I ran my iMac for 2 weeks without any issues at all with the last 10.11.5 PB version, 2 weeks of uptime, the longest uptime without a freeze since 10.11.4 in January, my iMac started to freeze again on the GA version of 10.11.5 unfortunately
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The Safari freeze issue, lets fix this
- Thread starter JesperA
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I, too, have this issue on my 21.5" iMac, Late 2009, running GA 10.11.5, with at least daily freezes. I do not have the issue on my 13" MPB Retina, Late 2012, running Beta 10.11.5 (15F31a). This is a huge issue for me as most of my work is done on my iMac, but it is critical I keep both machines synched for when I have (frequent) travel. The MBP has its own issues (including choking on Chrome), otherwise I would make that my primary. Apple needs to resolve this.
Yeah, my 2015 rMBP works fairly well since 10.11.5, still had some freezes but not even close to as often as on 10.11.4
BUT my 2009 iMac is getting worse for every release, i am now on 10.11.6 PB2, before, my freezes almost always occurred while scrolling in Safari, now even clicking on links cause the permanent freeze, i just pressed the notification button on YouTube and the notification container opened and my iMac froze, so now, i get almost twice as many permanent freezes each day on 10.11.6, thats great
10.11.5 seems to have fixed the freezes for alot of 2015 rMBP owners, not all of them/us but yeah, i hope the Apple developers did NOT identified the freeze bug and only focused on the many 2015 rMBP freeze bug reports and used a conditional statement targeting the issue on 2015 rMBP and then leaving the bug for us that are on other systems too
BUT my 2009 iMac is getting worse for every release, i am now on 10.11.6 PB2, before, my freezes almost always occurred while scrolling in Safari, now even clicking on links cause the permanent freeze, i just pressed the notification button on YouTube and the notification container opened and my iMac froze, so now, i get almost twice as many permanent freezes each day on 10.11.6, thats great
10.11.5 seems to have fixed the freezes for alot of 2015 rMBP owners, not all of them/us but yeah, i hope the Apple developers did NOT identified the freeze bug and only focused on the many 2015 rMBP freeze bug reports and used a conditional statement targeting the issue on 2015 rMBP and then leaving the bug for us that are on other systems too
I'm using Safari 9.1.1 under 10.9.5 on a late-2010 27" iMac and get this kind of freeze every few days, usually when I got to a site like Netflix or Youtube that uses displays video. I'm not play video, it just happens after the page loads.
Still getting those freezes right after closing a YouTube tab in Safari, although it's not happening on every video tab I close and it happens on so irregular times /basis that I can't really find an exact source for this problem (other than closing a YouTube video tab).
What's interesting is that after I wait a bit and it 'defreezes', the system remains highly unstable when I try to open another web video but stays stable while normal surfing (in chrome or safari -doesn't matter which one and it doesn't matter from what video site)
Am on the latest updates. Late 2013 13" rMBP
What's interesting is that after I wait a bit and it 'defreezes', the system remains highly unstable when I try to open another web video but stays stable while normal surfing (in chrome or safari -doesn't matter which one and it doesn't matter from what video site)
Am on the latest updates. Late 2013 13" rMBP
Hi I also getting freeze issues on my iMac, and it always seems to occur when Im using Safari, I can actually move the cursor still but its got the beachball and I cant click on anything or use any keyboard shortcut commands to quit.
Basically the iMac just hangs and I have to power off at the back.
I wish this would get sorted soon its happened at least 5 times so far for me on the latest 10.11.5.
Can you still move the cursor around the screen when this happens?
Hey,
I've been having this issue (GUI frozen, cursor moving, sound playing, ftp/ssh working fine) for over two years now. It's been happening every now and then, 8 out of 10 times when using Safari. The other 2 out of 10 is when waking from sleep, the GUI doesn't come on. Every time this happens and I log in through ssh, the "window server" process reports as frozen in top. The only way to fix is to cycle the power, not even reboot doesn't work through ssh.
I'm on a 27" iMac late 2009, as most people having this issue and have been reading that there's something wrong with the GPU on this particular model that fails. Makes sense, since newer OS uses more of the GPU for GUI work.
