Massive Safari memory leak

Since installing OSX v10.11.5 my Safari has developed a massive leak rendering it unusable. I can watch in Activity Monitor the RAM getting tapped, then going under, causing me to have to force quit Safari every time it's opened up.


Has anyone else experienced this?

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on May 25, 2016 8:51 PM

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8 replies

May 25, 2016 9:27 PM in response to Dreweller

Please back up all data before proceeding.

Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

~/Library/Safari

Right-click or control-click the line and select

Services Open

from the contextual menu.* A folder named "Safari" should open. Quit Safari if it's running. One or more files in the open folder should have a name beginning in "History". Move those files, and only those, to the Desktop, leaving the window open. Relaunch the application and test. If there's no change, quit again and put the files you moved back where they were, overwriting the ones that may have been created in their place. Otherwise, delete the files you moved. The browser history will be empty. If possible, restore the deleted files from a backup that predates the problem.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You may not see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

Sep 2, 2016 7:48 AM in response to zoephoto

Safari 9


Safari/Preferences/Advanced - enable the Develop menu, then go there and Empty Caches. Quit/reopen Safari and test. Then try Safari/History/Show History and delete all history items. Quit/reopen Safari and test. You can also try try Safari/Clear History…. The down side is it clears all cookies. Doing this may cause some sites to no longer recognize your computer as one that has visited the web site. Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library./Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db and move it to the trash.


Go to Safari Preferences/Extensions and turn all extensions off. Test. If okay, turn the extensions on one by one until you figure out what extension is causing the problem.


Safari Corruption See post by Linc Davis

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Massive Safari memory leak

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