iPad Can we agree that Safari on the iPad Air is pretty unusable for composing forum posts

rui no onna said:

All iOS devices I've used have had this issue. That's iPhone 2G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPad 3, iPhone 5, iPad 4, iPhone 5s and iPad Air. The only thing that differs is the degree of severity.

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Hmmm. Well, I never browsed much on my iPhones, so I don't know if any of them had this issue. I think iPad 1 refreshed a lot, iPad 2 a little less, and iPad 3 was just incredible, held multiple tabs no problem. Skipped the 4. Air is just bad, worse than any of the previous iPads, except perhaps maybe the 1.

Hi guys, try this: settings - safari, disable open new tabs in background. It didn't eliminate the problem, but it helped me I believe.

iliapiano said:

Hi guys, try this: settings - safari, disable open new tabs in background. It didn't eliminate the problem, but it helped me I believe.

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If anything, this should exacerbate the issue. All that setting does is open new tabs right away instead of in the background. So, it will take you directly to the new page and increase your likelihood of a page reload when you go back to your previous page.

The problem, in my opinion, is RAM. My iPad mini 2 has the same issues as other people on Safari. The only other time I've run into those issues in on my old Galaxy Nexus browsing too many websites. What caused those problems? Low RAM, when I got a newer phone with 2GB of RAM web pages would stay loaded for days, unless they had a timeout script on the page and needed to be reloaded.

Adding more RAM isn't the ultimate end solution for the problem, but it sure won't hurt.

i don't understand how ios is unable to detect typing in a text box and thus turn refresh off for at least that tab. Hopefully you don't have 4-5tabs open all with typed text lol.

Anyone also get springboard crashes while using Safari? Lately, got 5 springboard crashes in 3 days.
Using freshly restored iOS 7.1.2 iPad air 16GB+4G. Mostly surfing with 3G, instead WiFi.
Any feedbacks from iOS 8 beta testers about Air and safari? :/

Gjwilly said:

I composed this on my iPad Air with 10 tabs open.
While composing I switched tabs multiple times and every time I returned to this tab, my post was there waiting to be finalized.
I'm also running the latest iOS 8 beta.

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Ten tabs? Wow. Now that's an active forum member.

I don't have that problem.

Then again i don't write long, rambling, drawn out posts either

saintforlife said:

When I try to make a post here on MacRumors I better just type it all in one go. God forbid if I switch tabs to copy a link from another tab and then come back to the my original post to try to paste it because just then the MacRumors forum tab decides to reload killing all my work until that point.

Are there any power users here that are annoyed by this Safari reloading on the iPad Air? Who cares if the processor is 64-bit when it can't handle a couple of open tabs without reloading? This is such a crappy user experience.

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I too have adjusted ny behavior by using notepad to hold my composition while then switching tabs. It is NOT an Air problem. It's the same on the rMini.
It doesn't bother me though....

I found if I hold my tablet a different way the problem isn't as bad.

Can't you guys (who are using notes) just copy your post right before you leave the tab, and then if it does refresh, just paste it back and it will be as it was when you left? I find that easier than switching to notes and back over and over, but that's just me.

XTheLancerX said:

Can't you guys (who are using notes) just copy your post right before you leave the tab, and then if it does refresh, just paste it back and it will be as it was when you left? I find that easier than switching to notes and back over and over, but that's just me.

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Absolutely I do that most of the time rather than pasting to the note pad, I only copy it to the clipboard but if you want to insert something a picture or a link then that's where the notepad comes in handy.
Again, it's all good.

I just use tapatalk. If it does run out of memory, (it doesn't) your posts can get saved as a draft.


Also ios8 beta users, can you confirm that ram is actually managed better on the Air?

petvas said:

There is no such thing.

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No such thing as what? Your incomplete thought has.
No such thing as session/cookie timeouts as I mentioned? Strange, I have been wasting my time all these years. Actually, as I said, now I use better tech, localStorage and such, so no worries. Unfortunately my bleeding edge code is commonplace yet ( MacForums for example ).

No, I cannot agree.

Well at least you know that every time you visit a page on the forums that it will always be up to date with all of that refreshing.

