Safari 16 hangs when loading a new tab

[derukey]

Hi,

I have a strange networking problem with Safari 16 on my Mac Book Pro (16-inch, 2021) on Monterey 12.6. (The same problem also existed before on 12.5.1.)

Several times intermittently throughout the day, Safari (16.0) hangs when loading a site from a new tab or window. Existing tabs/windows work fine, even if it is the same URL that I am unable to open in a new tab. For example:

• There is already a tab open on Site A
• I try to open a new tab for Site B and it hangs
• I switch back to the Site A tab, do a reload, navigate around the site to different pages – no problem
• I try to open a new tab for the same Site A and it hangs, the same as the new tab for Site B
• Meanwhile, the original tab for Site A remains working perfectly.

If I wait long enough (usually a few minutes) then it unfreezes on its own. Also, I can fix the problem immediately by disconnecting my network connection and reconnecting. This the same for either wired or wireless networking (only one or the other is connected at the same time).

While the problem is occurring, the rest of my networking seems to be perfectly fine. For example:

• I can open new tabs and web sites in Chrome
• I can ping computers from the terminal
• Other applications that use the Internet appear to work normally. I’ve been in Zoom meetings while Safari hangs and the audio/video is never interrupted.
• Like I said already, if a Safari tab/window was already open then it keeps working fine.

I have followed all the documented steps I could find about resetting Safari (i.e., clearing cache, deleting files in ~/Library, etc.) but nothing helps.

I’ve looked at the debug logs in Console and they don’t say much, basically:

error 20:07:36.234934-0400 Safari Page (pid: 89504) did become unresponsive
...
error 20:08:18.938437-0400 Safari Page (pid: 89504) did become responsive

While there are other log entries in between, I couldn’t see anything clearly related to the “unresponsiveness”.

I’ve also looked at a tcpdump while the problem is happening. Opening a new tab and page generates about 15 packets, then traffic mostly just stops until the problem resolves itself:

Spoiler: Dump

******* Problem has started (new tabs are already frozen), open another new tab and try to load a specific site *******

11:48:27.176336 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags , seq 982951712, win 65535, options [mss 1460,nop,wscale 6,nop,nop,TS val 1132763953 ecr 0,sackOK,eol], length 0
11:48:27.191266 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [S.], seq 4206654180, ack 982951713, win 65535, options [mss 1460,sackOK,TS val 1890241667 ecr 1132763953,nop,wscale 9], length 0
11:48:27.191621 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 1, win 2058, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132763968 ecr 1890241667], length 0
11:48:27.191847 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [P.], seq 1:518, ack 1, win 2058, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132763968 ecr 1890241667], length 517
11:48:27.212835 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], ack 518, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241690 ecr 1132763968], length 0
11:48:27.216284 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], seq 1:1445, ack 518, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241693 ecr 1132763968], length 1444
11:48:27.216295 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 1445, win 2036, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132763993 ecr 1890241693], length 0
11:48:27.218778 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 2889, win 2025, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132763996 ecr 1890241693], length 0
11:48:27.221470 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [P.], seq 518:582, ack 5298, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132763999 ecr 1890241693], length 64
11:48:27.222053 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [P.], seq 582:662, ack 5298, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132763999 ecr 1890241693], length 80
11:48:27.253792 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], ack 582, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241720 ecr 1132763999], length 0
11:48:27.253800 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], ack 662, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241720 ecr 1132763999], length 0
11:48:27.253801 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [P.], seq 5298:5357, ack 662, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241721 ecr 1132763999], length 59
11:48:27.253950 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 5357, win 2047, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132764031 ecr 1890241721], length 0
11:48:27.254114 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [P.], seq 662:693, ack 5357, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132764031 ecr 1890241721], length 31
11:48:27.274434 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], ack 693, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241743 ecr 1132764031], length 0
11:48:27.277549 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], ack 693, win 285, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890241750 ecr 1132764031], length 0


^^^^^^^ frozen ^^^^^^

11:49:04.346629 IP 192.168.1.101.56089 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 2413154, win 25623, length 0
11:49:04.356939 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56089: Flags [.], ack 4781, win 306, options [nop,nop,TS val 3618160621 ecr 2910613480], length 0

