Safari Lock-Up/Crash across Mac and iPad

27 Jan 2016 12:28:41

Tony Still

I have just encountered a surprising and disruptive Safari problem with 'latest' El Capitan (10.11.3) and iOS/iPad (9.2.1). Here's the warning and the fix.

The symptoms are that when typing in the URL/search box (at the top of the window), Safari on the pad crashes and Safari on the Mac just ignores the typing. This is inconvenient! I encounter the problem on the pad, out of the blue, moved to the Mac to search for ideas and was astonished to find the problem on the Mac too. That were both working fine yesterday.

However, I am not the only one to encounter this and there is a simple workaround (that worked for me): in Preferences, turn off Safari Suggestions. Since this works, it is likely that there is something in one's individual browsing patterns that upsets Safari; that data is shared between devices by the magic of iCloud, the functionality is common to all versions of Safari so the problem hops over too.

Hard to know how common this is, the symptoms are dramatic but the fix is easy - phew.

Re: Safari Lock-Up/Crash across Mac and iPad

27 Jan 2016 13:01:49

Trevor Hewson

hi Tony,
Trevor just spotted this and I have exactly the same problem on my iPad mini. now sorted by your suggested fix. I downloaded the latest iOS a few days ago and today was the first time I had tried safari. it drove us both mad trying to sort it, but seems ok now Thankyou very much, Mary.

Re: Safari Lock-Up/Crash across Mac and iPad

27 Jan 2016 13:20:29

Trevor Hewson

After a quick search, it does look as if this is a bug introduced in the iOS 9.2.1 update. There was a Mac OS update in the last week too though so It might be involved too. our iMac, Mary's iPhone and iPad mini have all been updated but I'm going to hold off the iOS update on my iPhone and iPad 2 for a week or so, and see if Apple release a fix. Trevor

Re: Safari Lock-Up/Crash across Mac and iPad

27 Jan 2016 22:30:26

Tony Still

Trevor,

Yes, I suspect the update too. I expect the Safari OS X/iOS codebases are largely the same now so that would explain the cross-platform nature of the issue. I still think there are other factors though, how common they are remains to be seen.

At least we have a workaround.

[Edit:] Apparently Apple has fixed the problem. Emptying Safari's cache will now remove the problem for users that still have it (though it didn't work for me when I first tried it). Linked here.

Re: Safari Lock-Up/Crash across Mac and iPad

29 Jan 2016 20:22:56

Lionel Ogden

I wonder if the problem lies with El Capitan as my iPad runs iOS 9.2.1 and safari behaves itself, but then I am still on Lion and still share bookmarks etc through iCloud.

Re: Safari Lock-Up/Crash across Mac and iPad

30 Jan 2016 00:10:47

Tony Still

Lionel,

It seems that Apple managed to feed corrupt data from iCloud for a short time. If you used Safari during that time then your cache got corrupted; if you didn't do anything during that time window then you won't be affected.

I think I must originally have tried clearing my cache whilst the problem was still present so I promptly got more bad data (which confused my diagnosis of the problem). Allegedly, clearing Safari's cache now will clear the problem. It seems to have affected the 'Safari Suggestions' so I'm guessing that only versions of Safari that provide those will be affected.

Let's hope they don't do it again.