960design said:

No such thing as what? Your incomplete thought has.
No such thing as session/cookie timeouts as I mentioned? Strange, I have been wasting my time all these years. Actually, as I said, now I use better tech, localStorage and such, so no worries. Unfortunately my bleeding edge code is commonplace yet ( MacForums for example ).

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Timeouts in web forms, yes, but the iPad's issue has nothing to do with it.

I just switched between several tabs and I'm not having the issue at all. Even when switching between large websites. Perhaps it's a bug with Safari.

AxoNeuron said:

I just switched between several tabs and I'm not having the issue at all. Even when switching between large websites. Perhaps it's a bug with Safari.

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That's what many of us experience. No issues. Hmmm.....

Maybe it actually IS a safari problem and not RAM? I still feel that a true RAM shortage would be affecting many other apps and scenarios but the only complaints are with safari and tab reloads. And it's not affecting everyone either. Not sold on the RAM thing.

saintforlife said:

When I try to make a post here on MacRumors I better just type it all in one go. God forbid if I switch tabs to copy a link from another tab and then come back to the my original post to try to paste it because just then the MacRumors forum tab decides to reload killing all my work until that point.

Are there any power users here that are annoyed by this Safari reloading on the iPad Air? Who cares if the processor is 64-bit when it can't handle a couple of open tabs without reloading? This is such a crappy user experience.

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I had this problem on the iPad 1. When I kept reading about people having the same problem on newer models, it was one of the reasons why I bought a Windows 8 tablet.

s2mikey said:

That's what many of us experience. No issues. Hmmm.....

Maybe it actually IS a safari problem and not RAM? I still feel that a true RAM shortage would be affecting many other apps and scenarios but the only complaints are with safari and tab reloads. And it's not affecting everyone either. Not sold on the RAM thing.

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In my opinion that would be much worse alternative. That would mean that the issue is fixable and Apple hasn't been able to or bothered to fix in the last 10 months. I know Apple is aware of the issues with Safari because I have an open ticket with them.

We can only speculate because Apple is holding all the cards but think there's strong evidence that it's ram related. Here's some of the items at point to lack of Ram.

• The issue is worse on 64 bit devices with highest resolution screens (rMini, iPad Air)
• Numerous low memory log files generated on the device
• Aggressive memory management software in iOS that limits Safari to 200 MB (http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/0...itasking-to-ipads-isnt-as-simple-as-it-seems/)

Note: This message was created on my SP3 since I wouldn't trust my rMini not to refresh or crash.

Charliebird said:

If Apple included more ram they could raise the limit of memory allocated to Safari. Better should be good enough for me because I don't usually have more than two tabs open at a time.

To be clear, I will not buy another iPad from Apple until the stability and tab refreshing issues are great improved in Safari.

Sorry for all the shouting but Apple needs to get up to the industry standards on this item.

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I fully agree with you. I cannot get real work done on an iPad. I hope iOS 8 will be much better in this regard.

Just one thing - instead of shouting here maybe you could move over to apple.com/feedback and just tell directly? Because then they will hear it. In this forum - not so sure.

CmdrLaForge said:

I fully agree with you. I cannot get real work done on an iPad. I hope iOS 8 will be much better in this regard.

Just one thing - instead of shouting here maybe you could move over to apple.com/feedback and just tell directly? Because then they will hear it. In this forum - not so sure.

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I've done that and more. I also have an open support ticket with Apple regarding the matter. I called them at least one a month to get a status update. I always get the same answer. "Engineering is aware of the issue and keep checking for system updates.".

It was one of the reasons I returned my iPad Air. It was useless for me at work. Although the main reason was due to the constant crashing prior to the 7.1 release that pretty much fixed that.

My iPad 3 does it but no where near as much as my Air did.

I'll buy a new iPad when I verify it's fixed. Until then I can't because it will hurt my work flow.

I tried other browsers and some were better but nothing that great. Plus since you can't set a default browser links where always opening in safari. Plus I use keychain and integration of safari between my Mac and iPhone.

I've had my iPad for 6 months now. Never had a Springboard crash or tab reload. Is there a reason you had to start a new post about this nonsense instead of adding to one of the 500 other threads on the topic? Whether it happens to some or not, it's time to stop beating the poor dead horse.