Safari Networking is freezing every couple of minutes

[jamgold]

I am running 10.11.2 on a Mac Pro and noticed that Safari's access to websites starts freezing for a 10-20 seconds after some time. I narrowed it down to Safari Networking process, since when I kill it, Safari re-launches a new process and access to the web is back to instantaneous. If I do not kill the process, it recovers by itself, but the waiting is driving me nuts, since the behavior looks exactly the same as when a web site doesn't respond at all, and as a developer I always go into panic mode that my domain is down ...

This is not happening when using Google Chrome or Firefox, only Safari is effected. I am not sure if this started happening with El Capitan or was already present under Yosemite.

Has anyone else noticed this, or has a good idea how to troubleshoot this?

Cheers
Jan

 

[ultinomics]

Running MBP Retina Mid 2012 pretty much have the save problem and have the same routine. Sometimes my computer will freeze for like 5 seconds. It's to the point that I no longer use Safari because, despite it being a "energy efficient", my computer will just churn through battery faster in Safari than Chrome.

I've never posted on these forums before, but this post resonated enough with my experience (and hours of troubleshooting time) that I thought I'd give my two cents.

I honestly think I've exhausted every google search related to "Safari Networking" and high cpu usage. I've emptied my cache, disabled plugins and extensions, created and tested a guest account, etc. but the problem seemed to persist.

Current hypothesis: Javascript + AdBlock Plus = sadness. The one persistent thing I have noticed is that sites that are very Javascript dependent trigger Safari Networking to spike. This isn't surprising since Javascript tends to increase CPU demand. However, throw in ABP and visit a Javascript heavy site and the spikes is HUGE. Safari Networking cranks up and my computer starts to freeze randomly. I removed ABP and installed Wipr instead. Seems to have made a difference.

For me, none of the "empty cache" or "delete bookmark" solutions worked (they were not the source of my problem). If you have ABP or a similar ad block extension, try visiting a site that uses a lot of javascript (https://www.udacity.com is one that comes to mind) with the ad block enabled. Then, remove the ad block, restart safari, and visit the same site again. That was the test that made me get to my current hypothesis. If you see an improvement, maybe you had the same issue as me.

 

[jamgold]

I have disabled all my extensions and have no ad blocker right now. I will try disabling JavaScript all together to see what happens, even though that should make the Web pretty much useless

 

[ultinomics]

If you have Develop Menu enabled (Preferences > Advanced > last box "Show develop menu..."), try emptying your Safari web cache. I never noticed it do much but I read posts where it helped some folks.

The develop menu also allows you to quickly enable and disable javascript.

I've also read about people deleting their bookmark.plist — but that didn't do it for me either.

Good luck, dude. I know how frustrating it can be!

 

[jamgold]

I just disabled my Virus Scanner (ClamXav) and the weird hangs seem to have stopped .... updated to latest version (2.8.8) and will see if the problem is fixed