Frequent Safari Error "This website is using significant memory"

While using Safari to browse or stream, I have been noticing the error "This website is using significant memory" more and more frequently. It tends to show up more while streaming, but it mostly seems to be while streaming through my TV provider's page (vue.playstation.com/watch to be more specific). If it only happened on the Vue site, I would just figure it was the page itself, but lately it seems to also be happening even on text only (minus any sidebar ads and such) webpages. It doesn't really ever hinder the page in any way until I attempt to exit full screen and/or close the tab, when it will somewhat freeze up momentarily before closing. I was browsing random forums earlier and it was happening on all of the pages. This problem goes back to High Sierra into Mojave, and across 3 different MacBook Pro laptops (2012, 2016, and 2018 models). I have seen this mentioned in other places as well as in these forums, but no clear answer outside of "install/use Chrome or Firefox". Is there anything else I can do for this error?

MacBook Pro TouchBar and Touch ID, macOS Mojave (10.14.1)

Posted on Dec 5, 2018 7:46 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 5, 2018 8:20 AM

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. Quit/reopen Safari and test. If okay, turn the extensions on one by one until you figure out what extension is causing the problem.

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 5, 2018 8:20 AM in response to SalmonGram

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. Quit/reopen Safari and test. If okay, turn the extensions on one by one until you figure out what extension is causing the problem.

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Frequent Safari Error "This website is using significant memory"

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