Apple, I gave you $4000 for a cutting-edge machine that works speedily, and your BS Safari 26 update has turned my M4 into a G4. DO BETTER
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
macOS 15.7 & Safari 26 = laggy garbage
- Thread starter Q'iu T'ing
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have macOS 15.7. I fixed this by going into recovery mode and reinstalling macOS. Don't worry about your files; macOS will reinstall while preserving all your data. Then Safari will be version 18.6 again and will work amazingly smoothly.
support.apple.com
How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
Use macOS Recovery, your computer’s built-in recovery system, to reinstall the Mac operating system.
Did they pull the update for Sequoia? I had been on 15.6.1, and when 15.7 was available I also saw Safari 26 in the updates screen. Last night I upgraded to 15.7.1, but there was no option for any new Safari version. I'm still on 18.6. Hopefully they noticed the performance degradation and pulled it for a fix.
I'm experiencing the same slowness and I can create the problem just by doing the following:
Open any website, then click in the address bar, type a few characters and immediately backspace them, then type a few more characters and immediately backspace them, and keep doing that again and again (just mash on the keyboard while constantly hitting backspace)... and Safari will rapidly slow down. In just 10 seconds of doing this you can see it getting slower, and if you keep doing it after about 30 seconds it'll be in the full "sluggish" mode where doing anything like opening or closing a tab is slow.
If you keep doing it, eventually Safari will totally lock up and die.
Open Safari again and everything is snappy again. But start typing/backspacing again and again in an active tab's address bar and it'll immediately start slowing down again.
I would encourage people to do this and submit a feedback report using Feedback Assistant so it captures the problem as it's happening.
Open any website, then click in the address bar, type a few characters and immediately backspace them, then type a few more characters and immediately backspace them, and keep doing that again and again (just mash on the keyboard while constantly hitting backspace)... and Safari will rapidly slow down. In just 10 seconds of doing this you can see it getting slower, and if you keep doing it after about 30 seconds it'll be in the full "sluggish" mode where doing anything like opening or closing a tab is slow.
If you keep doing it, eventually Safari will totally lock up and die.
Open Safari again and everything is snappy again. But start typing/backspacing again and again in an active tab's address bar and it'll immediately start slowing down again.
I would encourage people to do this and submit a feedback report using Feedback Assistant so it captures the problem as it's happening.
My Safari on macOS 26.0.1 keeps randomly freeze up from browsing Amazon...
M1 Pro 16GB
M1 Pro 16GB
Actually, instaling Safari 18.6 as per this post https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ia.2465954/page-2?post=34194873#post-34194873 works great, just use Sonoma package.
Thank you, I just reinstalled Safari 18.6 using your link. Let's see if this fixes everything.
(The installer crash completely my mac the first time, but it went okay the second time).
I updated my MBP to 15.7.1 today and also got blindsided by finding I had installed Safari 26. I just wanted the latest Safari version for Sequoia. Now I have a total mess. The new Safari lost many of my bookmarks. The update also scrambled most of my DeskTop setups. Lots of work ahead to sort out all of this.
I opted to update to 15.7.1 to AVOID messing with Tahoe and have a stable system for several more months before deciding on the Tahoe OS.
I am NOT happy!
I opted to update to 15.7.1 to AVOID messing with Tahoe and have a stable system for several more months before deciding on the Tahoe OS.
I am NOT happy!
Same here. I then restore the os like #27 suggested. This fixed the issue for me.
I did follow my own advice and reported this bug using Feedback Assistant and the report summary at the top now shows there are “more than 10” recent similar reports.
I don’t know what it takes for a report to get seen by an engineer, but I guess this means they’re tracking the issue on some level.
I don’t know what it takes for a report to get seen by an engineer, but I guess this means they’re tracking the issue on some level.
Thanks this worked for me yesterday took 15/20 minutesI have macOS 15.7. I fixed this by going into recovery mode and reinstalling macOS. Don't worry about your files; macOS will reinstall while preserving all your data. Then Safari will be version 18.6 again and will work amazingly smoothly.
How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support
Use macOS Recovery, your computer’s built-in recovery system, to reinstall the Mac operating system.
