Safari slowdown issues

Question

Safari is quite slow when I open new tabs. I get a busy cursor, and I cannot interact with other tabs.

Is there any way to make it faster?

I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, MacOS 10.6.6, Safari 5.0.3.

Answer 1

Install clicktoflash or some other flash blocking thing.

Also disable java and other plugins. These are particularly useful for Safari 4.

Answer 2

Here are some good tips on reviews.cnet.com on speeding up Safari. Some of the tips are detailed below:

1. Try dragging the folder Icons -- where these icons are cached -- within the ~/Library/Safari folder to the trash and restarting Safari.
2. Try deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist if you are experiencing slow launches, but note that you will lose some easily recoverable settings, such as whether or not tabbed browsing is enabled.
3. A blanket approach to deleting many of the potentially problem-causing items is the Reset Safari... command, available under the Safari menu in Safari. Note, however, that this command also deletes your browser history, personal data -- such as stored login passwords, search entries, cookies and more -- that you may not want to clear. Still, it's a good initial cleansing step. On recent versions of Safari you can select the kinds of data you want to delete/keep.
4. Try temporarily disabling plugins to see if that's a potential cause. Go to the Safari menu within Safari, and select Preferences. Click on the Security tab and deselect 'Enable plug-ins'. Restart Safari and see if the slowness has disappeared. If it has then the problem is likely to be an errant plugin.

Answer 3

First thing to try is to clear the cache and history, and restart Safari (and even your MacBook).