Update: The Safari crash bug has now been fixed, according to Apple.
A strange bug is affecting many Safari users today, causing crashes on iPhone, iPad and Mac. For many users, simply tapping in the URL bar will cause the browser app to crash completely. The exact issue causing the crashing has not been locked down, but it appears to be related to Apple’s Safari Suggestions service. It’s a very annoying bug that is affecting a lot of people all of sudden today.
When you type a URL, Apple sends what you type to its servers, returning a response with autocomplete search queries, Top Sites and other info. There appears to be a bug in this server request that is causing Safari to randomly crash. Users are discovering some potential workarounds until Apple fixes the problem properly …
Disabling Safari Suggestions seems to be helping resolve the bug for many people on iOS. On your iPhone or iPad, go into Settings, tap Safari, and toggle off the ‘Safari Suggestions’ switch. This will fix the crashing, obviously its only a temporary fix until Apple sorts its servers out as it will disable the Safari Suggestions functionality.
Another option is to enter Private Browsing mode. In private browsing, by design Safari does not contact the suggestions server for intelligent completion options, so the server is never contacted and the crash never arises.
@phillipcaudell @stroughtonsmith Half of our entire office's browsers are fudged. Also starting Private Browsing windows resolves as well.
— Ben Treston (@Ben_Treston) January 27, 2016
The bug is affecting users in many countries, but not all. It also depends on the state of your Safari, whether it has certain data cached already. The crash has been seen on iOS 8, iOS 9 and OS X 10.11. The bug could be even more widespread beyond these platforms however. It is pretty crazy flaw that is affecting so many people this morning, with many reports across European iOS customers.
We have contacted Apple about the issue for clarification, but it’s such a serious functional flaw that we expect a fix very shortly. Please note: this is an unrelated incident to the prank site CrashSafari.com.
In case you aren’t sure what to look for, here’s a super-short video showing the bug in action. Safari crashes as soon as you tap the URL bar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSPk0LaYJXc
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I switched to Chrome, problem seems to be resolved.
lol
Lol
this is really great, and interesting…. this bug apparently was on apple’s side and happened just today, as far as I know…and how little time it took for so many people to react and provide workable solutions is really cool…..
Not sure if it is related, but Number Synckeeps un enabling for me. First it wouldn’t let me turn it on, then you wouldn’t verify the 911 address. On the AT&T site it is listing wearable devices instead of connected Apple devices like before.
C’mon Apple, you don’t expect me to be productive when these kind of problems are happening, do you? Should not have happened…
So everything you do is 100% perfect, every single time? Never make a mistake?
dont think he meant to offend.. but this is a serious problem and apple should know better
I don’t have thousands of persons working for me so that I don’t do a mistake this big. And I don’t have an obscene amount of money available to make sure I get the best persons on the job.
Yeah lets compare a single person to a billion dollar business….smh
Clearly a ton of software developers on this board.
I didn’t take any offense, nor meant to offend.
My point is this was something that clearly was server side based, and, at least for me, was remedied in a short time. Apple fixed it as quickly as it appeared.
Yes, it “shouldn’t” have happened, but nothing is perfect.
Thanks for the laughs!
“all of sudden” ?? I think a strange bug is affecting your grammar.
“a see…”
Problem started for me about an 90 mins ago in Australia with my iPad. Used Safari on my iMac to find the Safari Suggestions fix. Then I couldn’t type in the Safari Address bar on the iMac so I’ve turned Safari Suggestions on the iMac as well.
I can confirm that this happened for someone who hadn’t run the software update yet, so it’s unique to Safari and not specific to the IOS release.
dont think he meant to offend anyone.. but this is a serious problem and APPLE should know better
“Should know better” implies they tested this, it happened to them, and they released the code anyway.
I seriously doubt that happened.
I thought I was going nuts when this happened to me this morning then i decided to play around and figured out if i turned off safari suggestions in the system preferences it seemed to work, just gotten home and had other problems with safari on my macs so decided to do a search and came across other people having these problems just as of this morning….,
This temp fix worked on my 6s plus thanks
Mine crashes without typing anything though. Just tapping in the omnibar crashes Safari. But your workaround does work, so what the heck do I know.
I find it curious this starts happening a few days after another Safari crash glitch hit the headlines – http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/25/safari-mac-iphone-ipad-crash/
Probably two seperate things, but it hardly looks good, particularly when everything under 9.2.1 had been running fine until now.
I’m new to macbook, sorry for this question but where in macbook Safari can I change the settings? Thanks!
This post should be OK -> “Guide: Here’s how to fix Safari (OSX + IOS) In January 2016” http://www.appstorechronicle.com/2016/01/safari-is-broken-heres-how-to-fix-it-january-2016.html
I’m not experiencing those so I guess I should consider myself lucky right now…
A million thanks for that solution. Now working coolio!!!!!!
Cheers, Duncan McInnes
I have this problem on my Macbook Pro with El Capitan 10.11.3…
open Safari, go to preference, under “search” tab turn off Safari suggestions.
It works now.
“Safari on iOS and Mac crashing today for many users, bug related to Safari Suggestions, here’s how to fix”
And yet you provide no guide when it comes to OS X. You do realise that people still use Mac’s?
Really interesting the latest Apples’ solutions: In this case the solution it’s the disabling of an usable function of the browser, in another two issues related to wifi connection and bluetooth audio the other “genius” solutions are to avoid to use the wifi and connect with ethernet cable and instead of use external bt speaker use wired headphones… Does Apple loves the Vintage? In the next computer release we’ll have the Lisa instead of “working” and “usable” macintosh computers ?
Also problem with macbook pro, thanks for this temp. fix ;)
Here’s a youtube video showing how to easily fix this
https://youtu.be/bigLTlEpVp4
Thanks for this, life saver :)
I was furious this morning because of this exact problem. I have a fully loaded $1,200+ iPad Pro that I replaced my laptop with, so I need this to do business, and for Safari not to be stable has me more than a little peeved… I can;t believe I found this article this quickly…Thank you guys, and keep up the fantastic work
I had to fix my iPad and my iPhone, but a couple of friends told me that their devices work good.
Sure enough. Disabling Safari Suggestions fixed it. Anytime Safari starts acting up my first thought is “Goddamn Yahoo”. Well, I’m still saying it. Friggin’ hate Yahoo.
I turned off the suggestions, cleared history and websites data, restart my phone turn the suggestions on, and everything’s fine right now. hope you make it through, it was driving me crazy. chrome in safari make my iphone 6s hot
Switching to private mode will work without a glitch
Thanks :)
Does the problem exist with Bing or with Google only? In other words, would another fix be to switch from Google to Bing instead of shutting off Safari suggestions? Has anyone tried this?
Thanks for this. It’s been driving me nuts. Works with this fix now.
“The Safari crash bug has now been fixed, according to Apple” not on MY ipod. But the fix here is working fine, so that’s okay.
fix is perfect – thankyou
What’s the fix for a MacBook Air?
Amazing, thanks for the temp fix. Been driving me mad all day!!
There is an easy fix. Settings/Safari/Clear History and Website Cache.