I've had some luck when the system would keep an uptime of up to a month after reinstalling current version of OS X, done this a couple of times with success.
Also tried swapping RAM modules with no actual results.
Been having this issue on two identical iMacs.
I've been having this issue (GUI frozen, cursor moving, sound playing, ftp/ssh working fine) for over two years now. It's been happening every now and then, 8 out of 10 times when using Safari. The other 2 out of 10 is when waking from sleep, the GUI doesn't come on. Every time this happens and I log in through ssh, the "window server" process reports as frozen in top. The only way to fix is to cycle the power, not even reboot doesn't work through ssh.
I'm on a 27" iMac late 2009, as most people having this issue and have been reading that there's something wrong with the GPU on this particular model that fails. Makes sense, since newer OS uses more of the GPU for GUI work.
I've had some luck when the system would keep an uptime of up to a month after reinstalling current version of OS X, done this a couple of times with success.
Also tried swapping RAM modules with no actual results.
Been having this issue on two identical iMacs.
I am afraid I must join the club. Recently I upgraded to 10.11.6. I regret doing so. My mini late 2012 already froze two times requiring a hard reboot while using safari. Furthermore 10.11.6 does not play nicely with skype. Skype keeps throwing I/O errors since 10.11.6. Closing and restarting skype helps. As someone said above I started wondering if 10.11.6 was developed by Microsoft. Well they own skype now...
The issue seems to be back with a vengeance in 10.12.
Also, the video no longer keeps playing, for me, it basically locks up the machine and requires a power down to clear the problem. It appears to be associated with some specific form of video content on a page, mostly advertising that auto plays when I go to a page and it locks up the system. Returning to that page with Chrome does not lock the system returning with Safari does lock the system every time.
Reading through this thread, I beg to disagree with any and every question or statement that somehow tried to divert attention to what apps, extensions and drivers are installed. A user space application should NEVER under any circumstance be able to lock up the system. PERIOD. That is not acceptable. The system should always be protected from the user.
Also, the video no longer keeps playing, for me, it basically locks up the machine and requires a power down to clear the problem. It appears to be associated with some specific form of video content on a page, mostly advertising that auto plays when I go to a page and it locks up the system. Returning to that page with Chrome does not lock the system returning with Safari does lock the system every time.
Reading through this thread, I beg to disagree with any and every question or statement that somehow tried to divert attention to what apps, extensions and drivers are installed. A user space application should NEVER under any circumstance be able to lock up the system. PERIOD. That is not acceptable. The system should always be protected from the user.
So I'm having the same issue. Had it with El Capitan, continues freezing constantly in Sierra. I'd use Safari for a few hours and it would become slower and slower. Getting the beachball thingy and can't move around in Safari. Strange thing is that moving between programs (always use my apps in full screen mode) still works. At least, it does for a while. Then, after another hour of usage (or even less) Safari freezes again, but the system completely locks up. With of course a force reboot as the only solution.
I've read most stuff in this topic and I think Apple should feel ashamed of theirselves. It's one thing to need some time in order to fix something. But it seems like it's such a widespread issue and it has been there for quite a while now. Again, as mentioned I've had it with El Cap as well. First time ever to have a Mac and then this happens. So sad.
It's not just that by the way. Occasionally elements on one or a few sites would freeze too. In that case Safari still works fine, and all buttons are clickable. But for example the hover animation doesn't work, until I close the tab and load the page again in a new one. Not shortly after that it happens again. Not always, but sometimes. Best solution in this situation is to completely restart Safari, which does solve the issue for a longer period. But it still occurs after a certain amount of usage.
I'm gonna try using STP as my main browser too now, because I'm really done with this. I have reported my issue with the complete freezings of Safari, but I did that earlier as well. Never saw any improvement. When Apple came up with Sierra one of my first thoughts was "Ah, they must've fixed those Safari issues for sure", but never happened as well...
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EDIT: I'm happy to report that this has really made a huge difference. Safari Technology Preview is more stable than I've thought. Haven't had situations where animations would get stuck, or where the whole browser would hang. Good to see. I hope Apple brings all of that to the normal browser very soon.
