Safari crashing after update to Safari 10 on El capitan

Good afternoon Eric. I too am having the repeated Safari crashes after updating to Safari 10 a few days ago on El Capitan. The crashes generally occur when loading from a bookmark (CNET.COM is a big offender but Amazon.COM does it as well) but not always. It may still crash going directly to one of those sites (just not as often.) I have deleted cookies at least 3 times for CNET, removed it from my bookmarks, added it to a different bookmark area on my favorites bar, and it still crashes. I followed your directions for each step including shutting off the only extension I have (1Password.) I thought that was it, but then it crashed again with the extension off.

Any more ideas? Thanks.

Did you try Linc's corruption steps?

Sorry, didn't see your reply. That sounds like a lot of work with no guarantee. I'm not that sophisticated. Seems like an easier fix should be around somewhere.

Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferenes, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer or by using the developer’s uninstall instructions. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once.

Safe Mode - About El Capitan

Safe Mode Startup – El Capitan.

If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. On the screen with Options, please open Options and check the bottom 2 boxes before running. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

Does this fix apply if I have zero extensions? Running El Capitan 10.11.6 on an early 2011 15" MacBookPro.

Which fix? The one above or the one I posted earlier. Both are tests to try to figure out what the problem is.

I had this problem with El Capitan and Safari 10 and tried many things, none of them 100% effective.

One thing I didn't mention is that before I updated Safari, I updated both my iPad and iPhone to iOS 10. And, I have Safari and the Keychain syncing through iCloud. This is a key point that I've not seen discussed here because if there's a corrupted file, it will continue to get synced into even a new install of Safari.

One thing I did to prove this to myself was to make a new user in El Cap and not log into my Apple ID/iCloud account. I could not get Safari to crash with the new user. But, once I logged into my iCloud account in that new user, Safari crashed like before. So, the problem, at least for me, was coming in from synced data in iCloud.

Since my last post here, I've upgraded my MacBook Pro to Sierra and somehow the problem has gone away. I had an initial crash with Safari that felt very different from what was happening to me in El Capitan but since then things have been stable.

I do think folks here who are having this problem need to test things out by making a new user account without logging into Apple ID/iCloud and see if that solves it. If it does, then you know the problem is in the synced data coming through iCloud and/or, the remnants of something in your user library folder.

The fix you posted Sept. 24, 2016 at 6:43am. The empty cache, clear history etc. The last paragraph pertained to turning off extensions. Well, like I stated, I don't have any extensions to turn off or on.

HEllo to all, thanks for your contribution. Managed to fix it doind the following.

downloaded the el capitan os completelt and stored it in applications Folder

downloaded pacifist and used it to replace the safari 10 version by the one included in the download of the OS El capitan.

you have to remove some safety feature of the os temporary but pacifist tells you how to do it.

it eorked and I am now back to version 9. Everything works and I have not lost any info

The rest still applies.

Appreciate the clarification Eric. TU.

You are welcome.

Eric, how do you set the Safari preferences if Safari is crashing?

The suggestions you made appear to be useful, since Safari is crashing during bookmarksMenuCollection with a NULL cf pointer (cf = CoreFoundation?).

Is there a way to clear History by deleting files, or is there a way to have Safari boot in a safe mode that skips user data?

Some additional info:

1. Upgrading to Sierra did not solve the problem.

2. After adding a new admin user - Safari works fine for that user.

3. Following all of Linc's suggestions did not solve the problem. Also, after restarting Safari again, it appears that all bookmarks have been restored from the iCloud (the window that is drawn just before the crash has lots of user icons).

4. The crash report says "Crashed Thread: 1. Dispatch queue: com.apple.Safari.BookmarksOperationQueue:defaultQueue :: BookmarksMenuController processing (QOS: UTILITY)"