It’s the default Internet browser for millions of people around the world, but many say Safari is plagued by random crashes and crashes.
Affected users have found that the popular browser frequently crashes and recovers, only to crash again.
Fans of Apple’s software flocked to social media to express their frustration, calling Safari “the most buggy unreliable browser.”
On Apple’s support forums, some customers even threatened to stop using the company’s proprietary software if the situation didn’t improve.
On X, formerly Twitter, a frustrated user complained that Safari “freezes on all platforms.” “It’s stuck in a locking loop on my iPhone.”
MailOnline found that Safari was making some websites inaccessible, leaving the screen blank before an error message appeared saying “a problem occurred repeatedly.”
Apple has not yet commented on what could be causing the problem, but there are some simple steps to follow that could reduce the risk of a failure.
So, here is what you should do if you are affected by the Safari crashing error.
Apple users have reported that the Safari browser on iPhone and Mac closed unexpectedly and crashed “randomly” (file photo)
The problem with Safari appears to have persisted for several months, but has recently become more common.
On X, a Safari user wrote: ‘I was a Chrome user for over 10 years, but a couple of weeks ago I switched to Safari.
‘It’s been great, except Safari crashes randomly. It has happened 3 times so far. Has anyone else seen this?
Another wrote: ‘After the 18.0.1 update, Safari continued to randomly shut down while browsing (crashing).
“I have encountered this problem many times and the same thing happens with the photos app.”
Another commenter added that he had experienced “strange page crashes” while using the browser.
The issue has also been a frequent source of complaints on the Apple Community forum, where several users have shared detailed descriptions of the bugs.
“Safari started closing unexpectedly and then won’t load,” one commenter wrote.
On X, one commenter said he had experienced a series of seemingly random crashes since switching from Chrome to Safari.
One commenter complained that Safari was the “most buggy and unreliable browser,” adding that they found the app to freeze or crash frequently.
Another added: “Safari constantly crashes only on specific websites.”
The user added that he had tried several suggested solutions without success and had already lost a day of work thanks to the constant failures.
For some Apple users, the problem had become so disturbing that they were now ready to abandon Safari altogether.
One Apple user wrote: ‘The only app I have problems with is Safari, and it’s almost every website I use now.
‘It’s been going on for about 9 months and it’s beyond frustrating. I’m about to download a new browser on my iPhone and I no longer use Safari.’
Apple has not confirmed what could be causing these problems and did not respond to MailOnline’s request for comment.
However, if the problem affects you, there are a couple of simple steps that could help.
If Safari freezes or gets stuck in a loading and crashing loop, the first thing you should do is force quit the app.
The issue appears to have been plaguing Safari users for several months. However, Apple has not yet commented on what could be causing the problem and did not respond to a request for comment (file photo)
On the Apple Community forum, a Safari user complained that the browser crashed every time he tried to visit a certain set of websites.
One commenter complained that he had been affected by the issue for “about 9 months” and was considering abandoning Safari altogether.
On iPhone, you can do this by swiping over to the App Switcher and exiting the Safari app directly.
On Mac, press Command + Option + Escape on the keyboard to open the “Force Quit Apps” menu, select Safari, and then click “Force Quit.”
Next, restart your device and try launching Safari again to see if this resolved the issue.
If that doesn’t work, make sure Safari isn’t bogged down by too much memory by closing as many tabs as possible and clearing the cache.
Cache is data stored by the browser about each website you visit, which helps load the page faster when you visit it again.
Over time, these remnants of saved pages accumulate to the point that they can slow down the browser or even cause a crash.
To clear the cache on Mac, click the “Safari” tab at the top left and select “Preferences” from the drop-down menu.
Select the “Advanced” tab and select the option that says “Show Develop menu in menu bar.”
Another iPhone user commented that the app seems to close “randomly,” adding that the issue started after installing the updated 18.0.1 version.
You can clear your browsing data and cache to help limit the chances of app crashing on iPhone. To do this, navigate to the ‘Safari’ tab in the ‘Settings’ app and select ‘Clear history and website data’ (in blue)
When you close the Preferences menu, there will now be a “Develop” tab in the bar at the top of the page.
Select ‘Develop’ and click ‘Clear Caches’ to clear the data.
If you don’t mind losing more information, you can also clear the cache indirectly by deleting your browsing history through the “History” tab.
On iPhone, simply open the Settings app, tap “Safari,” and hit the option marked “Clear history and website data.”
If you’ve done all that and are still having problems, the last resort is to make sure both your browser and your device are updated to the latest version.
An outdated browser and an updated operating system could have some incompatibilities that may be creating the crashing issue.
To make sure both are up to date on Mac, open the ‘System Settings’ app, select ‘General’, and then click ‘Software Update’.
If there is any new software available, you can see it here and then you can select ‘Update now’ or ‘Restart now’ to install it.
