Why does Safari freeze scrolling while other browsers do not?

[bogdanw]

"If the button is pressed on one element and the pointer is moved outside the element before the button is released, the event is fired on the most specific ancestor element that contained both elements."
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/click_event

 

[theorist9]

After dragging to select, if I release the mouse when it's left the area of the popup, the popup will close. If I release the mouse when it's still within the area of the popup, it doesn't. One might guess that Safari is registering the release of the mouse button as a "click". A click outside of the popup is expected to close it.

Ah, same for me! I didn't realize that was important, so I wasn't paying attention to where my cursor was when I released the the mouse button. And the reason I didn't realize this was important is that, for years, I did not have to concern myself with where my cursor was when I released the mouse button. I.e., this new behavior only began appearing over the past couple of years.

So thanks--great to know that's the issue!

Now if I could just fix the scrolling freezes.....

 

[svenmany]

"If the button is pressed on one element and the pointer is moved outside the element before the button is released, the event is fired on the most specific ancestor element that contained both elements."
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/click_event

There are a number of events being triggered; the important ones here are mousedown, drag, and mouseup.

Till just now I was only comparing to Firefox, which doesn't close the popup. I just tested on Chrome and it does close the popup. I try not to use Chrome so I hadn't checked that.

 

[bogdanw]

There are a number of events being triggered; the important ones here are mousedown, drag, and mouseup.

Till just now I was only comparing to Firefox, which doesn't close the popup. I just tested on Chrome and it does close the popup. I try not to use Chrome so I hadn't checked that.

Might be a bug in Firefox.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1259357
Fun fact, Firefox still has ui.click_hold_context_menus http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ui.click_hold_context_menus

 

[cbum]

This is likely unrelated, but I have run into an annoying problem with Safari and the NYT as well, but this is on my old MacPro, OS limited to Mohave 10.14.6 & Safari 14.1.2 by the hardware.

The NYT page comes up fine, as do most articles. The issue arises when there is a "live update" link (often used for developing stories), where the new page loads ok, but about 1 second later it disappears leaving a blank screen. Reload repeats the sequence.

My M2 Laptop does not do this, so I assume its due to newer browser behaviors that are not compatible with my old software, but it's weird. Any one know what is going on behind the scene?

 

[svenmany]

Might be a bug in Firefox.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1259357
Fun fact, Firefox still has ui.click_hold_context_menus http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ui.click_hold_context_menus

Interesting.

I see that overflow on the field in Firefox is clip but in Safari and Chrome it's visible. I took a look at the css but don't see how Firefox gets that. The bug you mention is 8 years old, but possibly still unsolved. They talk about overflow:hidden, but clip could also be affected.

So probably not a Safari issue after all - back to the other issues I guess.

 

[Eric Idle]

I get this problem ALL the time with Safari. I'm running 1.75 and 13.6.7. In the activity monitor there's a process called Safari Graphics and Media. I force quit that and sometimes normal service is resumed. It works about 50% of the time.

No problems at all on Firefox or Opera. But then again, those are programmed by people who believe in quality.

 

[bogdanw]

In the activity monitor there's a process called Safari Graphics and Media. I force quit that and sometimes normal service is resumed. It works about 50% of the time.

It should be 0% when no media is playing and 10% at most when playing a 4K video on YouTube.
Have you tried to clear Safari's cache? From the Develop menu (⌥⌘E) or by deleting ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Caches.
Develop menu - Safari - Settings – Advanced - Show features for web developers https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/ibrw1075/

 

[kwd75238]

I'm running MacOS Monterey 12.7.4 with Safari 17.4 in a 2019 27" i9 iMac.

Starting several months ago, I've regularly encountered scrolling freezes in Safari—where the page becomes unresponsive to scrolling. I read the NY Times daily, so I often encounter it there. I'm aware that many websites simply don't work well with Safari, so I figured this was just an unfortunate interaction between Safari and the design of those websites.

However, today, I experienced that on MacRumors. And if any sites are going to be Safari-compatible, this should be one of them. Hence it seems it's not a website coding issue, but rather a Safari issue.

Further, while this was happening, I copied the URL into Firefox, tested the scrolling there, and found no issues. This rules out both my internet connection and the MR servers as the source of the problem.

Here are two screenshots showing what I'm seeing. In the first screenshot, the scrollbar is at the top, and the view is at the top, as it should be. In the second screenshot, I've moved the scrollbar to the bottom, but the view is frozen at the top. I.e., there's no response to scrollbar movement. This will typically fix itself after a minute or two.

The problem is intermittent. It may have started with v. 17, which was released 9/18/2023, but I'm not certain. I am certain that it has persisted through a few v. 17 point updates.

Ideas?

SCROLLBAR AT TOP; SCREEN SHOWS TOP OF WEBPAGE, AS IT SHOULD:
View attachment 2363668

SCROLLBAR MOVED TO BOTTOM, BUT WEBPAGE REMAINS FROZEN AT TOP:
View attachment 2363665

Were you able to resolve your issue? I'm having the exact same problem, but with the NYT Cooking website. The page loads, then freezes. I'm running Sequoia 15.0.1

 

[theorist9]

Were you able to resolve your issue? I'm having the exact same problem, but with the NYT Cooking website. The page loads, then freezes. I'm running Sequoia 15.0.1

Nope, its the same as always. It's disappointing to hear it persists in Sequoia. Was that a clean install, or did you use Migration Assistant? If it's happening even with a clean install, that supports the idea that the issue is a specific deficiency in Safari.

And do you have a lot of bookmarks in Safari?

I ask because I'm wondering if that might be the issue (or contributing to it), since I have thousands. Essentially, my bookmarks serve as a searchable database of every potentially useful website I've visited. [ I'll often edit the names when I save them with keywords to improve the searchabilty.]

That used to cause loading issues with Safari, but they improved the database so those went away.

 

[kwd75238]

Nope, its the same as always. It's disappointing to hear it persists in Sequoia. Was that a clean install, or did you use Migration Assistant? If it's happening even with a clean install, that supports the idea that the issue is a specific deficiency in Safari.

And do you have a lot of bookmarks in Safari?

I ask because I'm wondering if that might be the issue (or contributing to it), since I have thousands. Essentially, my bookmarks serve as a searchable database of every potentially useful website I've visited. [ I'll often edit the names when I save them with keywords to improve the searchabilty.]

That used to cause loading issues with Safari, but they improved the database so those went away.

Less than a dozen bookmarks. Did an update, not a clean install. I’ve deleted all history, cookies, restarted, etc. I only have issues with that one website and don’t have any issues in Chrome or Fox. 🤷‍♀️

 

[alex-vasenin]

I'm having this bug (a tab occasionally freezes) for about half a year. It started on Sonoma and it's still the case on Sequoia. I reinstalled macOS from scratch about a week ago and I'm still seeing it. I sent a bug report to Apple's Feedback Assistant (FB15454708). If you want the bug to be fixed - please file a bug report too.

P.S. I'm on MacBook Pro 16" 2019 (Intel)