I have an iPad Pro 10.5” running iOS 11.4 and an iPad Pro 9.7” running iOS 11.2.5. I also have an Apple TV 4 (not 4K) and a MacBook Pro Air from 2012 or 2013. Guess what? My iPad Pro 10.5” running iOS 11.4 is the only Apple product in our house that has this problem. My iPad Pro 9.7” has not been backed up in 17 weeks! I have not yet upgraded it to iOS 11.4 and it works like a charm!
Just before I started to have the problems I have with 11.4 and Safari (which began not long after I upgraded to iOS 11.4), I was going to trade in my iPad Pro 9.7” because, with my new iPad Pro 10.5”, I no longer needed it.
Boy, was I glad I didn’t!
Since upgrading my iPad Pro 10.5” to iOS 11, Safari hangs at the “white screen” it displays when the App boots up. It stays like this for a few seconds, hanging. Then - without warning - goes back to the home screen, without ever having loaded Safari! I have contacted Support regarding this problem 5-6 times! Unbelievable...I have taken it to two different local Apple stores, as well. After each “fix”, the problem eventually *returns*. I have been told to “reset my router”, I have been walked through [with Apple Care taking over control of my screen] a reset to factory settings and then restored from iCloud and then synced with my MacBook, etc. One of the times I took the 10.5” iPad Pro to the Apple Store, I even had it set up as a “new machine.” Which, in itself caused even more headaches - because, I *still* managed to lose a lot of my passwords. I even called our cable company, which supplies our internet. Coincidentally, after checking the line, the cable guy found that squirrels had been gnawing on it! This is a problem we have had before but it still didn’t explain why none of my other Apple products were having problems with accessing Safari/Internet - *only* my iPad Pro 10.5”.
When I was at each of the two Apple Stores I visited, my iPad was able to connect to the store‘s Wi-Fi with Safari. Two things I did, just by dumb luck which seemed to be a temporary solution to the problem, were turning the 10.5” machine off for several hours one day. I believe, it was off for at *least* two or three hours. Another ”fix” that worked for a while, happened completely by accident: I asked Siri to look something up, and touched one of the links to search results that appeared on the screen. I don’t understand it, either. But, it worked for awhile...
Going to “Settings“ and changing to my cable internet’s unsecured basic “guest” network was a quick fix - but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.
Both Apple stores ran a diagnostic program on it, and determined that the problem wasn’t the machine. It was the software. One of the times I called Apple Care, I was told that the problem was caused by saving bookmarks in other Apps (like Twitter and News) to Safari. I was told that the Safari was hanging and failing to start because I had over 12,000 bookmarks. I know, I am an idiot. Even so, Isn‘t the ability to do such a thing one of the *features* of iOS 11.4 anyway?? If so, how am *I* responsible? When I asked whether deleting all of my bookmarks might help, I was told that it wouldn’t. Apple Care said I might have a corrupt file somewhere on my MacBook, so I should never restore from a backup on the computer only from iCloud.
In the end, Apple Care advised me to *never* save bookmarks from other Apps to Safari. Whaaaa-??? This reminds me of that old joke about a guy who tells his doctor it hurts when he moves his elbow. His doctor says, “Don’t do that.”
*That‘s* the solution Apple Care came up with??
My solution is to use a browser other than Safari. When I told this to the Apple Care person who helped me when they called a couple of days later, they sounded disappointed. So am I - in Apple.
Mostly, I have been venting here. Considering that I have been an Apple user since 2007, I have *never* had the kind of problems I have had with my iPad Pro 10.5” with any other Apple products. In the last 3 or 4 months, I have called Apple Care more times for this 11.4 iOS Safari problem on my new iPad Pro, than I have called them during the entire lifetime of other Apple products that I own.
I loved Apple because their products had been worry free for me. They were more reliable, without a lot of headache, so that’s what made them worth the extra expense.
Step up your game, Apple.
It it breaks my heart to say this, Apple, but unless there are some top secret plans to clone Steve Jobs - I’ve bought my last Apple product.