But all my apps and settings stayed the same, I was worried about my plex server but everything was the same
I got safari 18.6 back
I also updated Safari to 26.0.1 on my MBP M2, whilst staying on 15.7 and pages are distinctly much slower to load vs the Safari iteration before. I reset the cache, restarted multiple time, upgraded to 15.7.1 and none of this has made a difference. Prior to installing the latest Safari version, pages were quite quick to load.
MS Edge flies in comparison but I would like to stick with Safari. The mind boggles how Apple's native browser can be broken so easily on an otherwise quick machine.
So we wait for the next version of the browser and file a bug report?
I'll have to read through all the comments here to see if a TM or clone backup can be used to revert the Safari App only to a previous version.
MS Edge flies in comparison but I would like to stick with Safari. The mind boggles how Apple's native browser can be broken so easily on an otherwise quick machine.
So we wait for the next version of the browser and file a bug report?
I'll have to read through all the comments here to see if a TM or clone backup can be used to revert the Safari App only to a previous version.
interesting you say that. It was 26.0.1 that introduced this severe lag for me. The previous version (26.0 I assume) was snappy and problem free.
Indeed wanting to reinstall only the previous version of Safari, not the whole OS. Thanks Robert, I'll give it a try.
@RobertPS omg how less complicated could something be. Installed 18.6 and got my full speed back again. Version 26 had pretty much doubled time for pages loading and it started to feel like my old 2009 MBP using FF and the DosDude patch. The mind boggles how Apple can release their native browser update with Sonoma, crippling it to such an extent? Keeping this DMG.
@betelgeusecz thanks for posting the link to the DMG. Worked a treat.
@betelgeusecz thanks for posting the link to the DMG. Worked a treat.
I accidentally updated Safari on my work laptop to 26 and it's pissing me off so much with how slow it is. Gonna install 18.6 back once I am done with work for today
@Q'iu T'ing consider editing your post with a link to post #31 so that others can see that we can downgrade Safari. Many others like me are probably entering this subforum purely because they are having issues with Safari 26 on macOS 15
@Q'iu T'ing consider editing your post with a link to post #31 so that others can see that we can downgrade Safari. Many others like me are probably entering this subforum purely because they are having issues with Safari 26 on macOS 15
Downgraded from Sequoia to Sonoma for that exact reason, but if only it was Safari. My M1 worked exactly as you described: like MacBook White with Core2Duo from 2007. Very laggy and poor experience in general
Same problem here too on a 16GB M1 mini. Simple things like opening a new tab and typing in a URL are slow and laggy. Everything just feels delayed. CPU and Memory usage seem normal, and this problem just seemed to appear in the last day or two, even though I updated to Safari 26.0.1 when it first came out. Haven't moved to Tahoe yet, and this doesn't exactly make me eager to update the OS.
Just did the downgrade, and wow the difference in speed is night and day.
Just did the downgrade, and wow the difference in speed is night and day.
Last edited:
Running MacOS Sequoia on a 2020 Intel iMac and Safari is horrendous. So slow, so laggy, can't close out tabs unless I switch to the tab and let it open and load. Lags between opening tabs, lags after typing in an address that it has trouble autocompleting. Some strange behavior when trying to use Apple Pay on websites where it lags or times out or something.
I filed a bug report using a link in this thread but this is crazy. Never seen it so bad before. Hope there is a fix in the future. Feels like my entire iMac has sunk into the mud after updating the OS.
I filed a bug report using a link in this thread but this is crazy. Never seen it so bad before. Hope there is a fix in the future. Feels like my entire iMac has sunk into the mud after updating the OS.
I finally bit the bullet and "downgraded" to Safari 18.6. I concur that "normal," expected functionality and speed is restored on Sequoia 15.7.1. Do BETTER Apple. I shouldn't have to waste my time mitigating your lack of QC.
As stupid as it may sound, the fact that I can type "ma" instead of "macru" and have macrumors.com immediately populate the address bar tastes like victory. Time for a cold Double IPA 🍻
I am really surprised that this isn't getting more attention from the usual Apple sites. It's widespread and a serious enough performance bug that it deserves a news post to draw more attention to it.
Also rolled back today (by reinstalling Seqouia, the Sonoma Safari installer failed for me), and now Safari is back to the way it used to be, with Sequoia 15.7.1 and Safari 18.6.
Last edited: