Safari crashing relentlessly

Miko Fulla · Sep 26th, 2003, 02:09 AM

Hey guys, I have run into this problem where Safari will not run for more than a minute or so without crashing "unexpectedly". I have tried trashing the app and redownloading it, I've tried trashing my library->Safari folder and letting a new one be created, I've tried trashing all sorts of recommended *.plist files that I read could be causing this issue.

What do I do??

If it matters, this problem occured when I was downloading a whole bunch of files (not through Safari, but with other apps) and I ran out of HD space. It locked up and I hard rebooted and all my preferences for Finder/Dock/Desktop/ICQ/Safari/Internet Explorer/Mouse/Keyboard were reset to default (but not other apps or system preferences).
Then this problem started occuring with Safari.

monokitty · Sep 26th, 2003, 06:28 AM

Update to 10.2.6. Any system version under that, and Safari will love to crash on you. I had the same problem running just 10.2, but once I updated, Safari hasn't crashed since.

(I'm just assuming you're running just 10.2)

Brainstrained · Sep 26th, 2003, 08:07 AM

A month or more ago I gave Safari a try when I was having trouble with Mozilla. It worked fine, very fast, for about a week when I decided to make it my default browser.

A few days later, it started crashing and crashing and crashing. Safari crashes so often for me, I don't bother using it anyone, and I do have 10.2.6.

So I went back to Mozilla and downloaded the latest version, which may not be as fast as Safari, but is much more stable.

gordguide · Sep 26th, 2003, 08:24 AM

" ... this problem occured when I was downloading a whole bunch of files (not through Safari, but with other apps) and I ran out of HD space. ..."

Yes, that matters. Do some maintenance on your system, and be sure you have enough disk space for Safari cache files and your swapfile. You probably should have 500 MB of free space at all times in OSX. It may well start affecting other apps if you don't.

If you don't, get a copy of Safari Enhancer (MacTracker, MacUpdate) and disable caches, which will help a bit. Then start backing up some files to give you some disk room.

Miko Fulla · Sep 26th, 2003, 10:08 AM

Hey guys thanks for the replies.

I do have 10.2.6 running, and I have freed up 3GB of space now. I used Cocktail to clean up my caches, repair disk permissions, and re-prebind the system. I basically told cocktail to do everything and anything that sounded useful, and nothing helped.

I love Safari and don't want to switch browsers....

monokitty · Sep 26th, 2003, 10:28 AM

Reset Safari. This clears Safari's cache, history and deletes all stored cookies. Might help - resetting Safari completely has solved weird problems with Safari for me on more than one occasion. I'm assuming you're running version 1.0?

Gerbill · Sep 26th, 2003, 03:49 PM

If Safari is crashing more than occasionally on 10.2.6 and doesn't respond to a re-install, you have problems outside of Safari - might be time for a complete OS X re-install. Try repairing permissions and running Disk First Aid from the CD first.

Cheers :-> Bill

Miko Fulla · Sep 26th, 2003, 11:53 PM

Thanks for all the suggestings guys, but I tried everything (except the reinstall of the OS). I tried repairing permissions and disk first aid, but not off the boot CD (just through cocktail and disk utility).

Maybe I can just deal with using Camino for now (except all my bookmarks are in Safari, and the importer only transferred the menu/bar bookmarks and not the hundreds of others)

Would reinstalling Jaguar, or waiting for and installing Panther, mess up any of my recently fixed preferences for the system??

gordguide · Sep 27th, 2003, 02:13 AM

You wouldn't happen to have Safari Enhancer installed somewhere would you? Trash it's preference file if you do.

Also, after you do a fix, be sure to restart before launching Safari again.

n45er · Oct 13th, 2003, 04:06 AM

..i've had da same problem and i run OS X [10.2.8]....so i stopped using Safari. they need to work out those lil' f*#ken bugs is all i have to say..I'm Stickin' to Mozolla and enternet explorer.