macOS Sierra Safari using all system memory

Question

Level 1

24 points

macOS Sierra Safari using all system memory

I have an early 2015 13" Retina MacBook pro, with 8GB of memory. I've been running Sierra for a while, but due to various self-inflicted issues, I decided on a clean install.

The reinstallation went well, but Safari is causing lots of problems. As soon as I open Safari, memory use goes up dramatically. Within a minute, Activity Monitor shows 9GB of memory used (nearly the same for compressed memory). Eventually, it just keeps going, and I have to force-quit. This happens after restarts, and I also disabled my one and only browser extension (1Password).

Again, no problems until after I wiped the drive and reinstalled MacOS 10.12.2 (16C68).

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12.2)

Posted on Dec 18, 2016 7:35 PM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Jul 2, 2017 12:42 PM in response to nochops

Go to Safari/Preferences/Privacy and see if you can find a cookie for that website. If you do, delete it.

Safari/Preferences/Advanced - enable the Develop menu, then go there and Empty Caches. Quit/reopen Safari and test. 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

Safari Reset

If that doesn't work, try running this program in your normal account , 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 Report” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown.

Etrecheck – System Information

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Answer 2

Jan 23, 2017 6:08 AM in response to griz_fan

I have been having same problem since December. Note that I resolved the issue once I rolled back to Sierra 10.12.1.... then my Mac updated itself automatically a few days later ARGH! Having daily phone calls with Apple Geniuses and this morning was told to create a new user profile. It's taken me 5 hours or migration, setting up documents, sorting out merge issues - and now Safari has run out of application memory on NEW PROFILE. I am so hacked off.

Absolutely ridiculous. Did anyone get a solution?

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Answer 3

Feb 9, 2017 7:52 AM in response to griz_fan

Having tried different solutions people have posted on various forums I have found the best solution posted at https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/5iyvmu/safari_using_up_all_applicati on_memory/

The advice was to enter the following commands into the terminal window:

mv ~/Library/Safari ~/Desktop/Safari-

date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari

rm -Rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess

rm -Rf ~/Library/Cookies/Cookies.binarycookies

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/Apple\ -\ Safari\ -\ Safari\ Extensions\ Gallery

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.LSSharedFileList.plist

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.RSS.plist

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebFoundation.plist

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginHost.plist

rm -Rf ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.WebKit.PluginProcess.plist

rm -Rf ~/Library/PubSub/Database

rm -Rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.Safari.savedState

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Answer 4

nochops

Level 1

35 points

Jul 2, 2017 12:33 PM in response to Eric Root

When deleting history some items on certain dates had to be deleted 3-6 times, and one - a very nondescript shopping site for some normal items - won't delete at all. What would cause this and can it be fixed without clearing all the cookies? I'm running a 2017 MacBook Pro.

Even after history deletion Safari is running very slowly - and this a fairly stripped down machine with few of my apps and files even installed/loaded yet.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Jan 23, 2017 6:11 AM in response to Frustrated_51

Safari Memory Leak See Dec 19^th post by ShirsenduK

Safari Memory Leak (2)

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Nov 16, 2017 5:28 PM in response to Dave Moorman

Try this.

Safari 10.0.2 (11602.3.12.0.1) Memory Leak?

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Answer 7

dominic23

Level 10

83,904 points

Dec 19, 2016 4:50 AM in response to griz_fan

Please run EtreCheck and post the report here.

http://etresoft.com/etrecheck

Download it, open Downloads folder, click on it to open, and then select ”Open”.

Click on the bouncing EtreCheck icon in the Dock.

“Choose a problem” from the popup menu box, and then “Start EtreCheck” in the dialog.

Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” .

Paste it here when you reply.

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Answer 8

Eric Root

Level 10

684,027 points

Dec 19, 2016 5:46 AM in response to griz_fan

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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Answer 9

griz_fan Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 19, 2016 3:18 PM in response to dominic23

Hi - thanks for the help. I've also tried Eric's suggestions with clearing cache, but same symptoms. here's the log from EtreCheck:

EtreCheck version: 3.1.5 (343)

Report generated 2016-12-19 16:06:56

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 1:35

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Beachballing

Description:

Safari will consume more and more memory. Up to 20GB in under a few minutes. Fresh install of Sierra, no plug ins

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro12,1

1 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-5257U) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 26

Video Information: ⓘ

Intel Iris Graphics 6100

Color LCD 2560 x 1600

System Software: ⓘ

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 (16C68) - Time since boot: about one day

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM0256G disk0 : (251 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

MacOS (disk1) / [Startup]: 249.78 GB (194.45 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

Core Storage: disk0s2 250.14 GB Online

USB Information: ⓘ

Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 6 Apple tasks

[loaded] 163 Apple tasks

[running] 102 Apple tasks

[killed] 9 Apple tasks

9 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 42 Apple tasks

[loaded] 162 Apple tasks

[running] 96 Apple tasks

[killed] 10 Apple tasks

10 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] com.surteesstudios.Bartender.BartenderInstallHelper.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.startup.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

User Login Items: ⓘ

PopClip Application

(/Applications/PopClip.app)

Bartender 2 Application

(/Applications/Bartender 2.app)

Flux Application

(/Applications/Flux.app)

iTunesHelper Application (2016-12-18)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Alfred 3 Application

