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Mac Safari consuming too much memory

Dear All,


I have a mac book pro running OSX Catalina, and Safari Version 14.1 (15611.1.21.161.7, 15611).

After I start the Safari, it starts consuming memory until either the system runs out of memory or allocates a considerable amount of memory and then stabilises. As an example, I just started the browser un in a matter of seconds, the following events happen in the following order:


  1. Safari process launches with around 680MB Memory.
  2. com.apple.Safari.History process launches and climbs up to around 1GB Ram.
  3. Safari raises its %CPU to 160 and memory consumption picks up until it reaches 5.25 GB
  4. com.apple.Safari.History continues growing its memory footprint unit it reaches 2.30GB
  5. Safari reduces its %CPU to "0,0"



So far:


    • I cleared all caches
    • I have no extensions running
    • I am correctly logged into iCloud.


Any suggestions?


Many thanks for your support!


Regards,

Fernando




Posted on May 9, 2021 2:04 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 10, 2021 5:57 AM

Go step by step and test.


1. Update Safari, if an update is available. Update may come with bug fixes.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204416

2. Quit Safari, launch Safari holding the Shift key down.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

3. Startup in Safe Mode. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac.  

    Quote:

    It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility

    And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and 

    the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.


4. Clear History

    https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/clear-your-browsing-history-sfri47acf5d6/mac

    Please read the article before clearing history, 

    this is like a low level resetting of Safari without affecting passwords and bookmarks.

Similar questions

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 10, 2021 5:57 AM in response to ferlyardet

Go step by step and test.


1. Update Safari, if an update is available. Update may come with bug fixes.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204416

2. Quit Safari, launch Safari holding the Shift key down.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203987

3. Startup in Safe Mode. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/start-up-your-mac-in-safe-mode-mh21245/mac.  

    Quote:

    It also does a basic check of your startup disk, similar to using First Aid in Disk Utility

    And it deletes some system caches, including font caches and 

    the kernel cache, which are automatically created again as needed.


4. Clear History

    https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/clear-your-browsing-history-sfri47acf5d6/mac

    Please read the article before clearing history, 

    this is like a low level resetting of Safari without affecting passwords and bookmarks.

Mac Safari consuming too much memory

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