Mac users... speeding up Safari

[desmobob]

I use a MacBook Pro to view the forums.  I am NOT a "computer person."  It seems like after the last couple of updates, my Safari browser slowed down tremendously.  As I searched the web for solutions, I saw one that seemed very easy to try but seemed like a long shot.  It worked!

 

The tip was simply to change the Safari tab preference from "separate" to "compact."  I can't imagine why it makes a difference, but it did for me.  The person who posted the tip said their resource usage with Safari went from 100% to near idle.  I don't know how to look at that so see what my actual numbers are, but I know Safari is loading pages like I'd expect it to, instead of dragging along like back in the dial-up days.

 

If Safari has slowed down for you, this may be the quick and easy fix you're looking for...

[desmobob]

The really weird part is, I turned on Activity Monitor to look at resources used with the tab preference set each way.  I switched the tab setting in Safari preferences back to "separate" and the pages are still loading quickly.

 

Bizarre, but things are back to working as expected, so I'm happy.

[gunsinger]

It’s possible that toggling that setting cleared a corrupted cache file. 

[Boomstick]

My suggestion would be to get Opera or Chrome. I personally like Opera a lot.

[MN Fisher]

9 minutes ago, Boomstick said:

My suggestion would be to get Opera or Chrome. I personally like Opera a lot.

Wife gave up on Safari on her I-Pad - went to Firefox.

[BayouSlide]

Been using Macs professionally since the 1990s...gave up on Safari for Firefox and Mail for Thunderbird on everything but my iPhone. Solid improvements and recommended.

[desmobob]

Opera, Chrome, Firefox...  I'm a 60-year-old with limited computing skills, and would probably be at least somewhat frustrated changing browsers and learning a new one.

 

Is the transition to an "aftermarket" browser difficult?  I have a TON of bookmarks and  favorites that I worry would be hard to transfer.

[J Francho]

Chrome.  There's literally nothing to learn.

[MN Fisher]

5 minutes ago, desmobob said:

Opera, Chrome, Firefox...  I'm a 60-year-old with limited computing skills, and would probably be at least somewhat frustrated changing browsers and learning a new one.

 

Is the transition to an "aftermarket" browser difficult?  I have a TON of bookmarks and  favorites that I worry would be hard to transfer.

Firefox is able to import bookmarks and saved log-in info (user-ids/passwords) from a number of other browsers.

 

One thing I love right now - Mozilla account...my Firefox syncs bookmarks/log-ins across my desktop, netbook, tablet and phone so I don't have to manually input new/changed items in other devices when I add/change on one.

[desmobob]

I forgot about all the log in data/passwords that Safari handles for me...  Do they pass into Chrome easily as well?  I think it would be a nightmare for me if they didn't.

[J Francho]

Yes.  Once logged into google, you can import them.  When you log in on other devices, it'll have them as well.  Firefox has become a resource hog.  I don't recommend it anymore.  Chrome works for me since I switch from iOS to Windows often, and it seems to handle that better than the rest.  It's also the largest target browser for the app I develop, so there's that too.  I'll let the testers worry about the edge case browsers.

[desmobob]

Thanks very much for staying with me on this very basic stuff... I appreciate it.  If it's easier to point me toward another site that might have all the information I need on this, feel free to direct me somewhere else so you can get back to doing what you do!

 

I rarely use Google (switched to DuckDuckGo! as a search engine years ago) but I do have a back-up gmail e-mail account. 

 

I can download Chrome and try it while keeping Safari as a "back up" or in case I have trouble with Chrome, right?  

 

I'm sorry to keep dragging this on.  I'm really not much of a computer person but I really am considering changing browsers.  Safari is troublesome.  I have this forum on my "fishing" tab group.  Sometimes when I click back to it from other sites, there is a Safari message bar telling me BassResource.com was using too many resources and was reloaded.

[J Francho]

I still run both Safari and Chrome on iOS. 

[Chris Catignani]

I will agree that FireFox is better on a Mac...only because Safari is probably the worst of all the browsers.

But...nothing is stopping you from using both either.

[J Francho]

If performance is the benchmark, Chrome beats Firefox.  