(/Applications/Alfred 3.app)

Caffeine Application

(/Applications/Caffeine.app)

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

HazelHelper Application

(~/Library/PreferencePanes/Hazel.prefPane/Contents/MacOS/HazelHelper.app)

BetterTouchTool Application

(/Applications/BetterTouchTool.app)

cDockHelper Application

(/Applications/cDock.app/Contents/Resources/cDockHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-12-13)

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

1Password - AgileBits - https://agilebits.com/onepassword (2016-12-18)

Audio Plug-ins: ⓘ

BartenderAudioPlugIn: 1.0.0 - SDK 10.10 (2016-09-14) [Support]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Hazel (2016-11-15) [Support]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

6% WindowServer

6% Google Chrome Helper(33)

3% kernel_task

2% fontd

2% sysmond

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

1.55 GB Google Chrome Helper(33)

856 MB kernel_task

172 MB Google Chrome

164 MB mdworker(20)

131 MB Messages

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

2.02 GB Available RAM

388 MB Free RAM

5.98 GB Used RAM

1.64 GB Cached files

1.11 GB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Dec 18, 2016, 08:36:38 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-203638_[redacted].hang

/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari

Dec 18, 2016, 08:21:23 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-202123_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 08:09:11 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-200911_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 07:28:45 PM Self test - passed

Dec 18, 2016, 06:59:26 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-185926_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 06:48:50 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-184850_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 06:45:27 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-184527_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

Dec 18, 2016, 06:28:50 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-182850_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 06:25:57 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-182557_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

Dec 18, 2016, 05:51:20 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-175120_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 05:47:57 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-174757_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

Dec 18, 2016, 05:46:43 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-174643_[redacted].hang

Dec 18, 2016, 05:41:30 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-174130_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

Dec 18, 2016, 05:20:25 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-18-172025_[redacted].cpu_resourc e.diag [Details]

Dec 18, 2016, 02:51:49 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/bird_2016-12-18-145149_[redacted].cpu_resource. diag [Details]

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CloudDocsDaemon.framework/Versions/A/Support/ bird

Reply

Answer 10

griz_fan Author

Level 1

24 points

Dec 19, 2016 3:29 PM in response to griz_fan

here's an updated report, ran while the problem was happening:

EtreCheck version: 3.1.5 (343)

Report generated 2016-12-19 16:26:30

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 1:44

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Beachballing

Description:

Run-away Safari. this is with only 2 tabs open, and after less than 2 minutes of opening.

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro12,1

1 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-5257U) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 26

Video Information: ⓘ

Intel Iris Graphics 6100

Color LCD 2560 x 1600

System Software: ⓘ

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 (16C68) - Time since boot: about one day

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM0256G disk0 : (251 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

[Show SMART report]

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

MacOS (disk1) / [Startup]: 249.78 GB (193.61 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

Core Storage: disk0s2 250.14 GB Online

USB Information: ⓘ

Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ⓘ

/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.1.10 - 2016-12-18) [Support]

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 6 Apple tasks

[loaded] 162 Apple tasks

[running] 63 Apple tasks

[killed] 49 Apple tasks

49 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[not loaded] 42 Apple tasks

[loaded] 165 Apple tasks

[running] 80 Apple tasks

[killed] 23 Apple tasks

23 processes killed due to insufficient RAM

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.barebones.authd.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

[loaded] com.surteesstudios.Bartender.BartenderInstallHelper.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

[not loaded] org.virtualbox.startup.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

User Launch Agents: ⓘ

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (2016-12-18) [Support]

User Login Items: ⓘ

PopClip Application

(/Applications/PopClip.app)

Bartender 2 Application

(/Applications/Bartender 2.app)

Flux Application

(/Applications/Flux.app)

iTunesHelper Application (2016-12-18)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Alfred 3 Application

(/Applications/Alfred 3.app)

Caffeine Application

(/Applications/Caffeine.app)

Dropbox Application

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

HazelHelper Application

(~/Library/PreferencePanes/Hazel.prefPane/Contents/MacOS/HazelHelper.app)

BetterTouchTool Application

(/Applications/BetterTouchTool.app)

cDockHelper Application

(/Applications/cDock.app/Contents/Resources/cDockHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-12-13)

Safari Extensions: ⓘ

1Password - AgileBits - https://agilebits.com/onepassword (2016-12-18)

Audio Plug-ins: ⓘ

BartenderAudioPlugIn: 1.0.0 - SDK 10.10 (2016-09-14) [Support]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Hazel (2016-11-15) [Support]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

97% Safari

54% kernel_task

6% WindowServer

5% Google Chrome Helper(31)

4% coreduetd

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

4.82 GB kernel_task

721 MB Google Chrome Helper(32)

639 MB Safari

205 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(5)

82 MB Google Chrome

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

485 MB Available RAM

49 MB Free RAM

7.53 GB Used RAM

435 MB Cached files

2.71 GB Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Dec 19, 2016, 04:16:51 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-19-161651_[redacted].hang

/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari

Dec 19, 2016, 04:16:19 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-19-161619_[redacted].hang

Dec 19, 2016, 04:13:27 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-19-161327_[redacted].hang

Dec 19, 2016, 04:10:31 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Safari_2016-12-19-161031_[redacted].hang