Safari 15 Issues: YouTube Bookmarks Crash Browser, Some Websites Fail to Load on macOS Catalina

[MacRumors]

macOS Monterey is set to be released later this year with Safari 15, with key new features including redesigned tabs, grouped tabs, automatic switching of sites from HTTP to more secure HTTPS when available, faster performance, improved security, and more. Apple also released Safari 15 for macOS Big Sur and macOS Catalina last week.

Unfortunately, some customers have experienced a few issues with Safari 15, which we've highlighted in more detail below.

YouTube Bookmarking Issue

On both macOS Big Sur and the macOS Monterey beta, it appears that attempting to bookmark a YouTube page in Safari 15 results in the browser crashing.

The issue was demonstrated with a video shared by YouTube channel Krazy Wabbit. As a temporary workaround, the video notes that users can create a bookmarks folder for YouTube videos and then drag YouTube pages into the folder in the Safari sidebar.

Page Loading Issue on macOS Catalina

On macOS Catalina, some users across the Apple Support Communities, MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and Twitter have reported that some websites fail to load in Safari 15, with affected users receiving an "a problem repeatedly occurred" error message.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1442149005081858049

Affected users said that disabling JavaScript solves the problem by clicking on Safari in the macOS menu bar > Preferences… > Security and unchecking the Enable JavaScript box, but this is not an ideal solution. Fortunately, it appears that users can permanently address the issue by reinstalling Safari 15 with a package from Apple's servers. (Note that this update is only for users on macOS Catalina and it should not be installed on other operating system versions.)

Article Link: Safari 15 Issues: YouTube Bookmarks Crash Browser, Some Websites Fail to Load on macOS Catalina

 

[GMShadow]

I remain astounded that Safari 15 was even shipped.

I expect this to remain an issue for months, much like discoveryd was in the Yosemite/iOS 8 era until the engineer in charge of that fiasco was fired and mDNSResponder was brought back.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I’ve been experiencing this too. Tired of seeing white plain screen. Websites are not loading properly. Hopefully a fix is coming up soon.

 

[Notalkradio]

The permanent fix in the link above fixed the reload issue that I was having on several websites. Thank you!!!

 

[k.alexander]

IG Stories Videos does not work/play.

 

[anshuvorty]

So, is there a way to downgrade from Safari 15 on macOS Big Sur if you have already installed Safari 15?

 

[eicca]

I'm fairly certain Apple devs don't actually use their own products anymore. Not just show-stopping bugs, but persistent significant issues that go unfixed for months or even years at a time.

 

[MakeAppleAwesomeAgain]

Besides the bugs, I really hate the tab bar UI. It’s Apple unworthy.

 

[LFC2020]

How about mentioning the safari slowdowns that is also happening on iOS & iPadOS 15, started happening from beta 8 onwards, it’s not only a macOS issue. 🤦‍♂️

 

[randomthoughts]

While trying to zoom in on the Tweet about “a problem repeatedly occurred.” Lovely.

 

[Carlson-online]

Disabling JavaScript isn’t really a fix, as as lot of the internet uses it nowadays for rendering

 

[randomthoughts]

I'm fairly certain Apple devs don't actually use their own products anymore. Not just show-stopping bugs, but persistent significant issues that go unfixed for months or even years at a time.

I had a bug for Safari that took 12 years to get resolved.

 

[Kung gu]

Is it just me or Apple lately has been having a lot of software and hardware issues lately??

I switched to Windows on my 16" MBP from macOS and Windows feels quicker and smoother.

oh and Edge is WAY better than safari.

 

[anshuvorty]

So, is there a way to downgrade from Safari 15 on macOS Big Sur if you have already installed Safari 15?

Does anyone have an answer to this?

 

[LFC2020]

Is it just me or Apple lately has been having a lot of software and hardware issues lately??

Nope not just you, iOS 15 was running nicely until beta 8 came out, then everything went downhill from there.

 

[oldmacs]

Yikes! That sucks for people with these issues!

For once I'm not experiencing them on Safari 15 on Big Sur or Monterey - can even add a Youtube bookmark without a crash!

 

[bluespark]

Besides the bugs, I really hate the tab bar UI. It’s Apple unworthy.

It's a usability nightmare. Same thing on iOS Safari. The tabs are now confusing and much harder to tap on.

 

[Havoc035]

Safari 15 has been very unstable for me on macOS. Dragging around tabs or sometimes just watching a video makes it crash.

 

[FortCollins]

Just upgraded to Monterey a few hours ago and my first evening with Safari 15. What in the world is happening? Maybe it's because I'm completely useless when it comes to UX and UI design, but I hate this. I'm even more annoyed by the colors than the tabs — it's so distracting.

 

[6787872]

good old apple "quality." use a real browser folks.

 

[Agent47]

What is Federighi and his team doing? Eight betas of iOS 15 and its full of bugs, a buggy browser update, I mean come on. He's either grossly incompetent as a leader or is too nice and needs to really enforce some discipline at Apple and the software team, and go out and find some better talent. There was a day when you used Apple because it "just worked." Now we just hope it works.

 

[slb]

I think Safari 15 on Mac is going to drive a lot of users to alternate browsers.

 

[mi7chy]

For once I'm not experiencing them on Safari 15 on Big Sur or Monterey - can even add a Youtube bookmark without a crash!

Seems to affect M1 more than x64. YouTuber has M1 and can confirm my M1 MacBook Air is affected. I use Chrome so not a showstopper but would be nice to have a functional backup browser.

 

[Freeangel1]

honestly I like the old safari better.
too radical of a change for me with the new tab situation.

Microsoft edge browser is now much better than safari in its current form.

it's days like these when I wish APPLE would license Intel versions of macOS to Dell, Lenovo and others so we can have broader Hardware choices.

 

[Jim Lahey]

Standard Apple these days. Bugs everywhere you look. Too busy worrying about social justice issues and prying into their employees’ personal medical affairs.