Problem with Safari

[xrc6]

Late 2013 Macbook Pro: The other day, Safari started this issue where if I type text such as I am doing here, each key typed shows a 2-3 second delay onscreen which slows worse the more keys I type. Sometimes I see the spinning beach ball thing. Also there are other delays, like closing Safari takes longer, sometimes websites don't come up as fast. Other browsers work just fine but I prefer Safari for it's better battery life/OS integration.

I tried turning off all extensions. I tried freeing up RAM using an app. I tried using a cleaning app to clean out all the junk files. I tried rebooting several times and I updated every software update. I have antivirus so there is no viruses.

What would be causing this?

I also have another question. I have 8 gigs of RAM and this app that can monitor and clean RAM. It often shows up to 100% of ram being used when all I have open is Mail app and 1 tab open in browser...why is this using up so much ram? Does OSX not have a memory manager?

So I use this app to free up ram but I don't notice any difference....is this app necessary and will OSX manage it fine on it's own? Or is there something else wrong? I don't have anything in startup other than speech synth so it can read me messages outloud. I don't know what else to try.

 

[Gregg2]

Late 2013 Macbook Pro: The other day, Safari started this issue where if I type text such as I am doing here, each key typed shows a 2-3 second delay onscreen which slows worse the more keys I type. Sometimes I see the spinning beach ball thing. Also there are other delays, like closing Safari takes longer, sometimes websites don't come up as fast. Other browsers work just fine but I prefer Safari for it's better battery life/OS integration.

I tried turning off all extensions. I tried freeing up RAM using an app. I tried using a cleaning app to clean out all the junk files. I tried rebooting several times and I updated every software update. I have antivirus so there is no viruses.

You don't have a virus because there are none for OSX. It has nothing to do with anti-virus software.

What "cleaning app" did you run?

This is a recent problem ("The other day, ...") so did you install something new a few days ago?

 

[richard2]

Try the following:

1. If Safari is open, then close it (command-Q).
2. In Finder, press shift-command-G, enter "~/Library/Safari", and then press return.
3. Select all of the items except for the file Bookmarks.plist.
4. Press command-delete.

 

[xrc6]

You don't have a virus because there are none for OSX. It has nothing to do with anti-virus software.

What "cleaning app" did you run?

This is a recent problem ("The other day, ...") so did you install something new a few days ago?

Of course there is malware for OS X. Havn't you ever heard of Flashfake or Koobface? Anyway, I had to do a complete reinstall and the only thing installed that is 3rd party is AV but am using a different kind....but Safari is acting up again, so I'm right back at square one. No I didn't install anything recently for it to happen. After the reinstall of El Capitan, it was fast and snappy, a few days later it degraded a tad it seemed, suddenly Safari is doing it again, at times the system will kind of lock up for a minute or I'll see the spinning ball as if the system is under stress...but nothing else outside of defaults is running other than AV. I'm using Avast this time, last time it was Webroot but it's not scanning or anything.

Maybe it's some kind of update bug? I notice sometimes My Macbook will get pretty warm despite the only thing open is Safari and the battery will drain quicker...usually my Mac is cool to the touch.

 

[simonsi]

I tried using a cleaning app to clean out all the junk files. I tried rebooting several times and I updated every software update. I have antivirus so there is no viruses.

What would be causing this?

I also have another question. I have 8 gigs of RAM and this app that can monitor and clean RAM. It often shows up to 100% of ram being used when all I have open is Mail app and 1 tab open in browser...why is this using up so much ram? Does OSX not have a memory manager?

So I use this app to free up ram but I don't notice any difference....is this app necessary and will OSX manage it fine on it's own? Or is there something else wrong? I don't have anything in startup other than speech synth so it can read me messages outloud. I don't know what else to try.

OSX has a very good memory manager, empty memory is just wasted so having that app empty idle memory is just further wasting system resources. Just allow OSX to manage RAM.

Apps to clean out "junk" files have very mixed reviews, I never use them and don't have a disk full of junk or spinning beachballs so I wouldn't bother with them at all.

Now look to the Activity Manager and see what processes are using CPU, that is likely what is causing the typing delay.

 

[Gregg2]

"malware" and computer "virus" are not equivalent

 

[xrc6]

OSX has a very good memory manager, empty memory is just wasted so having that app empty idle memory is just further wasting system resources. Just allow OSX to manage RAM.

Apps to clean out "junk" files have very mixed reviews, I never use them and don't have a disk full of junk or spinning beachballs so I wouldn't bother with them at all.

