Safari hangs regularly

Question

Level 1

10 points

Safari hangs regularly

This is about a MacBook Pro (13”, early 2015 model, 2.9 GHz Intel, 8 GB memory), running OS 10.13.6.

I have been getting really inconsistent response from my web browsers. I primarily use Safari, but I have seen the problem in Chrome too. Normally everything runs very quickly, but every few minutes the internet will hang when I click on a link, run a Google search, try to access Facebook, etc. Even if I open other tabs and try to browse, they hang as well. After a minute or so I will get a message saying that “Safari can’t open the page because the server where this page is located isn’t responding.” After that message pops up, I can usually reload and the browser works like normal…until the next time it hangs. This has been happening on-and-off for about a week. Sometimes it will be fine for hours, other times it happens every few minutes.

I have several other laptops, tablets, and phones that are using the same wi-fi connection with no problem, so I think the problem is with the MacBook. (I reset the modem just in case, but it didn’t have any effect.)

I have deleted my Safari cache and cookies/website data. I have tried changing DNS numbers to OpenDNS and Google from the Comcast numbers I normally use. I disabled DNS prefetching. I have turned off all extensions and plug-ins (including AdBlock) except for Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader. I have run First Aid via Disk Utility and there are no problems. I ran EtreCheck and it came back clean.

The problem occurs in Safe Mode, and it occurs when I use a different user account. At this point, I’m not sure what else to do other than reinstall the OS. I’d appreciate any advice anyone could offer.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Jul 20, 2018 4:07 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Eric Root

Level 10

684,603 points

Jul 20, 2018 7:20 PM in response to indy81

I would try reinstalling the OS without erasing the drive first. If that doesn't work, then an erase and reinstall might be the next step. Please make a backup, preferably 2 on to separate hard drives, before doing anything.

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Answer 2

tygb

Level 9

64,748 points

Jul 20, 2018 6:06 PM in response to indy81

Enter in user library see this article macOS Sierra: Library folder

Delete the entire contents from the folders caches , cookies , saved application state , safari into the trash .

Also sometimes from preferences folder in user library - delete com.apple.Safari.plist to the trash .

Restart the Mac and empty the trash , you have to again reset the home page see this article Set your homepage in Safari on Mac - Apple Support

Note : don't use anti virus , softwares or unidentified apps , in safari preferences keep it as off , same login items keep them as empty .

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Answer 3

tygb

Level 9

64,748 points

Jul 20, 2018 6:50 PM in response to indy81

It seems your system files are corrupted , create a new user account see this article How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

If this method also fails reinstall the os see this article How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Allan Jones

Level 9

72,356 points

Jul 20, 2018 4:43 PM in response to indy81

Do you have any anti-virus or so-called "cleaning" apps installed? How about torrent software? Online banking security software unde the names "Rapport" or "Trusteer Endpoint Protection? Outside of incompatible or out-of-date extensions, those are the big factors in Safari problems.

We can look for other software conflicts like adware if you post a snapshot of your system configuration. Fortunately there is a safe and secure way to do that.

A respected and long-serving member of these communities has created a simple utility that will take that "snapshot" of your configuration without revealing any sensitive information about you and your computer. It only runs when you tell it to, not in the background, and therefore creates no performance penalties. It is Etrecheck, and is available here:

http://etrecheck.com/

Run it and, when its results display, select "Report" from the left-hand pane (scroll down), then click Etrecheck's "Share Report" icon followed by "Copy Report" from the resulting dropdown. Paste the entire report into a response to your own thread here. It will often allow us to quickly identify or eliminate software as the problem.

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Answer 5

indy81 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 20, 2018 4:57 PM in response to Allan Jones

EtreCheck version: 4.3.6 (4D041)

Report generated: 2018-07-20 16:53:39

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 5:27

Performance: Below Average

Problem: Computer is too slow

Description:

Safari regularly hangs

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup- Time Machine backup not found.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Apps crashing- There have been numerous app crashes.

