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Safari is the most unstable program on OS X

There are a few things you can try to fix Safari. Mine is running perfect.

1. Remove plug-ins
2. Repair disk permissions
3. Remove the com.apple.safari.plist file from ~/Library/Preferences
4. Reinstall Safari
5. Install Flash Player 10.1 beta

That's only a few things you can try to speed up Safari.
 
I can count the times Safari crashed on my computers with one hand, and I'm using Macs for quite a few years now.

But what are your intentions with this thread? Just complaining, or do you really want help?
If you wanna get rid of those beachballs and crashes, post some hardware and software details.
Without that, no one is able to help you.
 
I find Safari 4 "unstable" in that it has had way more problems than of previous versions I Leopard and Tiger. They're not major problems but in Leopard, I would be lucky to get a beachball. With Snow Leopard/Safari 4, they are fairly common but appear for only a short period of time before actually doing what it's suppose to do. I've removed and reinstalled plugins but it doesn't help.
 
Safari does crash for me, but it happens sufficiently rarely to remain tolerable. In particular, sometimes the program spirals into permanent beachballing occasionally while starting to play youtube videos.

I would say it is not too unstable in absolute terms, but relatively speaking, Safari is the most unstable program on my computer also. Firefox seems to be less crashy but its interface feels weird for me to switch to it full time.
 
I find Safari works fine. The two times I've used it to download Firefox. That's it, the only times I've used the program.

I like Firefox, I use it on every computer I use, I see no reason to use anything else to be honest.
 
hanschien said:
Which version of Safari are you using? Are you using Snow Leopard in 64-bit with plugins? Try running Safari in 32-bit.
Click to expand...

Also, I think a lot of it might have to do with which sites you visit frequently. Some sites are more stable than others. Some "don't play well" with certain browsers.
 
Boesky said:
Streaming porn sucks in Safari.
Click to expand...

I don't know if to hate you or love you right now....

In any case, Safari is buggy and unstable. I notice it alot. Safari 4 was far more stable for me back in Leopard (10.5) than in Snow Leo.

Example, if I have Hulu running and I need to do a quick search on something, I can't use a new Tab or Safari will crash. Same goes with some YouTube videos.
 
jav6454 said:
I don't know if to hate you or love you right now....

In any case, Safari is buggy and unstable. I notice it alot. Safari 4 was far more stable for me back in Leopard (10.5) than in Snow Leo.

Example, if I have Hulu running and I need to do a quick search on something, I can't use a new Tab or Safari will crash. Same goes with some YouTube videos.
Click to expand...

Yeah, what's up with that? I have to use FireFox to watch Hulu and then I use Safari for most web browsing.
 
Safari does crash for me but quite rarely. It usually goes for weeks on end before crashing.

MacBook Pro - Snow Leopard - dozens of tabs open
 
Generally those who complain that 'Safari doesn't work' are those who have plug-ins installed and said plug-ins aren't playing well with the Safari updates and/or Snow Leopard. Instead of fussing about Safari, contact your plug-in developer and tell him to update HIS software.
 
colourfastt said:
Generally those who complain that 'Safari doesn't work' are those who have plug-ins installed and said plug-ins aren't playing well with the Safari updates and/or Snow Leopard. Instead of fussing about Safari, contact your plug-in developer and tell him to update HIS software.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but everything is up and running in mine smoothly and every plug-in I have are updated to latest Snow Leopard supporting standards. Java and Flash are heavy on my CPU when Safari is open.

Apple should stop waiting for Flash or Java to update the tools to be more efficient and develop the plug-ins themselves. (See: Microsoft's take on Flash, Silverlight)
 
Safari works perfectly for me, although I only use it on my iMac. One plugin - SafariAdblock and running in 32 bit.
 
it has never crashed for me either...i usually clean all cookies,caches and all the library before I shut down at night though
 
It got better with 4.0.4 and 10.6.2, but it still crashing or freezing on me for some idiotic reasons.
 
I'm with you, Boesky, ilog.genius and jav6454. Safari is hands down the worst app on a computer I've experienced in 20 years. I'd say it beachballs at least once every 5 minutes, and it locks up so hard I have to force-quit at least once a day, sometimes 4 times a day. Those of you who aren't experiencing this, I have to just assume you're either not paying attention, or you don't really push your browsers that hard. (And by 'hard' I don't mean to imply I'm pushing mine 'too' hard, it should be able to handle what I'm doing with it.) I just mean, say, 5 tabs open. 3-4 are news sites, like CNN or Huff post, then maybe Pandora streaming in background, and then entering a term on thesaurus.com in another. just hitting 'return' on that thesaurus entry will cause it to lock up. Or even just hitting 'command T' to open a new tab will get the beachball. When watching a YouTube video, just going to fullscreen will almost always get a temp beachball. Hell, even hitting "send" on a facebook email will cause Safari to completely freeze up for me. God forbid I have 8-10 windows open, am downloading a YouSendIt file, while watching Hulu, and trying to IM on Facebook. That will choke Safari in a heartbeat.

And no, the problems is not an old rig (only 1 yr), or not enough RAM (I'm maxxed) or too many apps open(only 3-4). The problem is Safari. The only program that even comes close to this bugginess is Word. But we all knew that already.
 
Markoneus said:
... it beachballs at least once every 5 minutes, and it locks up so hard I have to force-quit at least once a day, sometimes 4 times a day. Those of you who aren't experiencing this, I have to just assume you're either not paying attention, or you don't really push your browsers that hard. (And by 'hard' I don't mean to imply I'm pushing mine 'too' hard, it should be able to handle what I'm doing with it.) I just mean, say, 5 tabs open. 3-4 are news sites, like CNN or Huff post, then maybe Pandora streaming in background, and then entering a term on thesaurus.com in another....
Click to expand...

You obviously have something wrong with your installation. I'm on Safari 14+ hours every day. I routinely have 20-30 tabs open, sometimes 70 or more. Many are high-resolution images like album art, YouTube videos, news sites, Wikipedia, Hulu, Lala, etc. I've opened folders of bookmarks (Open in Tabs), opening over 100 pages simultaneously. Safari rarely hangs or crashes on me. By rarely, I mean maybe once or twice a week. I also always have iTunes, iCal, Skype, Microsoft Excel, Transmission, Preview, Finder, TextEdit and several widgets running, as well.

Just because you are having such problems doesn't mean everyone else is, and yes, I AM paying attention!
 
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