Safari keeps crashing/freezing after install of El Capitan

if switching between the two was causing this issue then I would think it would happen in Adobe Lightroom when I'm editing photos.

Not necessarily. It's important to see that the issue could be a problem with particular models of graphics cards during a particular condition or set of conditions. The latter being relevant.

e.g.

a rMBP with an Intel Iris graphics card when switching graphics cards while watching a YouTube video. That's four conditions needed simultaneously and although just an example (as I think we're all pretty sure graphics card switching isn't the issue, particularly after you guys chiming in having only a single card) it's an example relevant to the issue we're all having.

At the moment we seem to have three bits of criteria that need to be happening simultaneously:

1. Running a rMBP
2. Running Safari
3. Running a YouTube HTML5 video (not Flash)

A possible fourth condition (that I'm not 100% yet) is that the tab in Safari must be switched or closed to trigger the freeze.

However, performing these three/four actions (a) doesn't cause a freeze on the majority of rMBPs and (b) doesn't guarantee a freeze for those who do encounter them regularly. At a loose guess, I'm hoping an extra condition that gives a reason for (a) might be something we can determine through enough people with the issue commenting. (b) may be something too obscure or not mentioned in console logs to ever be obvious, but we may get lucky.

My rMBP has only integrated graphics (Iris).

I neither think that this error caused by switching between graphic cards. As I read, the other problem occurred in earlier versions of OS X as well, but this error appear to occur after upgrading to El Capitan (and as I know, there was some quite changes because of Metal API).

Anyway, yesterday I cleared my entire drive, and reinstalled Yosemite, and updated to El Capitan. I only installed some basic programs/utilities: iTerm2, Spotify and USB Overdrive. I tried to watch some Youtube videos, then it happened again, after one or two hours. I checked to logs, and got the same `WindowServer_[...]_userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin` file. If interested, I uploaded the log file to gist: https://gist.github.com/balazsreho/dc4e98e39b26544987f2

Now I try to test Chrome without flash and see, if this happens again. Later I reinstall Yosemite, and test Safari again.

Yes, I think it's a safe guess that this issue isn't caused by graphics switching. Being the one who brought it up originally, I was preempting any future suggestions it may be the cause as there are similarities. My original feeling that it wasn't the case has been strengthened by all those contributing here who have freezing on integrated graphics cards.

Just to make the point about El Capitan a bit puzzling: My laptop (mid-2014 15" rMBP) also froze in Safari on Yosemite under the same circumstances in Safari 8 and 9. That said, Chrome did the same for me originally, whereas it doesn't freeze for me anymore in El Capitan.

From the sounds of things in this thread I am one of the few who had this issue in Yosemite. Most appear to have only experienced it after upgrading to El Capitan.

From the sounds of things in this thread I am one of the few who had this issue in Yosemite. Most appear to have only experienced it after upgrading to El Capitan.

Since this thread is growing, I'll note again that I initially had the problem under Yosemite also. It seemed much less frequent, but I did have Flash installed at the time as well. It's been a much bigger issue in El Capitan.

Thanks for pointing that out Adam, I somehow missed it, apologies. It doesn't appear to change that those posting here who've had this occur in Yosemite are the minority out of those experiencing these freezes.

For the record, I never had Flash installed since I've had this laptop. The crashes in Safari 8 and 9 on Yosemite were always non-Flash related. In Chrome, I can't say, as it has its own version of Flash included. I had set YouTube to play HTML5 video but didn't double-check this was preserved when it was crashing.

Recently I've turned off the LCD font smoothing (System Preferences / General) and it's working so far!

I'll watch more videos and post the final results later!

Merry christmas!

Same issue here on MBA mid 2014

Occurs after installing El Capitan

I ALWAYS do a clean install - even now with 10.11.2 as I hoped it will fix the "close a safari tab with youtube video"-bug. Nope, it didn't.

I tried both without and with flash installed. It still freezes from time to time. No rule when.

I do however remember the first video that caused the problem in my case as it happened 3 times in a row - always withe the same vid. There was a link on Facebook to a webpage with a youtube video pasted on that page. When I tried to hit play my MBA froze.

As far as I remember this was the page (for sure it was something about putting v10 into a small car, not sure for 100% but 98% 😉 ): https://www.carthrottle.com/post/stuffing-a-bmw-m5-v10-into-a-1series-hatch-is-t he-right-kind-of-crazy/

sorry if it violates some rules but it is JUST AN EXAMPLE.

