and see whether there's any change.

If your browser is Safari, then from the Safari menu bar, select

Safari Preferences... Privacy Remove All Website Data

and confirm. If the Downloads button (with the icon of a downward-pointing arrow) is showing in the toolbar, click it and then click Clear in the box that appears. The download history will be removed. Any change?

If you're running OS X 10.9 or later, select the Advanced tab in the Preferences window and uncheck the box marked

Stop plug-ins to save power

Any change?

Quit and relaunch the browser. Any change?

Enable guest logins* and log in as Guest. Don't use the Safari-only “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac.”

While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your documents or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this behavior; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.

Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem?

After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.

*Note: If you’ve activated “Find My Mac” or FileVault, then you can’t enable the Guest account. The “Guest User” login created by “Find My Mac” is not the same. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.

Are any other web browsers installed, and are they the same? What about other Internet applications, such as iTunes and the App Store?

If other browsers and Internet applications are also affected, follow these instructions and test. Any change?

If Parental Controls is active for any user, please turn it off and test. Any change?

If only Safari is affected, launch the Activity Monitor application and enter "web" (without the quotes) in the search box. If a process named "Safari Web Content" is shown in red or is using more than about 5% of a CPU, select it and force it to quit by clicking the X or Quit Process button in the toolbar of the window. There may be more than one such process. Any improvement?

Follow the instructions in this support article. Any change?

Open the iCloud preference pane and uncheck the box marked Photos, if it's checked. Any change?

Are there any other devices on the same network that can browse the Web, and are they affected?

If you can test Safari on another network, is it the same there?

If you connect to your router with Wi-Fi and you can also connect with Ethernet, do that and turn off Wi-Fi. Any difference?

Feb 24, 2015 4:16 AM in response to dominic23

Thank you dominic23 and Linc Davis for your very helpful and detailed replies. At the time of writing I have powered off the router and then turned it back on. This seemed to make an appreciable increase in speed. I also, as you both suggested, went to Safari > Preferences > Privacy and clicked "Remove all website data". By sheer coincidence, my current contract with my Internet Service Provider is coming to an end and I have negotiated a new contract which includes the provision of a new router. I am going to wait until this arrives to see if there is any improvement, because despite the above interventions having a noticeable effect, the speed of Safari seems to be almost back to it's previous sluggish performance. If things don't improve with the new router, I will continue with the detailed series of checks which you both suggest. I will keep you posted of my progress.

Safari slow

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