High CPU after Top Sites have been viewed on Safari 9 on Yosemite

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spinmaster Author

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High CPU after Top Sites have been viewed on Safari 9 on Yosemite

After updating Safari to 9.0 on Yosemite, Safari started to run the CPU to 130% constantly.

After some investigation, it appears to happen consistently after viewing the Top Sites view, even once.

Even after closing Top Sites, the high cpu run continues.

I use top site a lot, but now I have to disable it on new tabs and such, and make sure I don't mistakenly go to it.

I did try deleting top sites plist and web preview images with no luck.

Anyone experiencing High CPU with Safari 9, try to avoid hitting Top Sites (and perhaps the Favorites screen) and see if it happens.

Apple's software quality has been suffering greatly since last year with many bad bugs come each time they update and fix others.

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Oct 14, 2015 11:07 AM

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Answer 1

donlibes

Level 1

5 points

Oct 20, 2015 2:49 PM in response to spinmaster

spinmaster, thanks!

I had the same problem and your advice (avoid Top Sites) fixes it! Can't imagine how you decided to try that as it's not at all intuitive. I wasted so much time disabling extensions, plugins, spotlight options, etc.

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Answer 2

spinmaster Author

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Oct 21, 2015 7:08 AM in response to donlibes

Just noticed it while trying to find consistent sequence of events before CPU spike. However, a twist is that for about 3 days, Top Sites did not cause high CPU, so I started using it again, thinking it may have something to do with a particular site on Top Sites, or some other thing that can change in time like Google safe browsing signatures or etc.. However, since yesterday, it came back again. Regardless, if I don't hit Top Sites, Safari 9 behaves fine. Soon after hitting Top Sites, the CPU spikes. I do like Top Sites, but am going without it for now until Apple gets its acts together. Their software quality has been going downhill over the last few years.. Far more critical bugs beyond just annoying stuff.. BTW, I am running Safari 9 on the latest Yosemite on MBA mid 2011. Can't go to El Capitan yet for some third-party software issues. I have another Mac with same arrangement, but different hardware, iMac late 2009. Safari 9 on Yosemite in this case is doing fine, no high CPU with Top Sites used all the time. FYI.

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Answer 3

donlibes

Level 1

5 points

Oct 22, 2015 8:09 AM in response to spinmaster

Avoiding Top Sites helps but I see now that it's not a complete solution because Safari returns to its screamingly-high CPU behavior after I visit a few different URLs. I see no common link. If I restart Safari, the cpu load will drop to a normal level with the exact same pages loaded. Visit a few more and, boom, cpu soars again. Very consistent.

I'm not allowed to go to El Capitan either (due to our corporate policy). For now, I'm using Chrome.

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Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,864 points

Oct 22, 2015 10:22 AM in response to spinmaster

Get your concerns to Apple with this link:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/safari.html

Apple development doesn't read these forums but does look at the feedback links.

Also, Safari 9.0.1 released yesterday. Have you tried it to see if the TS issue has changed.

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Answer 5

spinmaster Author

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Oct 23, 2015 7:50 AM in response to Allan Jones

The symptoms became more sporadic. Now, I cannot trigger it reliably by viewing Top Sites. It may require particular type of site in the Top Sites.. Which kind I haven't figured out yet. However, it never seem to happen without viewing Top Sites. Also, disabling "Show Favorites" in the Search tab in the Preferences seem to help reduce its occurrences, even with Top Sites viewed once in a while. It happened at least once after upgrading to 9.0.1, so this may not have been addressed, disappointingly.

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Answer 6

spinmaster Author

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Oct 28, 2015 7:19 AM in response to spinmaster

Humm.. it seems viewing Top Sites is not a sufficient condition for the CPU spike. In the Safari preferences>Search tab, if the "Show Favorites" is enabled.. and you view Top Sites, the CPU spikes. If that is disabled, using Top Sites appears to be OK. I guess they don't have a methodical testing method to go through usage patterns under different settings.. Software engineering basics ignored.. FYI.

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Answer 7

spinmaster Author

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Nov 10, 2015 7:31 AM in response to spinmaster

Strike the last comment. It is Top Sites, just not consistent. It may be related to timing of Safari updating something related to Top Sites. This is quite frustrating.

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Answer 8

donlibes

Level 1

5 points

Nov 16, 2015 12:10 PM in response to spinmaster

You may be right about "Safari updating something". I spoke to an Apple engineer who suggested that Safari may be trying to update iCloud with my latest bookmarks. This seems plausible as my employer has disabled iCloud but didn't give us the chance to log out - instead, they just disabled the pref pane so we can't even log out. Apple suggested re-enabling iCloud, logging out, and then disabling iCloud again.

My employer's techies didn't have much faith in this idea but we're trying it anyway.

Are you able to use iCloud?

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Answer 9

spinmaster Author

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Nov 16, 2015 12:12 PM in response to donlibes

I use iCloud for calendar but not for Safari (bookmarks or not). So, iCloud is working for me in that sense.

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Answer 10

donlibes

Level 1

5 points

Nov 16, 2015 12:19 PM in response to spinmaster

Just as a test, you might try logging out of iCloud anyway.

My corporate techs believe the problem lies in my bookmarks although not exactly sure in what way. I gave up trying to restore the plist file (which always caused the problem anew) and am now using them from an import - but not from the favorites bar. That's our latest idea - that it's some weird interaction with the favorites bar.

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