OS X Mavericks and Safari

2013-10-28 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Apple, Apple macOS, Apple Safari web browser, Mavericks

The Safari web browser in OS X 9 Mavericks reportedly gets a makeover in how it runs internally. It is supposed to be faster, but at least with the stuff I do (large image series in javascript), it is running with some strange pauses—it’s noticeably slower. Go figure.

Safari system lockup

Yesterday Safari locked up so badly that it could not be killed normally using the usual cmd-option-escape method, or Activity Monitor: Safari also disappeared from the application switcher list and neither Logout nor Restart would work. Seems like this might be related to a change of using separate processes for browser windows; someone did not do their homework on making this work properly when Safari has a problem and needs to be killed.

I finally had to use 'ps -ef' in Terminal to find the process ID and then 'sudo kill -9 <pid>' to kill Safari. Not exactly what most users would find palatable, but the only alternative was a hard power cycling of the entire computer (e.g. pull the plug).

I’ve never experienced such a severe hang problem in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, so I’d say that Apple has some loose screws rattling around in OS X Mavericks.

Blank screen Safari

Safari also goes into “blank window mode”, meaning that no matter how many refreshes, the window stays blank (completely white). Opening a new window with the same URL works fine. Loose screws.

Reader comments

Steve K writes:

I am having the exact same problems with Safari under 10.9 I was trying to create a shipping label using the FedEx website. Forget about it. Safari kept hanging. Went over to Google Chrome, no problem.

MPG: my guess is a multi-threading synchronization bug.

I am having the same problem: the FedEx.com site is unusable with Safari in OS X Mavericks: rainbow beachballs and unresponsive browser.