Safari keeps crashing/freezing after install of El Capitan

After the install of El Capitan, Safari 9.0 keeps locking up and or crashing.

I have a Mac Book Pro 15'' 2.3 GHz i7, 4GB Memory, 500 GB HD, iOS 10.11


When using Safari, I will have class work up and YouTube or iTunes playing. Before El Capitan it would do those processes with out a problem. Now it seems to lock up, unable to refresh, unable to exit Safari. I have to force quit and shutdown to try and get control back. Occasionally even after the shut down it will still lock up.

MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Oct 14, 2015 10:06 AM

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558 replies

Dec 3, 2015 8:47 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

Grant,


It is not "misinformation" at all. Safari has not worked in El Capitan since the first day I installed it. I have been reaching out to support to Official Apple Channels and all I hear is they are "working on it". You can't possible say something is supported in an OS if it quite literally is impossible to use.


If you are trying to help fix it then please let me know what you recommend. I can give you another breakdown to provide background.


One day after updating to El Capitan I got a "system out of memory" and "no hard drive space" error. I could not figure out why until I realized that Safari was memory leaking and currently using 30+ GIGS of memory. I tried to quit, it wouldn't quit. I had to force quit. Since that day almost 6 months, maybe more, it has never worked. You can open it to quickly grab passwords but within a few moments it will leak and be up to 4GB + and keep climbing. You can't quit it, you always have to force quit. I have done everything recommended on this and every other site and it makes no difference.


So yes, on El Capitan on my system Safari is currently not supported. Apple has offered no fix other than "working on it" and nobody else seems to know what to do. There are post after post about this and no solutions.


I hate using Chrome but I am forced to now because Safari is no longer an option. If you have a fix I would love to hear it.

Dec 3, 2015 9:05 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

Not missing the point at all. I just reviewed this whole thread and at no time have you offered even a hint of advice on how to address the issue we are all experiencing on this thread. I have reinstalled....no change. No extensions, no plugins, nothing.


I wasn't complaining, I wrote off Safari as no longer supported many months ago. Today I just needed a password so I had to open it and figured I would see if anything was being done to fix it. Nope nothing! Thank you for confirming that there is no known fix.

Dec 3, 2015 9:12 AM in response to neolukas

Thank you neolukas. Grant is only blowing the "fanboy trumpet" and has not offered any actual fix or advice.


Believe me I wish it worked! All my passwords are in there and its annoying that I can no longer jump from iPhone to iPad to Mac with my browsing since I have to use Chrome.


I have tried fresh installs, deleting everything possible and it still doesn't work. Super slow, hangs up then memory blows up until it crashes system.

Dec 3, 2015 9:46 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

Grant was simply making the point that Safari does work in El Capitan for many/most users, so it's not accurate to say "Safari doesn't work in El Capitan." Bugs almost always work that way and, in this case, they're completely disruptive for those of us experiencing them. It's nice that those who aren't are trying help. Some of the suggestions are basic, but you never know how experienced the people here are - so it's all welcome. I don't think fanboys troll the forums of people already using Apple to start in. Anyway...Let's get back on track...

It's ludicrous and aggravating that this hasn't been resolved for those of us having issues.

Here's something I don't remember noting. I didn't have it on my old 2008 Mac Pro running Yosemite. It had at least the same 2 extensions (I tried turning them off - didn't help) plus tons of other stuff that was lingering on that system. I do have it on a mid-2014 MBP. Having one of the most important apps on an expensive, recent machine is completely unacceptable, even if it's a minority of users.


This makes me think that there's a connection between certain hardware and bad code in Safari. We do seem to have a few differences. I saw the issue in Yosemite. Some of you didn't I didn't notice a huge memory hog...but that could be what's happening when my system is locked up for a minute or more...I obviously can't open activity monitor to look during that time. The problem is only on YouTube so far for me, but someone else had reported it with Vimeo. I don't use Vimeo often. Maybe it's video related? Bad HTML5 implementation?

Dec 3, 2015 10:03 AM in response to Shane Jay Hayes

Get one thing clear - i have defended no one. I has simply told you that under normal circumstacnes it works fine.


Abusing others - volunteers with no tie to Apple - is pretty troll-worthy.


I agree that there are too many reports of problems with upgrades. But you wont help yourself by assuming its an incompatibility int he software, when its likely a faulty install.


I am done wasting my time on unappreciative, and apparently illogical, folks.


G

Dec 3, 2015 11:02 AM in response to Shane Jay Hayes

Grant - Please re-read my post. I think you didn't see that it was actually thanking you for your input.


Shane - Interesting that you're also on a 2014 MBP. I wonder if this is isolated to retina, but I'm not sure why that would matter. Chrome works without an issue, but Chrome also has its own Flash install built in. So, even without flash installed on the machine, Chrome maybe be using Flash on YouTube whereas Safari is pooping when using HTML5. I think I had the same lock ups with Flash installed, but I Safari would likely still be playing YouTube vids with HTML5 when using Safari.


I really feel this is an Apple issue at this point. I don't think it's something we can solve by flipping switches. Between the two of us, it sounds like everything has been tried.

Dec 3, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Adam F

Adam F.


Really appreciate the nice words - its motivating :-) My comment was not to you, but to Shane and Neolukas "fanboy" and "apologist". Uh, no.


I do agree that Apple needs to look at failures - whether of install scripts, ref data comparability, or corruption - there are too many.


My main points are: 1) normally it DOES work 2) dealing with ref data corruption had fixed many issues (contacts, mail) and 3) other evidence notwithstanding, i have a safari window with an embedded youtube video. When i start the video, a flash process picks up in activity monitor, When i pause it, it falls. hmmmmm.


I'll share a personal problem. Yep, my 3rd upgrade had an issue - contacts vanished and it crashed regularly. So.... i deleted the ref data and preferences, got my backup (never upgrade without protection!), imported it, and voila! all was well.


To my point - there was no "el cap" incompatibility- my previous tow upgrades went smoothly. I guessed that there was some data conversion that went awry, and guessed right. I'll note that that was also the case with a third party mail utility i use - its preferneces were corrupt.


Hence my frustration when folks say "safari doesn't work with El Cap". The main problem with this, aside from being factually wrong, is that it doesn't lead you to a solution very well. It may be fun to bash Apple, but that and $3.75 gets you a cup'o Starbucks.


Note what i said about Flash. I would assume they used HTML5 too, but i have evidence to the contrary....that i admit i don't know the details of.


G

Dec 5, 2015 12:15 AM in response to Grant Lenahan

I am a Apple defender and a fanboy if you will, but I have this problem and its frustrating. To say that Safari on El Cap doesn't work well is okay and well true. Now that being just for some of us, or the problem has a majority, numbers not important... but still true. Maybe you have this problem also but you just didnt encountered it (because of the way some of us use safari, yt etc).


I tried everything so at this point Im pretty sure the problem is in core of the El Cap. Until someone offers a cocnrete solution or a tip, my opinion won't change.

Today happened again to me, while watching approx 10 youtube videos and tried fast-switching between tabs.

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Safari keeps crashing/freezing after install of El Capitan

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