Mac Lists

5 Ways to Speed Up Safari Browser

I love Apple's Safari browser but sometimes it slows to a crawl and becomes difficult to use. When this happens, there are a few things that can be done to improve Safari's speed and in this list I briefly describe those solutions.

1.  Clear the History

This is the quickest and easiest thing to do and it works for me probably 80% of the time. You'll lose your recent browsing history but you might regain browsing speed.

2.  Empty the Cache

Just emptying Safari's cache can speed things up. You can find this option when you select Reset Safari from the Safari menu.

3.  Quit and Relaunch

If you've had Safari open for a long time, quitting Safari and relaunching it can sometimes improve its speed. A force-quit is sometimes the only solution when Safari stops responding, but a relaunch after quitting usually returns Safari to its normal browsing speed.

4.  Limit Number of Open Sites

If you open too many websites at the same time, Safari can quickly stop responding, especially if the sites are photo or video-laden sites or if you're using Safari on an older, slower computer. The best solution is to let one site load completely before trying to access more sites in different tabs or windows.

5.  Turn off PDFs

By default, Safari opens PDF files in a Safari window and this can significantly slow down Safari. Use Onyx or TinkerTool to disable Safari's PDF feature to prevent Safari from loading PDF files.

Safari is a great browser and this short list of tips for speeding up Safari can make your browsing experience even better.