Safari Crashing for Both iOS and Mac Users, Fixes Identified [Update: Fixed]

[MacRumors]

Safari users are today reporting an odd issue causing Apple's web browser app to crash on both Macs and iOS devices. Several Mac users are also not receiving autocomplete suggestions when entering text into Safari's address bar, with many pages including sites like Google failing to load completely. For many iPhone and iPad users, simply tapping on the URL bar causes Safari to crash.

URL searches, autocomplete, Top Sites and other Safari features rely on queries being sent to and returned by Apple's servers, suggesting this is where the problem lies. The issue also seems to depend on what data the browser most recently cached.

The current fix for iOS and Mac involves disabling Safari Suggestions, which stops the app from crashing to the home screen. On your iOS device, go into Settings, tap Safari, and toggle off the "Safari Suggestions" switch. On your Mac, the same setting is found in Safari -> Preferences -> Search.

Alternatively, opening a Private Browsing window also appears to solve the issue.

The problem appears to be affecting users around the world and will likely be resolved when Apple corrects the service on their end.

Update: According to BuzzFeed, Apple has now fixed the issue that was causing the Safari browser to crash on iOS and Macs due to issues with Safari Suggestions.

Article Link: Safari Crashing for Both iOS and Mac Users, Fixes Identified [Update: Fixed]

 

[farewelwilliams]

How did this bypass their QA department?

 

[MightyTrojan]

......I thought my iMac got a virus or something. It's been not working for a few hours already. Search bar non responsive and typing did not even appear on search bar.

 

[ecallaghan]

This was driving me nuts all day - I hadn't realised I had performed an update - and if not, then how does this happen?

 

[yeah]

Strange issue. Private browsing does fix this issue, though.

 

[gijoeinla]

Yes this is true. I can only use Safari on my mac by using New Private Window option. Oddly, if I open the regular Safari window, I get only the apple.com address, twice, see the attached photo... I cannot input anything into the normal Safari browser. Chrome and Firefox are working though. Clearly a Safari only problem.

 

[masands]

It just works...

 

[craig1410]

I wonder if this is actually a problem with Google search autocomplete because I'm not experiencing the problem and I use duckduckgo which has its own autocomplete. Obviously still a bug in Safari but perhaps triggered by Google.

 

[japanime]

Safari feels snappier ... at crashing!

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

Didn't know there was an issue! All devices are working fine on my end, even with safari suggestion on.

But it's good to have a workaround just in case, hope they fix soon.

 

[Adithya007]

After doing this, Safari will be snappier. At last.

 

[BulkSlash]

The latest El Capitan beta (10.11.4 Beta 2) has some bad Safari issues too. New tabs don't open properly, sometimes overlapping the original tab and the search/URL bar displays "Search or enter website name" twice. It's also not possible to switch tabs.

I suspect another beta update will be out soon... until then it's back to Firefox.

 

[iWillNotUpgrade]

Experiencing this as well right now. Additionally, tab switching doesn't seem to work and new tabs don't even show up in the tab bar.

 

[masands]

Check your Siri usage in battery stats. Mine has gone through the roofs...

 

[RosOne]

I wonder if this is actually a problem with Google search autocomplete because I'm not experiencing the problem and I use duckduckgo which has its own autocomplete. Obviously still a bug in Safari but perhaps triggered by Google.

Using DuckDuckGo too, Safari works fine on all my devices

 

[Blujelly]

Didn't have a problem at all until I saw it on Sky News tried it and I had the same problem, clicked on the URL app crashed.

Done it 5 out of 20 times, I also started to hold down on the URL which the brings up the paste and search option, to which I clicked on the URL box and it seemed to work for me.

 

[iapplelove]

My mac crashed a few weeks ago, but it was before the latest update.

It's been fine since then.

 

[tab.84]

I spoke to Apple support this morning, as i thought i had an issue with my Mac
The simple advise was to go and turn off "Include Search Engine Suggestions" within Safari preferences.

They are aware of the issue and and looking at a fix

The adviser told me to give it 12 hours and try switching it on again.

 

[Macneck]

Good to know! I first experienced the issue today and automatically wondered if Apple was trying ways to 'suggest' users to upgrade to iOS 9.2.1.

 

[kaostheory777]

Grrrr - i've spent the last 2 hours thinking my Safari was broken, deleting .plist files - reseting - fixing permissions etc. Oh well at least I stopped short of a full reinstall. Fingers crossed this is fixed by tomorrow. I don't like using Chrome

 

[Snowy_River]

Seeing this problem as well. It was driving me a little nuts on my iPad. Had to switch to iCab to get here to find out what the problem was...

 

[profets]

I have google as the search provider Safari on all of my devices. Can't replicate the issue on several Macs or iOS devices. Strange, I wonder what the cause of it is and how it's only affecting some devices.

 

[ecallaghan]

This has been driving me nuts all morning!!!

Grrrr - i've spent the last 2 hours thinking my Safari was broken, deleting .plist files - reseting - fixing permissions etc. Oh well at least I stopped short of a full reinstall. Fingers crossed this is fixed by tomorrow. I don't like using Chrome

Yup - ditto!

 

[arn]

This was driving me nuts all day - I hadn't realised I had performed an update - and if not, then how does this happen?

Apple's servers aren't responding correctly. And apparently Safari isn't reacting gracefully to that failure.

arn

 

[solidsn2004]

Grrrr - i've spent the last 2 hours thinking my Safari was broken, deleting .plist files - reseting - fixing permissions etc. Oh well at least I stopped short of a full reinstall. Fingers crossed this is fixed by tomorrow. I don't like using Chrome

I went through the same procedures and I was about to do a clean install when I decided to check the forum! Thank god I did