Unsigned files- There are unsigned software file installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

Low performance- EtreCheck report took over 5 minutes to run. This is unusual.

32-bit Apps- This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

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

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro12,1

1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-5287U) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM - Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1867 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1867 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 13

Video Information:

Intel Iris Graphics 6100 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0512G 500.28 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x4 Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 500.07 GB

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) 500.07 GB (378.96 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 500.07 GB (23 MB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 500.07 GB (519 MB used)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 500.07 GB (2.15 GB used)

disk2 - Seagate BUP Slim Mac SL 2.00 TB

External USB 5 Gbit/s

disk2s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk2s2 - S***********************e (Journaled HFS+) 2.00 TB

disk3 - Western Digital Ext HDD 1021 2.00 TB

External USB 480 Mbit/s

disk3s1 [Partition Map] 32 KB

disk3s3 - S*********B (Journaled HFS+) 2.00 TB

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 500.07 GB (118.26 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 500.07 GB (118.26 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

disk2s2 - S***********************e 2.00 TB (1.14 TB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /Volumes/S***********************e

disk3s3 - S*********B 2.00 TB (68.50 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /Volumes/S*********B

Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

3 IPv6 addresses

Interface en4: iPad

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

Time since boot: About 5 hours

System Load: 2.05 (1 min ago) 1.97 (5 min ago) 1.98 (15 min ago)

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection	Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist

Executable: '/Applications/Cisco/Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.app' --wait-apps '/Applications/Cisco/Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.app'

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist

Executable: /opt/cisco/anyconnect/bin/vpnagentd -execv_instance

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

32-bit Applications:

43 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:

/Library/Extensions

[Loaded] SophosFileProtection.kext (Sophos, 9.6.53 - SDK 10.11)

[Loaded] SophosWebProtection.kext (Sophos, 9.6.52 - SDK 10.11)

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	9 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	168 Apple tasks
[Running]	116 Apple tasks
[Other]	One Apple task

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded]	37 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	181 Apple tasks
[Running]	118 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

[Running]	com.sophos.uiserver.plist (Sophos - installed 2018-07-20)
[Not Loaded]	com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist (? ffb65062 - installed 2016-11-23)
[Loaded]	com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist (? 40bd3462 - installed 2017-07-22)
[Other]	com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-07-18)
[Running]	com.sophos.agent.plist (Sophos - installed 2018-07-20)

Launch Daemons:

[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-07-18)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-04-23)
[Running]	com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist (? f363637f - installed 2017-07-22)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-06-25)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e - installed 2012-11-05)
[Running]	com.adobe.agsservice.plist (? 141ce5d4 - installed 2016-11-23)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-07-18)
[Running]	com.sophos.common.servicemanager.plist (Sophos - installed 2018-07-20)

User Launch Agents:

[Loaded]	com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-07-17)
[Loaded]	com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2018-04-12)

User Login Items:

Dropbox Application (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2018-07-13)

(/Applications/Dropbox.app)

iTunesHelper Application (Apple - installed 2018-07-14)

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

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: (installed 2018-07-10)

QuickTime Plugin: (installed 2018-07-17)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: (installed 2015-09-30)

AdobePDFViewer: (installed 2015-09-30)

o1dbrowserplugin: (installed 2015-12-11)

Flash Player: (installed 2018-07-10)

SharePointBrowserPlugin: (installed 2017-03-26)

googletalkbrowserplugin: (installed 2015-12-11)

MeetingJoinPlugin: (installed 2017-03-26)

Safari Extensions:

AdBlock.safariextz - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com(installed 2016-12-11)

Adblock Plus.safariextz - Eyeo GmbH - https://adblockplus.org/(installed 2016-12-21)

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2018-06-25)

FUSE (installed 2017-03-15)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count)	Source	% of CPU	Location
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (4)	Apple	84
WindowServer	Apple	18
kernel_task	Apple	12
com.apple.WebKit.Networking	Apple	11
SophosWebIntelligence	?	9