^^^^^^^ ??? ^^^^^^

******* Then problem resolves itself *******

11:49:42.330449 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [P.], seq 693:922, ack 5357, win 2048, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132839108 ecr 1890241750], length 229
11:49:42.413802 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890316888 ecr 1132839108], length 0
11:49:42.534161 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], seq 5357:6801, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317011 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.534224 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 6801, win 2025, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132839311 ecr 1890317011], length 0
11:49:42.534528 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [P.], seq 6801:8245, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317011 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.534547 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 8245, win 2025, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132839311 ecr 1890317011], length 0
11:49:42.534955 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [P.], seq 8245:9164, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317011 ecr 1132839108], length 919
11:49:42.534974 IP 192.168.1.101.56125 > 23.185.0.4.https: Flags [.], ack 9164, win 2011, options [nop,nop,TS val 1132839311 ecr 1890317011], length 0
11:49:42.546665 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], seq 9164:10608, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317024 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.546671 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [P.], seq 10608:12052, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317024 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.546672 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], seq 12052:13496, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317024 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.546674 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [P.], seq 13496:14940, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317024 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.546675 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [.], seq 14940:16384, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317025 ecr 1132839108], length 1444
11:49:42.546676 IP 23.185.0.4.https > 192.168.1.101.56125: Flags [P.], seq 16384:17828, ack 922, win 287, options [nop,nop,TS val 1890317025 ecr 1132839108], length 1444

There doesn’t seem to be any retransmissions.

It’s really like Safari just decides to pause itself temporarily without explanation. And it’s so strange that previously opened tabs continue working fine and this affects only newly opened tabs.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bogdanw]

Disable iCloud Private Relay https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614 and Hide IP address https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/privacy-sfri35610/16.0/mac/12.0

 

[derukey]

@bogdanw, I wish it was that simple. Those options are not even enabled.

 

[bogdanw]

Try to change the DNS servers https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-dns-settings-network-preferences-mac-mh14127/mac
Google DNS Servers
8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4
Cloudflare
1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1
OpenDNS
208.67.222.222, 208.67.220.220

 

[HDFan]

From my latest Fing scan:

 

[bogdanw]

"DNS Performance Test" https://github.com/cleanbrowsing/dnsperftest
Discussed here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/dns-settings.2344867/post-31563412

 

[Kylo83]

Still happens even with macOS 13 and safari 16.1 it’s not fixed so annoyed

 

[derukey]

@Kylo83 are you saying that you have the same problem? If so, can you please share more details?

 

[Kylo83]

@Kylo83 are you saying that you have the same problem? If so, can you please share more details?

I’ll film a video tomorrow to show you

 

[derukey]

I’ll film a video tomorrow to show you

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[bfad]

If I open up Activity Monitor, I can find and select Safari Networking and force quit that process. The tab stops loading with an error, but reloading it then works.

 

[planetf1]

Yes, I pretty much get the same thing. It's occurred across OS releases - including now on Sonoma (though I updated again last night!). It also happens on both Safari & Safari Technology Preview, and regardless of whether iCloud relay is on or off. I also occasionally see this in iOS.

When it happens, the same site works fine in Chrome or firefox. I can't pin down any issue with DNS etc, it very much seems local to the tab in question. Usually closing the tab in question, or restarting safari is how I handle it.

But it keeps happening.... I like many things about safari, but this is a real annoyance

 

[planetf1]

Safari has many good qualities, this isn't one of them. Frustrated seeing this again (it happens more regularly than every two weeks -- probably at least 1x per day).

No signs of any non-safari issues. Today I also ran 'lsof' to check for open socket connections - all looked entirely normal. I then force-crashed the relevant tab process, but can't see anything interesting in the dump (just scanning the text).

 

[UKenGB]

I think I am seeing the same issue, now in Safari 17.6. Occasionally, when clicking a link in a fully functional open Safari window, a new window opens but is apparently frozen. Safari itself is NOT frozen and any other open windows work normally, but that one problem window is unresponsive and will not even scroll.

It is not still loading the page as that appears to be completely loaded, but as I said, unresponsive. Reloading the page does not clear the problem. I have to close the window and open the link again and keep hands off the mouse while the page loads (not sure if that last is relevant though) and the page loads normally and the window responds as it should.

It seems to NOT be connected to any particular URLs. It can happen with any and closing the window and re-opening (not reloading) will usually work (maybe always). So it seems to be something that happens with Safari and it doesn't correctly handle the newly opened window, or tab as I think the problem can occur in tabs as well as independent windows.

I don't think it's network related though. If Safari (or any app) is unable to obtain all the data it needs, any window being opened still works, maybe just not with all the data. This is a UI thing. Safari opens the new window/tab but does not complete that process, so scrolling doesn't work, mouse and keyboard are unable to interact with the window.

Maybe it is initiated by a network issue that some Safari bug then means Safari stops the window opening process after initial display so it is left non functional. However I don't believe it is actually caused by any network issue.

One other symptom just occurred to me. When in this unresponsive state, if I have e.g. been repeatedly trying to scroll and then I click the URL box at the top of the window, the drop down list appears offering other suggestions and the window suddenly does some mad scrolling following all the scroll commands previously issued but ignored. Click elsewhere so the suggestions drop down goes away and the window is again unresponsive.

It's hard to pin down as it happens randomly and infrequently and is not reproducible on demand.

Whatever, at some point in the past it did not happen and now it does, only in Safari and the only thing that's changed is, er, Safari.

Would be good to fix it, but I suspect it's with me until I replace the Mac and able to run later versions of MacOS and Safari.