Compared to other web browsers, Safari is known for its stability, speed, and performance. This web browser benefits significantly from its optimization for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Yet, it does not mean that Safari does not encounter issues at all. On the other hand, Safari is also vulnerable to issues, and you’ve got one if your Safari browser keeps crashing. In this guide, I will provide you with some easy solutions to the problem.
Common Safari Problems
Let me first tell you about some common Safari problems. You may encounter these issues on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
- Sometimes, Safari may take seconds or minutes to load a webpage.
- Glitches in playback, especially while using sites like Netflix or Prime Video
- Synchronization issues with iCloud may prevent access to tabs and bookmarks.
- Search engine hijacking may cause Safari to open random pages instead of the New Tab page.
- Safari may display the “Connection Not Private” message repeatedly for all websites.
In addition to these, unexpected crashes have been a persistent issue for Safari users for some time. While the five issues mentioned above have direct solutions, a crashing Safari browser could be frustrating.
Why Safari Keeps Crashing
Here are some common reasons why Safari keeps crashing:
Resource Overload
The most common reason for Safari crashing is resource overload.
This might occur due to the browser using a lot of resources or your Mac doing the same. For instance, when you use too many tabs, Safari will continue consuming more RAM and CPU resources. At a point, the system resources become insufficient, leading the Safari browser to crash.
Likewise, if other apps/services on your Mac consume a significant amount of system resources, Safari may not have sufficient CPU/RAM resources to work with. As a result, many tasks that Safari wants to complete would crash before.
Faulty Extensions
When you install and enable a browser extension on Safari, you grant this piece of software extensive permissions.
Sometimes, malicious or outdated code in these extensions can prevent the Safari browser from functioning as usual. This happens more frequently if your extension has the right to modify website content. An example would be an ad blocker or a price tracker for Amazon.
If there are such faulty extensions, it’s unsurprising that Safari keeps crashing.
Software Glitches
While extremely rare, software issues concerning Safari or Mac OS can also cause the Safari browser to crash. It may be a bug affecting Mac OS or an issue that needs patching in Safari. This occurs mostly following major releases. If you suspect that your Safari browser has started crashing immediately after an update, you may need to check for available software updates.
Issues with Synchronization
Multi-device synchronization is one of the trademark features of Safari. However, the same system may cause the browser to crash if there are synchronization conflicts. For instance, your iCloud account may be attempting to send additional information to your browser, but it may refuse the request or cause issues, leading to a conflict and subsequent crash.
Data Corruption
Lastly, data corruption is also a common reason why your Safari browser keeps crashing. Data stored in your browser, such as cookies, caches, and saved credentials, may get corrupted at times. Such corrupted data can prevent Safari from booting up without issues. For what it’s worth, data corruption may happen due to internal or external factors.
Fortunately, addressing these issues and stopping the Safari crashing issue is not rocket science. You can do it in just a few minutes, if not seconds.
How to Fix Safari Not Working or Keeps Crashing
Now that you know the potential reasons why your Safari browser is crashing, we can try some solutions. I have created a systematic guide to solving the problem, starting with some basic steps.
Please note that most of these solutions are for Safari on Mac. Though the core ideas seem the same, you’d need different steps to solve the problems on your iPhone or iPad.
#1 Force Quit Safari and Restart Your Mac
The first and easiest solution for solving the Safari crashing issue is a force restart. Here’s how you can do it:
- First, ensure that you force quit the Safari application if the icon is still active on the dock. You can do it by going to the Apple Menu > Force Quit > select Safari > Force Quit.
- Before reopening Safari, you must also restart your Mac. You can also do it from the Apple menu at the top-left side.
These steps will ensure that your Safari browser is completely shut down. Temporary issues causing the web browser to crash will also take a break.
While reopening Safari after the Mac restart, press and hold the Shift key. Doing so will prevent Safari from reopening pages/tabs you had open during the Force Quit.