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count)	Source	RAM usage	Location
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5)	Apple	1.50 GB
kernel_task	Apple	826 MB
Google Chrome Helper (6)	Google, Inc.	650 MB
SophosScanD	?	281 MB
Google Chrome	Google, Inc.	218 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process	Source	Input	Output	Location
mDNSResponder	Apple	2 MB	2 MB
com.apple.WebKit.Networking	Apple	661 KB	72 KB
Dropbox	Dropbox, Inc.	396 KB	250 KB
SophosWebIntelligence	?	105 KB	22 KB
apsd	Apple	50 KB	54 KB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count)	Source	Energy (0-100)	Location
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent (5)	Apple	8
WindowServer	Apple	5
Safari	Apple	3
hidd	Apple	3
SophosScanD	?	1

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM	2.68 GB
Free RAM	484 MB
Used RAM	5.32 GB
Cached files	2.20 GB
Swap Used	47 MB

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name	Version	Install Date
Adobe Flash Player	30.0.0.134	2018-07-10
Pages	7.0	2018-07-14
Keynote	8.0	2018-07-14
The Unarchiver	4.0.0	2018-07-14
Numbers	5.0	2018-07-14
iTunes	12.8	2018-07-14
Gatekeeper Configuration Data	148	2018-07-16
ARMDC Agent Installer	1.0.0	2018-07-18

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-07-17 21:58:01 mdworker CPU

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Metadata .framework/Versions/A/Support/mdworker

2018-07-17 21:33:27 VLC.app Hang

/Applications/VLC.app

2018-07-17 12:14:47 quicklookd.app Crash (20 times)

/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Versions/A/Resources/quicklookd.a pp

qlmanage --diag 6571367.8598797897 6571367.8598797897

last threaded generator: com.tsst.quickcomic

abort() called

*** error for object 0x7fa9bac0cf90: pointer being freed was not allocated

End of report

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Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

684,603 points

Jul 20, 2018 5:21 PM in response to indy81

I would uninstall Sophos. It tends to interfere with the computer's operation while providing minimal to no benefit unless you work with Windows files. Most long time posters recommend not using antivirus software or cleaning software such as CleanMyMac.

Sophos Un-install

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Answer 7

indy81 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 20, 2018 5:42 PM in response to Eric Root

Hi - I will uninstall Sophos, but I literally just installed it two hours ago, just in case I wanted to run a scan. So it's not the cause of the problem, which has been occurring for about a week. Thank you for the response, though!

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Answer 8

indy81 Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 23, 2018 11:14 AM in response to Eric Root

Reinstalling the OS without formatting had no effect, unfortunately. I guess I will have to format the drive, as reluctant as I am to do that. I didn't think I'd have to resort to the nuclear option! Thank you for your help.

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Answer 9

Big 'G'

Level 1

11 points

Aug 1, 2018 7:42 AM in response to indy81

Completely remove AdBlock and any variance of an ad-blocker from your system. I've had the same problem since I purchased this new MacBook Pro (2015 model) three months ago. I've tested two Adblock software add-ons and all seem to cause my entire system to freeze. Especially while reading the news (any news site that plasters your screen with ads). Next time you see a freeze-up watch your clock (second hand) and see if it freezes as well. To me that indicates a system wide freeze-up.

Since I've narrowed my freezing issue down to Adblock software and removing the add-ons in all browsers I've yet to experience a freeze-up for three days now.

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Answer 10

Big 'G'

Level 1

11 points

Aug 22, 2018 7:10 PM in response to aaronb97

See my post below... I'm 99% sure it is any variance of an Adblock add-on that has some conflict with Safari and other browsers. I've decided to keep Adblock for Safari (a so-so adblocker) installed and put up with the occasional freeze-ups. The freeze usually happens on a news site that has many ads plastered all over their web page, but it does happen on other random web pages.

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