Resolved: Safari 16.0 very very slow when commenting on MacRumors; also Gmail.com

[k.alexander]

Updated to Safari 16 on macOS Monterey. Trying to type text in the comments here on macrumors brings it a to a halt, letters come up one every second or so, literally just started as I am trying to type this. Like I literally could not type this. Had to do it in a note and then copy/paste here.

Gmail.com also seems very slow after a bit of leaving it open for a bit.

 

[usagora]

I've had issues like that on rare occasions before (and in Chrome, not Safari) and restarting fixed it.

 

[k.alexander]

Tried restarting - nothing. Cleared cache/cookies for google/gmail and macrumors - nothing. Havent cleared all cookies yet, but this definitely started since either Safari 16 or MacOS 12.6 update yesterday.

 

[usagora]

Tried restarting - nothing. Cleared cache/cookies for google/gmail and macrumors - nothing. Havent cleared all cookies yet, but this definitely started since either Safari 16 or MacOS 12.6 update yesterday.

Since it's only in select apps, this probably isn't it, but just for good measure - have you tried using a different keyboard (preferably a wired one to be sure Bluetooth itself isn't the issue)?

EDIT: I'm also updated to 12.6 and Safari 16, and I'm typing this edit right now using Safari (I normally use Chrome). I'm not having the issue. Everything is the same as Chrome in terms of speed.

 

[k.alexander]

Since it's only in select apps, this probably isn't it, but just for good measure - have you tried using a different keyboard (preferably a wired one to be sure Bluetooth itself isn't the issue)?

EDIT: I'm also updated to 12.6 and Safari 16, and I'm typing this edit right now using Safari (I normally use Chrome). I'm not having the issue. Everything is the same as Chrome in terms of speed.

Nah, it's not the keyboard. Been working on the computer all day. It's just this site. And then I get the dreaded "site is using too much memory message." And on gmail, it's not typing but the whole interface acting very slowly.

 

[usagora]

Nah, it's not the keyboard. Been working on the computer all day. It's just this site. And then I get the dreaded "site is using too much memory message." And on gmail, it's not typing but the whole interface acting very slowly.

I'm assuming you've also tried visiting MR and Gmail on other browsers (Chrome, FireFox, etc.) to see if they worked ok? I simply can't imagine what's going on if none of these things shed any light. I'd definitely clear 100% of Safari's cache and if there's some sort of option to "reset" Safari back to defaults or disable all add-ons, I'd do that too.

 

[k.alexander]

Yeah I don't know. I cleared all cache on Safari - nothing. Tested on Edge - works fine. Something is definitely wrong with Safari - seems to me like some kind of a memory leak. Can't track it down to anything specific. Restarting Safari clears it up but it comes back immediately, just start typing here, type out 3-4 lines of text and the whole thing comes to a halt.

 

[SP Jon M3]

Safari 16 seems to be much slower on some websites like Reddit than 15 was on my Mac mini. I'm also getting more memory warnings on webpages. Granted my mini is technically unsupported (using open core to run Monterey), but 15 under Monterey was much better than 16 is. I'll see how Safari 16 runs on my M1 MBP.

 

[k.alexander]

Safari 16 seems to be much slower on some websites like Reddit than 15 was on my Mac mini. I'm also getting more memory warnings on webpages. Granted my mini is technically unsupported (using open core to run Monterey), but 15 under Monterey was much better than 16 is. I'll see how Safari 16 runs on my M1 MBP.

Ok so yes, this is exactly the issue im having. I am also on a Late 2012 unsupported Mac mini running Monterey via OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Let me know if you find a solution.

I am guessing there’s no easy way to downgrade to Safari 15.

 

[k.alexander]

And it's not just here on macrumors or gmail, listed a couple of things on eBay today; can't get through posting a listing without the site and safari tab grinding to a halt. Activity Monitor is showing the site using around or in excess of 1GB in RAM. Only thing that works is either shutting the tab down AND waiting a few minutes (if you launch a new tab and go to the same site, right away, the problem does not go away); or restarting Safari.

Very frustrating, this was not a problem until the recent upgrade to Safari 16 and/or macOS 12.6.

If someone has a solution, it would be greatly appreciated.

PS: While I wrote this here, the typing of this comment went from working fine to super slow with each letter appearing one per second. Activity Monitor says this tab is using more than 500MB or RAM.

 

[k.alexander]

Safari 16 seems to be much slower on some websites like Reddit than 15 was on my Mac mini. I'm also getting more memory warnings on webpages. Granted my mini is technically unsupported (using open core to run Monterey), but 15 under Monterey was much better than 16 is. I'll see how Safari 16 runs on my M1 MBP.

I reported this to the OCLP team on their Discord server. They just put out a nightly build of OCLP 0.4.11 (let me know if you can't find the link to download). I'm testing now but it in the very short few minutes since install, it "seems" to have resolved my issues with sites becoming very slow / almost completely unresponsive. They said that the fix is not technically for this issue, but for one where text wasn't rendering properly in Safari 16, but in my opinion the two are related. Hopefully this fixes it.

PS: They didn't believe me that I wasn't the only one having these slow downs of Safari. I had to reference your post above. With that said, I suggest you report on the OpenCore Patcher Paradise server (https://discord.gg/VxBppEFs) this or related issues; strength and priority in numbers.

 

[k.alexander]

A day later and I can confirm that the issue seems to be related to Open-Core Legacy Patcher, and that version 0.4.11 resolves the issue. Thanks to the OCLP crew for a super fast fix.

PS: there is apparently a problem (for everyone) with Google Maps not displaying properly in Safari, but OCLP guys say that that's a confirmed Safari bug which is already fixed in Tech Preview, so will likely get fixed in the next point update of safari 16.