Q: Massive Safari memory leak

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.

Hi,

The problem may be due to Safari extensions or third party plug-ins not the Safari app itself.

Troubleshooting help here.

In addition to Carolyn's great advice, you might want to check your Flash app to made absolutely sure you have the latest one.

thanks!  It works for me!  

I have this problem on my imac, and followed these steps, including using the history files from my macbook to replace them and nothing has worked.  So frustrated.  Any help would be appreciated!

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

Is this all based on the assumption that an extension is at fault?  I have zero extensions installed.  Will try these steps, thanks.

No, but it is one thing to check.