#2 Clear Cache and Files
As I mentioned, temporary files associated with the Safari browser can cause it to crash. Therefore, before taking any other step, try to clear the cache and other temporary files. Here’s how you can go about it.
- Open Safari and go to Settings from the menu-bar interface
- Go to the Privacy tab and choose Manage Website Data
- Safari will now show you a list of websites and the types of data they have stored
- Click Remove All and confirm your action.
Please note that Safari will remove all temporary files related to these websites. It will also log you out of all those websites, asking you to log back in upon return. However, if the temporary data is corrupted, this step shall help you solve the Safari crashing issue.
By the way, if you want to take it a step further, you can also consider clearing the cache. Doing so will force websites to gather the latest copy from the server instead of loading something that it had loaded earlier. It can be done with the help of third-party cleaning utilities.
#3 Turn Off Safari Extensions
Extensions are another common reason for Safari crashing continuously. It happens frequently when you obtain extensions with system-level permissions. They may have the capacity to modify content on a webpage, which can occasionally cause potential crashes.
Therefore, you should check if the situation changes when you disable Safari extensions. For optimal results, disable all Safari extensions to see if the problem resolves. You can repeat the process by enabling extensions one at a time. This way, you can find a culprit and uninstall the extension.
For what it’s worth, Apple does a great job of keeping the extensions secure, but bad code can still make its way to extensions, causing crashes. You can go to Settings > Extensions and uncheck all extensions to disable all.
#4 Reset Safari Preferences
Sometimes, crashes may occur due to changes you have made to your web browser. With this in mind, it makes sense to reset Safari preferences as well. Unfortunately, macOS does not offer a one-click button to do it. Instead, you need to use Finder. Here’s how:
- Click the Go button on the menu-bar interface and choose Go to Folder
- Now, paste the following in the column and press Enter:
~/Library/Containers/
- macOS will open a Finder window. In the folder, search for a folder starting with com.Apple.Safari.
- Check all these folders for a .plist file.
- Remove all these files and restart your Mac.
That’s it. This step would reset all the changes you have made to Safari. When you turn it back on, you can use Safari as if you had just installed it.
#5 Updates macOS (Safari)
Often, Safari continues to crash due to a system-level error. You may occasionally encounter compatibility issues. Fortunately, you can solve all these problems by updating Safari. Interestingly, macOS does not allow you to update Safari alone.
Instead, Safari updates are packed into the macOS update. This makes things easier for most people. They can resolve most issues by keeping macOS up to date. Apple includes bug fixes and feature enhancements in these updates for Safari.
#6 Check Safe Mode
If none of the options mentioned above have worked, you should try the Safe Mode function.
Safe Mode is a feature that lets macOS boot without loading third-party apps or extensions. Therefore, you can try opening Safari in Safe Mode. If Safari works fine when in Safe Mode, it means a third-party extension or app is causing the problem. This also means you can solve the crash by removing an app.
Here’s how you can use the Safe Mode function:
- Turn off your Mac.
- Press the Power button and hold the Shift key for a few seconds.
- You can release the button when you see the login interface.
Now, your Mac will boot up but in Safe Mode. Please note that no extensions or startup items will be active when the Mac is ready. You can check whether Safari is crashing in this scenario. If it doesn’t, you can confirm that a system extension/startup item is causing the crash.
The solution? You should check each startup item and system extension. If you find an app/extension that you don’t recognize, remove it instantly.
#7 Reset Your Mac
If you still experience the Safari crashing issue, it is better to reset your Mac. As you are aware, resetting your Mac will erase all existing files, apps, and settings. So, if any of these factors are causing Safari to crash, it will be solved.
To reset your Mac, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset. Here, press “Erase All Content & Settings” and follow the on-screen instructions. By the time the process is done, you should have a fresh-looking Mac.
Wrapping Up
I hope you were able to stop the Safari crashing problem using these steps. If nothing works, you can try the reset method. In my experience, though, the problem is almost always an extension of bad code.