I've read most stuff in this topic and I think Apple should feel ashamed of theirselves. It's one thing to need some time in order to fix something. But it seems like it's such a widespread issue and it has been there for quite a while now. Again, as mentioned I've had it with El Cap as well. First time ever to have a Mac and then this happens. So sad.
It's not just that by the way. Occasionally elements on one or a few sites would freeze too. In that case Safari still works fine, and all buttons are clickable. But for example the hover animation doesn't work, until I close the tab and load the page again in a new one. Not shortly after that it happens again. Not always, but sometimes. Best solution in this situation is to completely restart Safari, which does solve the issue for a longer period. But it still occurs after a certain amount of usage.
I'm gonna try using STP as my main browser too now, because I'm really done with this. I have reported my issue with the complete freezings of Safari, but I did that earlier as well. Never saw any improvement. When Apple came up with Sierra one of my first thoughts was "Ah, they must've fixed those Safari issues for sure", but never happened as well...
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EDIT: I'm happy to report that this has really made a huge difference. Safari Technology Preview is more stable than I've thought. Haven't had situations where animations would get stuck, or where the whole browser would hang. Good to see. I hope Apple brings all of that to the normal browser very soon.
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Going to add in that after multiple motherboard repairs, I found out this is a software issue from this forum and still experience this issue multiple times a day. How can the new version of OS X still not fix it???
I'm having the exact same issues as described by JesperA. He says the issue is not even resolved in 10.12. I'm now using Firefox, have not had any freezes at all so far. Maybe will try Safari againg in 2018! How it has not even been fixed in macOSSierra is truly unbelievable.
I was having this issue quite frequently a month or so back (say every 1-2 weeks), cursor would still move though but the iMac system would just hang, forcing a power reset.
Ive had a few beachballs since but Ive been able to force quit instead of power reset.
I turned off preload top hits, not sure if this is the cause but since doing this Ive not had a complete system hang while using safari.
I never had such issues with Yosemite.
Ive had a few beachballs since but Ive been able to force quit instead of power reset.
I turned off preload top hits, not sure if this is the cause but since doing this Ive not had a complete system hang while using safari.
I never had such issues with Yosemite.
After turning off preload top hit, Safari still has decided to crash on me and this time it was a whole system freeze locked up my computer for a few minutes. This has caused me to stay on firefox until the meantime although, I don't like to use it when I'm on battery as it goes down much quicker. I normally get around 4 and half hours close to 5 using safari and that is the only reason why I use it.
iMac 27" Late 2009 reporting in, just started getting this shitbug after updating to Sierra GM.
Safari freezes the GUI but music and everything works fine in the background.
macOS is getting real nasty on older hardware it seems, even though Apple claims support.
Safari freezes the GUI but music and everything works fine in the background.
macOS is getting real nasty on older hardware it seems, even though Apple claims support.
Its not the hardware. Its the software. I have the highest end current MacBook Pro and it absolutely happens like twice a day if I watch youtube videos at all
I found out the solution for the freezing my macbook pro (early 2011). I tried everything like deleting caches, onyx etc. However, I noticed that my macbook got quite hot and I started to investigate if my macbook pro is freezing when the cpu load gets really high. Then I though that it must be overheating. I proceeded to download macs fan control and I found out that my MacBook's fan is constantly at 2000rpm even when the cpu temps are over 80C. my freeze occurred every time cpu got over 80Celsius. I made custom fan curve for the macbook and now it stays at max 70degrees celsius and doesn't freeze anymore. I felt like apple intentionally disabled automatic fan with el capitan to overheat/break fully functioning older MacBooks. And I didn't use any fan control software before. However, using one fixed the freezing problem.
EDIT: Same happened to my wife's macbook pro (mid 2009) and the same fix made freezes go away.
EDIT2: I also suspect that overheating macbook pro also has destroyed 3 sata cables in my macbook pro. (I have changed it 3 times or they are really ****** quality cables)
EDIT: Same happened to my wife's macbook pro (mid 2009) and the same fix made freezes go away.
EDIT2: I also suspect that overheating macbook pro also has destroyed 3 sata cables in my macbook pro. (I have changed it 3 times or they are really ****** quality cables)
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That's great, I'm running TG Pro and I'm below 70 celsius on my iMac 27" late 2009 and this still happens.