Since upgrading to El Capitan I find that Safari is slow to load pages and has a tendency to hang. This did not occur with Yosemite. Does anyone suffer the same and is there a solution?
iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)
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 lights are lit properly. It will take a while.
Restart the computer.
Start up in Safe Mode.
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18760?locale=en_US
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 beside "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 the “Details” button.
Remove all cookies except ones from Apple, your internet service provider and banks.
There are many possible causes for problems with web browsing. Below are some simple steps that may either solve the problem or point the way to a solution.
Back up all data before making any changes.
1. Restart your router and also your broadband device, if they're separate.
2. If you connect to the the router with Wi-Fi, turn Wi-Fi off and then back on.
3. If you connect with Wi-Fi and you can also connect with Ethernet, do that and turn off Wi-Fi.
4. Take the steps recommended in these support articles:
If Safari doesn't load a page or webpage items are missing
Non-responsive DNS server or invalid DNS configuration can cause long delay before webpages load
5. 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.
6. In the Security tab of the preferences window, uncheck the box marked
Warn when visiting a fraudulent website
if it's checked.
7. If you're running OS X 10.10 or later, select the Search tab. Uncheck the box marked
Enable Quick Website Search
if it's checked.
8. If you're running OS X 10.9 or later, select the Advanced tab and uncheck the box marked
Stop plug-ins to save power
Quit and relaunch the browser.
9. Select the Security tab and uncheck the box marked
Allow WebGL
if it's checked. If it's not checked, check it.
10. If you're running OS X 10.10 or later, open the General pane in System Preferences and uncheck the box marked
Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices
if it's checked.
11. 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.
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.
12. Are any other web browsers installed, and are they the same? What about other Internet applications, such as iTunes and the App Store?
13. If other browsers and Internet applications are also affected, follow these instructions and test.
14. Open the iCloud preference pane and uncheck the boxes marked Safari and Photos, if they're checked.
15. Are there any other devices on the same network that can browse the Web, and if so, are they affected?
16. If you can, test Safari on another network.
17. If you know that you've modified the hosts file to block access to certain servers, undo that modification.
18. Start up in Recovery mode. In the OS X Utilities screen, select Get Help Online. A clean copy of Safari will launch. No plugins, such as Flash, will be available. While in Recovery, you'll have no access to your saved bookmarks or passwords, so make a note of those before you begin, if they're needed for the test.
After testing, restart as usual.
Might be a Safari extension or third party plug-in ...
From the Safari menu bar click Safari > Preferences then select the Extensions tab. Uninstall one extension at a time then quit and relaunch Safari to test.
If it's not an extensions issue, try troubleshooting third party plug-ins.
Back to Safari > Preferences. This time select the Security tab. Deselect: Allow Plug-ins.. Quit and relaunch Safari to test.
If that made a difference, instructions for troubleshooting plugins here.
If Safari is slow, stops responding, quits unexpectedly, or has other issues - Apple Support
If nothing above applies, if you have anti virus software installed, that can cause problems with Safari loading webpages.
I have tried every suggestion on this page and I still can't get Safari pages to load. No extensions, changed DNS, emptied caches and web site data, rebooted router, everything, and nothing works. I can't even load this page, I have to use Chrome (which loads pages very quickly, as does Firefox) to look for answers to Safari problems.
I Have spent hours with apple support trying to resolve this issue. Reloading safe mode etc nothing worked. Then tonight I try plugging in a 4 year old airport express to my wifi router and connected to that wifi network and safari works fine. If I go back to my wifi router network the old problem returns. I specifically bought the wifi router instead of using the cable companies router to improve wifi Speed. Seems like el capitan doesn't like the latest high speed wifi when used on older model computers mine is an 2011 IMac. My iPhone 6 and 6s and old iPad, Apple TV work fine on faster router wifi network. So clearly something to do with the compatibility of wifi signal. It did run at times on the fast wifi network but would then just stop after a few mins of browsing and not load any pages when it was working it was faster on the fast network but it wouldn't work for long and sometimes not at all. the problem was also the same with email and it was resolved using the airport express wifi network. Hope that helps someone else seems to be lots of people out there with issues.
Thanks for all the tips. What finally worked for me was doing a combination of things in Safari preferences. In Security I unchecked Warn when visiting a fraudulent website and in the Develop menu I clicked Empty Caches and checked Disable JavaScript, Disable Extensions and Disable Site-specific Hacks.
With those settings I closed Safari and when I restarted it all pages loaded fast again. After this I've been able to reset everything in preferences except Warn when visiting a fraudulent website, if I check that box it's back to slow loading. The strange thing is that unchecking it didn't help until I also did those things in the Develop menu. Go figure...
Worked like a champ. However, I also said 3 bad words and jumped up and down twice with a full pirouette. Not sure which worked :-)
Many thanks
C
Hello All,
I have this exact same problem on my MacBook Pro. Whether I use Safari or Chrome, certain web pages load very, very, very slowly. For the most part it seems that secure web pages are the ones that load slowly. I frequently get an error message that Safari can't load a page because it can't make a secure connection with whatever site. A refresh with no other action results in the page loading on the second attempt (in most cases) albeit slowly.
I cannot believe the suggestions made above. Not because there is anything wrong with the suggestions but because (at least in my country) everyone including Apple's marketing machine continuously says "Get an Apple it is so simple and straight forward. It just works it is stable and never crashes. You don't need to be a computer Geek to make it work."
My real experience after spending years on Linux and Windows boxes.... That is just total nonsense. On the whole my Linux and Windows boxes have worked much better than my MacBook Pro and the software is generally more intuitive and easier to learn than the Apple equivalent. The one thing that my Apple does really well is run Photoshop and Lightroom for the rest I'd rather have a Windows or Linux machine.
So back to the topic at hand. I am getting really slow page loads in two different browsers on my MacBook Pro. My children have a windows PC on the same desk next to mine in the study connected to the exact same router. The windows PC loads pages smoothly and fast. The Apple machine is super slow. Interestingly if I load a speed test page on both machines the speed test results are roughly the same although the Apple machine takes much longer to load the little speed test app in the browser.
I don't want to re-install and format my drive and go into long involved command line changes and safe mode boots. These are exactly the things that Apple advertises are never necessary with a Mac. I just want a simple straightforward solution to this extremely annoying problem.
Cheers
Adrian
I don't have the answer, except to say switch to Firefox. Safari boots up like a slug and trails slime thereafter, and did did so before I moved to El Capitan OS. Firefox boots and loads pages lightning quick with or without extensions and add-ons. On the downside, FF does freeze occasionally. I think there is no perfect browser world.
Safari in El Capitan slow to load pages. Any suggestions.