For some reason nor the page nor the vid is causing any problems at the moment.

I've just turned my mac on after a similar crash yesterday at night so it asked me as always if I want to reopen the apps that were opened when the problem occurred. I always choose "no" just in case it didn't freeze again 😉

Hope apple will fix this as it is quite annoying.

Here is another thread on reddit where people are experiencing the same issue. https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/3notdt/mac_crasheshangs_when_i_close _a_youtube_tab_in/?sort=new

take care and merry christmas 😉

So, I've been testing Safari for many hours with various Youtube videos and it works perfectly! Details can be found below.

Solution that worked for me: Go to System Preferences then General and turn off the LCD font smoothing feature.

My laptop:

• 15 inch Retina Macbook Pro, late 2013
• 2.0 GHz i7
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB SSD
• Intel Iris Pro
• OS X 10.11.2 (El Capitan)

Hope this works for others as well!

Cześć Norbert 😉

I don't want to be THAT guy but it happened I was using my MBA for over a week watching different videos and everything was fine. There is no rule when the freezing will happen...

Of course I've just used your solution and I hope it will do the job (that would be ridiculous but hey I just want my mac to run smoothly!)

Let's just keep the fingers crossed 😉

I've had the problem for a while and it looks like finally it disappeared after I've turned off the font smoothing. It's just perfect now but it's only been ~24 hours since I've turned off this feature. So we will see if this is the solution that we all have been searching for 🙂 Hopefully it is!

I was using my MBA for over a week watching different videos and everything was fine.

I don't think anyone mentioned having the issue we're talking about here on the Air. Has anyone here had freezing on a MacBook Air?

I've had the problem for a while and it looks like finally it disappeared after I've turned off the font smoothing. It's just perfect now but it's only been ~24 hours since I've turned off this feature. So we will see if this is the solution that we all have been searching for Hopefully it is!

Even if this does work, it's not the solution we've all been searching for since it's disabling a feature that improves the system font appearance. It's a tradeoff that we shouldn't have to put up with.

The menu bar looks like a late 90's display with font smoothing turned off. I'm not sure if it will interfere with decisions I'd make for graphics design since you can't flip a switch to go back and forth.

I think the font smoothing issue, if it makes a difference, could be very helpful info for Apple - if Apple ever acknowledges the freeze pandemic.

If in your opinion this isn't the solution that we've all been searching for then what is? Seriously, what did you expect? We're not programmers nor Apple employees to fix the error in the OS. This program is being caused by a program code error that we can't fix. Instead we can find an alternative "solution" that works for us until Apple fixes the problem and sends the update.

Feel free to use any other method or to avoid using this one if you prefer a freezing system.

Be realistic.

Even if this does work, it's not the solution we've all been searching for since it's disabling a feature that improves the system font appearance. It's a tradeoff that we shouldn't have to put up with.

I think the font smoothing issue, if it makes a difference, could be very helpful info for Apple - if Apple ever acknowledges the freeze pandemic.

Yes, it's also a solution I can't work with as I need font smoothing for my line of work (and it's a trade off that's quite a questionable compromise). If it does stop freezing it's very relevant in diagnosing the problem so thanks for spotting it @norbertsz

Well folks, I have researched and tried every possible fix I can find and in all honesty the crashing has only gotten worse. I have tried the following:

1. Uninstalled Flash.

2. Completely reset Safari (deleted all web data: cookies, caches, everything) about three times now.

3. Uninstalled all browser plugins.

4. Uninstalled all extensions.

5. Turned off LCD font smoothing.

6. Run Onyx to ensure all website caches have been cleared.

7. Run Onyx to clear ALL system caches, fonts, everything.

8. Sent all crash reports to Apple (probably 50 or 60 at this point).

Nothing has worked. This site is about the only one that doesn't cause Safari to crash. I only use my MacBook at home (Windows PC at work) which means I usually don't use my MacBook more than 2 hours per day on average and Safari crashes 5 or 6 times in those 2 hours. That's insane, it's literally not usable anymore and I have no idea what else to try.

Prior to El Cap Safari might have crashed a few times that I can remember, but never more than once in a week if even that much. We really need to get exposure to this issue so that Apple researches and fixes this problem. Until then I can't even web surf on this machine anymore. I've tried Firefox and that's crashing too, yet no other apps crash....just web browsers. Nuts