Now look to the Activity Manager and see what processes are using CPU, that is likely what is causing the typing delay.

I only used the File Cleaner because of this issue. I had to try something. I didt even use one this time. However with Activity monitor, I never see anything out of the ordinary. Activity Monitor actually is the one using the most CPU %. Safari will toggle from 0.2 % to maybe 17% at times. Kernel task will gear up around 3% at times but most everything else listed is at 0%.

Like right now, Safari is trying to lock up. one tab open, this site is using 17% then drops. Safari is using 2.31 gigs of ram. Almost 7 gigs total is used up at this very moment. Safari will stop responding then moments later, comes too.
Well in regards to ram usage, for one it uses more battery life but mainly, I should not be having upwards of 8 gigs of ram with times seeing usage at 100% use when the only thing open is Safari, which I notice happens on occasion but over 6 gigs is the lowest I've noticed so far. I removed the AV for now but no difference. I reboot, load up Safari and sometimes I get all or nearly 8 gigs used? That makes no sense, Windows doesn't even use a fraction of that by default with just IE open. After 8 gigs, I assume it's forced to page to disk, now that I could understand causing my issue but first I have to figure out why.

So is it normal to boot up a macbook with default apps and have it use upwards of 8 gigs? So then it has to page to disk correct?
If that's not the issue then it has to be something with Safari itself or a system service or perhaps an update issue?
Since this is a late 2013 model, would I be better off to go back to Yosemite or Mavericks? This one just isn't feeling as stable or efficient as the previous versions. Is the hardware requirements for El Capitan higher than Mavericks? Will I lose my iCloud synchronized data if I revert back to an older version?

Either way, this can't go on like this but El Capitan did run fast after the reformat until I used Safari for a while. It also did a few updates before I noticed the problem again. I have a few custom settings in preferences but nothing out of the ordinary.

"malware" and computer "virus" are not equivalent

Do you just like being literal so you can be contrary in an unrelated topic or is there something wrong with you? Point is, security software for Macs is just as valid as it is for Windows because it's not about the OS, it's about what hackers want to target which is often based on popularity. As a professor once said to us, "Where there is code, there is vulnerability."

 

[simonsi]

Well in regards to ram usage, for one it uses more battery life but mainly, I should not be having upwards of 8 gigs of ram with times seeing usage at 100% use when the only thing open is Safari, which I notice happens on occasion but over 6 gigs is the lowest I've noticed so far. I removed the AV for now but no difference. I reboot, load up Safari and sometimes I get all or nearly 8 gigs used? That makes no sense, Windows doesn't even use a fraction of that by default with just IE open. After 8 gigs, I assume it's forced to page to disk, now that I could understand causing my issue but first I have to figure out why.

You have a fundamental misunderstanding here.

But first - empty RAM doesn't use less power, thats just nonsense.

But empty RAM brings no benefit either, RAM doesn't take any time to "empty", if it needs it OSX will simply overwrite any RAM content it doesn't need. Of course if you close an app then reopen it, this is better as it simply uses the copy already in RAM, it doesn't have to reload the contents as it would if that RAM space was empty.

If OSX isn't using all the RAM on active apps, it won't page to disk, it knows that makes no sense. Check the RAM pressure graph, if that is in the green then nothing to worry about from a memory management point of view - even if it appears 100% is being used, its being used in different ways (and some not actively, so if you need it for another app, it will be used).

I understand even windows now works like this, it makes sense, nonsense was somehow thinking there were prizes for minimal RAM usage...

 

[Gregg2]

Do you just like being literal so you can be contrary in an unrelated topic or is there something wrong with you? Point is, security software for Macs is just as valid as it is for Windows because it's not about the OS, it's about what hackers want to target which is often based on popularity. As a professor once said to us, "Where there is code, there is vulnerability."

Well, yes, you're correct that I am a literalist, but it has nothing to do with trying to be disagreeable. So, getting back to being a literalist, not quite sure how my post was unrelated to the topic. And, you are incorrect in that anti-virus software is just as valid for OSX as for Windows. You are also incorrect that hackers tend to target the more popular OS. That's a tired old rationalization that was debunked many years ago. I'm sure you can find discussions on that related subject if you are interested. Any malevolent computer geek who could breach the Mac OS with a true virus in the wild would become an overnight "star" in that misguided community of computer nerds. The security of the Mac OS is based on the Unix code on which it was built. It has yet to be breeched by a true virus. You can confirm that in hundreds of posts on this forum, many with attributions, again, if you are so inclined.