macOS Sierra freeze on iMac late 2009 using Safari

I gave up on Safari and switched to Firefox. Have been using it for several days without a freeze. Safari used to freeze every couple of hours.

However, just now I was browsing the App Store from within iTunes and have experienced the exact same freeze. I am guessing that iTunes uses underlying Safari technology to display pages.

Switching from Safari to Firefor is possible. But I don't have a solution for switching away from iTunes.

I am also running a spinning HD, not SSD. I did notice another minor issue that might be related, occasionally when switching windows to a semi-transparent terminal screen, I notice some random color bits on part of the window until I click on the terminal window or move it. This issue also began after the update to Mac OS 10.12 and has continued with Mac OS 10.12.2.

😠 the reinstall is no solution. Today my mac was freezing again. I´m not far away from falling back to 10.10 or 10.11.

I have the same issue, my iMac is freeze and don't boot on now, include erase the all disk and reinstall 10.12.2 , nothing more, I can't power on the mac

When I uninstall Acrobat my freezes went down from 3-4 per day to 1 in 3 days, reinstalled Acrobat (because I needed it) and crashes back to 3-4.. Ordered new iMac today to permanently solve this problem for me.

Yes, 10.12.2 offers no solution, which is no surprise as it's not listed in the update details.

I installed 10.12.2 yesterday. iMac Mid2010. I've basically given up on Safari in favor of Firefox or Chrome. This time the freeze happened in the Store section of iTunes. The usual symptoms: complete lockup of screen interaction, processes seemed to continue to run, only way out a hard reset.

This puts a new wrinkle on this issue for me. I can do without Safari, but if iTunes is poisoned there's no recourse.

Supposedly my iMac Mid2010 is still supported. How can we get Apple to fix this problem when not even crash reports can get through and they mark the issue as "closed'?

I´m using Safari Technology Preview Release 20 (Safari 10.1, WebKit 12603.1.16) since three or four days.

Up to now there has been no issues.

Hi. I have several iMacs 21,5" from the middle of 2010 (in a school lab), running Mac OS 10.2.2. When using Safari (last Safari standard update) all iMacs freeze several times a day (depending on their level of use) as described by most people in this thread. The symptoms are always the same: the mouse pointer moves, bur Safari and all other applications become irresponsive. A force reboot is necessary. I have changed the default browser to Chrome, and did not need to reboot a single machine since then (about a week now).

Is Apple going to address this problem? I'm starting to believe that it will not. It's a shame...

Have been having same problem, Safari causing entire machine to freeze. Only the mouse moves, and the only solution was a hard reboot using the power switch. I have tried most everything in this post and them some with no success. Several Apple folks have been extremely helpful; they are convinced it is a software problem. The last thing we tried was a "Safari Safe Boot" which I was not familiar with (Safari senior advisor suggested). It is done by holding the Shift key while opening Safari. This technique apparently also has some ability to cure Safari problems. Anyway so far, a few hours in, the problem is gone. I am using a normal boot for Safari now, too (just used the Safe Boot once). I will report back, good news or bad, to this post. This has been a very stubborn problem and I do prefer Safari, so fingers crossed!

Thanks for posting another possible solution. I have not tried yet, as the possible fix I posted earlier (doing a Safari Safe Boot) is working so far. 5 hours of VERY heavy use, multiple tabs, multiple Safari windows open, a big stress test - and no freezing so far. But time will tell 🙂

For the community, I am using a late 2009 27" iMac with 16GB and 1TB SSD (still better than 95% of the desktops out there IMHO, even at 7 years old).

Have done exactly what you suggested and so far so good after about 6 hours.

I'd be interested to know a) what these two features actually do and b) what led you to this (possible) solution? Trial and error? Or something else?

Just tried Safari Safe Boot. About 30-40 minutes of browsing (3-4 tabs, no video) and it froze. So that did not work for my machine (Late 2009 27" iMac, 2.8 GHz i7, ATI Radeon HD 4850, 16 GB OWC RAM, 1 TB SanDisk SSD). I'll try enabling the debug menu in Safari fix next.

Others have commented that they've experienced the same problem while browsing the iTunes store, which means neither Safari Safe Boot or changing the debug settings in Safari likely addresses the root cause of this problem.

FWIW, I've been using Chrome since my last post 10 days ago without experiencing any freezing, though I have not spent any time browsing the iTunes store.

Thanks to all who continue to post in an effort to resolve this annoying issue, which Apple appears to continue to ignore.

The Safari Safe Boot i suggested is a fail for me too. Ran hard for 6+ hours, then the freeze. A senior advisor at Apple has my case and has suggested next step is to contact him so they can collect logs and send to engineering. I guess I will go that route. The debug thing is working so far, but is a temporary solution and a clue for Apple at best. Saw where the 12.12.3 public beta did not fix.