[MN Fisher]

Just now, J Francho said:

If performance is the benchmark, Chrome beats Firefox.  

I'll take the options I have with Firefox and put up with the reduced performance. There are add-ons in my Firefox that I use regularly that I haven't seen available (or close to them) for Chrome...yes, I have Chrome installed too - rarely use it.

[Chris Catignani]

7 minutes ago, J Francho said:

If performance is the benchmark, Chrome beats Firefox.  

True...For my self...I like to keep it on the simple side. I will use FireFox on a Mac because thats what I use on Ubuntu. On Windows its Edge.

I do development and need to test on all...and it seems that Safari is always the one lacking....

 

[J Francho]

The only time I use FireFox is when running a Selenium script to get tickets for a concert or schedule an appointment for Covid shot or the DMV, lol. 

[Chris Catignani]

I like to mess around with ESP32 and Arduino...which sometime leads me to a Raspberry Pi and FireFox is standard with that too.

Edge is actually built off Chromium engine.

[purpurite]

Big fan of Brave, which is a stripped down and very private version of Chrome. I never use Safari anymore, as it's just become bloatware and seems to be beta tested on live users. I don't have the patience for that crap from Apple anymore.

[Boomstick]

10 hours ago, desmobob said:

Opera, Chrome, Firefox...  I'm a 60-year-old with limited computing skills, and would probably be at least somewhat frustrated changing browsers and learning a new one.

 

Is the transition to an "aftermarket" browser difficult?  I have a TON of bookmarks and  favorites that I worry would be hard to transfer.

Not at all. They all have an address bar and that works the same. Bookmarks work differently. Opera has regular bookmarks and then a speed dial, so you can put sites like Bassresource.com on your startup page and have a permanent shortcut to it and you can add several dozen, which is one of the things I like about Opera.

 

Many browsers will let you import favorites on or after install via a wizard, and some through the bookmarks menu. But really I'd say try it before you worry about that. Your Safari favorites will still exist they take up very little space.

 

Firefox would be my last choice between the three options to be honest. It's slow and the Mozilla engine is generally inferior to the webkit engine (which most browsers use, including Safari they just use a real old version of it)

[desmobob]

I installed Chrome and was able to import my bookmarks and favorites but not my passwords, for some reason.  I followed procedures I found on line and the .csv file my passwords were saved in on my desktop shows up but cannot be selected when I attempt to import it on Chrome's "import bookmarks and settings" set-up.

 

I have two Google accounts; one for my PC's Gmail e-mail address and an icloud.com one I established for my MacBook.  I set Chrome to synch with the iCloud.com account after logging in with it, but it always shows it synching to the gmail.com account as I attempt the procedure.  I unsynch all accounts and start over and the same thing happens.  I don't know if that's the problem or not.

 

I'll mess with it more in the future.  I have a low threshold for computing frustration and I hit it a little while ago.  ?

[Boomstick]

6 minutes ago, desmobob said:

I installed Chrome and was able to import my bookmarks and favorites but not my passwords, for some reason.

Yeah, unfortunately you will have to import passwords for security purposes as they are stored encrypted in most modern browsers (not sure if Firefox or Safari ever encrypted them, they didn't for years!).

[MN Fisher]

Just now, Boomstick said:

Yeah, unfortunately you will have to import passwords for security purposes as they are stored encrypted in most modern browsers (not sure if Firefox or Safari ever encrypted them, they didn't for years!).

Firefox does encrypt them now - to export unencrypted takes an add-on.

[Boomstick]

8 minutes ago, desmobob said:

I'll mess with it more in the future.  I have a low threshold for computing frustration and I hit it a little while ago.  ?

I would try to use it a little bit at a time here and there and learn a little more each time. Maybe when you're doing select tasks such as browsing the forums or putting together your Tackle Warehouse order and so forth.

 

My mom generally learned to use Opera and Chrome and believe me if she can figure it out, you can too.

3 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Firefox does encrypt them now - to export unencrypted takes an add-on.

Alright I wasn't sure. I use it to test pages I make one I got them working on Webkit and that's about it.