Understand why is Safari slow on your Mac and how to solve it!

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Safari is a browser that normally tends to be very well-optimized. But even Safari ends up having issues at times. So yes, seeing it slow is not exactly a shocker for most people. It could very well be a minor issue, or something more complex. In this article we will learn more about why Safari slows down, and how to fix it.

Why is Safari slow on your Mac?

Generally, Safari tends to have a specific reason why it’s slowing down. But it always comes down to a problem, which can be simple or more problematic. Here’s what usually happens!

• You have a slow internet connection
• The settings are corrupted, which leads to Safari not working properly
• Extensions installed within Safari are buggy
• There’s too much outdated history data, cache or cookies
• Autofill data ends up being too much for Safari at times
• There’s cross-site tracking
• Your Safari version is outdated
• You don’t have enough CPU or memory
• Upgrading to a new Mac OS version could make Safari slower
• VPNs slow down Safari as well
• If you are using the low power mode on Mac, Safari is affected by it

Check the internet connection

As you can see from the guide with detailed tips, checking the internet connection to see if it works well, that will help a lot. You can restart the router, test Safari on another device on the same network, use another browser and so on. These will let you know if Safari is working adequately or if there are some changes you can make here.

Restart Safari

As always you want to restart Safari if you can and it might help. Restarting apps, especially after using them the entire day, that could be the answer if you have issues with them. The important thing is to do that, or maybe even an entire system restart if you want. And yes, it works great, it delivers a tremendous value, and the outcome can be very impressive.

Clear the history, cache and cookies

Another good idea that you can focus on is to clear the cookies, cache and history. The main idea is to enter Safari, and then hit the History option in the menu bar. Here you can choose to clear History and select the desired timespan. Since the beginning would be a good option to consider, if you want to.

Alternatively, you can use a Mac cleanup tool. Such a tool can help remove any history from your browsers, including Safari. And that is a great idea, because it helps alleviate a lot of issues, and it will streamline the process to make things better. Yes, it can be tricky at first, but overall, this might actually end up being better than expected.

Update Safari

You should also consider updating Safari if you can. Keeping Safari up to date is a great idea, mainly because it can give you an exciting and impressive return. The best thing with Safari is that it helps you update on the spot, and you can easily see improvements. Having the latest version will make things smoother and safer for you, so you should totally check it out.

Close unnecessary tabs

The thing with browsers is that tabs will always cost you resources. So, unless you really need a tab, you may want to close it. The reality is that closing tabs often can help quite a bit, and you do want to quit any tab that you don’t need right now. It’s important to do that because it can help solve any issues very fast and with quite the efficiency, too.

Delete the Preferences file

Sometimes, the Preferences file can be corrupted. You can delete that and Safari will create a new one. That could very well be the option if you have any issues, so it can work much better than expected. You can enter Library/Preferences and then find com.apple.Safari.plist and then delete that. As we said, Safari will recreate that on its own, so you don’t have to worry. Or you can use a Mac cleanup tool, as it will do the same thing for you as well.

Remove extensions

We all know that extensions can be problematic for most of our devices these days. The best thing that you can do is to remove extensions you are not using. Keep only those that are actually handy and then remove stuff you are not using. It’s the safer approach and it can work pretty great.

We always recommend taking your time and fixing Safari to the best of your capabilities. In most cases, you will have a variety of fixes available, so it’s up to you to make the right choice. In the end, great Safari fixes end up being the smallest changes. Or you can go with a complete reinstall or reset. Whatever works, in the end you just want Safari to stop consuming too many resources and to stop any issues.