Safari iOS crashing: Suggestions snafu KOs the Apple masses

A bug has struck Apple’s Safari, causing the browser to crash on iPhones, iPads and Macs. The problem is triggered when you tap on the address bar and begin to type, which would normally pop up website suggestions. Displaying these suggestions – sent from Apple's servers – appears to be at the heart of the issue. Game …

[chivo243]

I had it this morning

Yes, I had it, couldn't type any new addresses, couldn't close tabs, links worked. I heard there are Apple Clusters that are listening to the search bar, and one member of the cluster has fucked it up...

Removing the include search engines tick box under safari preferences>search seems to have fixed, you gotta relaunch Safari.

[Message From A Self-Destructing Turnip]

Re: I had it this morning

So it's not a snafu, it's a cluster fuck?

[bazza]

Re: I had it this morning

What's more interesting is that Safari is clearly not properly validating responses from Apple's suggestions servers.

That points to an opportunity for the man in the man in the middle attacker. If you can crash Safari with a dodgy suggestion, what else can it be made to do with some carefully chosen responses?

[aelking]

No Suprise

No suprise that Internet Explorer is Crashing on Windows like it always does.

[asdf]

Re: No Suprise

Wow really? Bummed about that Apple stock price huh? If you really want to be a good Apple fluffer you should be slagging off their main competition these days, Google. Microsoft's worst enemy remains itself.

[Anonymous Coward]

Disabling safari search suggestions fixed it for me. Fix works for new tabs or old ones after restarting safari.

Can't say if the cluster theory is correct as there was a large OS update installed this morning, which looks like it included a safari update...

[chivo243]

It's been reported on systems that haven't seen an update in months. A colleague is all over 9 to 5 Mac and the like, many posts there about tracerouting the cause back to Apple Servers.

[Ali Um Bongo]

Here is the News...

...according to Twatter.

Glad to see that El Reg is jumping aboard the [Twatter = Reuters bandwagon][1] I mentioned in a comment on another thread:

[1]: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2016/01/26/twitter_bosses_go_on_retreat/#c_2759342

[joed]

not disabled yet?

I've had the setting disabled since the initial setup - cause privacy.

Same applied across all platforms/browsers - until I've decided to use search I'm not searching outside local browser history.

Somewhat disappointed by crashsafari.co bug - it did not crash the phone (maybe because I ran in the private mode).

[asdf]

Re: not disabled yet?

Hmm guess Apple hasn't mastered the privacy stealing ninja arts ala Google yet. Even Microsoft has a more advanced belt. The free (or not) stuff of the internet has never been more expensive.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: not disabled yet?

Hmm guess Apple hasn't mastered the privacy stealing ninja arts ala Google yet.

Unlike Google (and Microsoft), Apple generates quite a bit of income from hardware (aka real physical stuff you can kick). Where Apple is having problems is services, so as far as I'm concerned they could stop that right now and not be that much worse off. Unfortunately, this is where we end in MBA land so someone will always utter the phrase "maximise income", resulting in shit they should stay away from. Sigh.

I'm not saying "Let's go kill all the MBA holders". I'm just saying "Let's remove all the warning labels and let the problem sort itself out" (to paraphrase a rather popular Internet meme :) ).

[David Beeston]

Had it, use Private Mode

I was having a play around after suffering this problem and found that using Private Mode worked. Going back to normal mode doesn't, but Private seems to.

[Ilgaz]

We don't care

Use an open operating system where you can choose other browsers. Once users don't have choice, developer team gets spoi!ed and IE happens.

[roblightbody]

Re: We don't care

Windows has *always* allowed you to choose other browsers.

[Wyrdness]

Re: We don't care

So have OS X and iOS. So what's your point?

[TRT]

OK, who Safari'd Safari?

Come on... own up.

[Vince]

Nonsense, there are no defects in Apple products.

You're clicking it wrong!

[Mike Moyle]

Not happening on my Macs nor 'Pad, all of which are up to date.

Probably too soon to have a handle on (even rough) percentages of affected systems...?

[Joe Gurman]

Except....

....it was resolved at around 05:45 GMT today, so if you woke up after that, you probably wouldn't have seen it. Server issue, not Safari.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Except...it was resolved at around 05:45 GMT today

Well I've just had my octagenarian mum on the line saying her ipad doesn't work. She doesn't get up until 730am GMT and won't even look at the ipad until lunchtime

Got her to try Chrome and when that worked I was even more confused. I actually ended up getting 'the fix' from the Daily Mail website :)

Apple QA must be utter sh*te to somehow stop up to a billion browsers working.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been like this on my iphone since about 0900 this morning.

However, about 10 minutes ago (1920ish) it started working ok.

No input from me on iOS 8.4.1.

I have this phisolophy that if something went wrong without my interference it may well put itself right without my interference. If it doesn't - put it in a cupboard and leave it there.

[Bad Beaver]

Another mark on the list

I have this theory going that post-PowerPC-Apple peaked at 10.6.8 and has been going down ever since. The impertinence that is 10.11.x can hardly be put into words that one would be willing to utter in public. It feels like a public beta with all the bugs, performance issues and plain bad design decisions all over the place. It's terrifying. Crap like this Safari bug just adds to the steaming pile.

[Joe Gurman]

Re: Another mark on the list

Except that it was pretty obviously an Apple server-side issue, and nothing to do with Safari.

You can have valid issues with Safari and/or OS X, but this wasn't one.

[Gavin Jamie]

Re: Another mark on the list

The bug in Safari was that it responded to the unavailability of an external service by crashing. Graceful behaviour would have been a blank suggestion list.

[Kristian Walsh]

@Bad Beaver, Re: Another mark on the list

10.6 is an interesting one to pin as the "last good OS X" (I tend to agree, btw), because this was the last OS X release headed by someone with long experience at the company.

Bertrand Serlet was a platforms manager who had come to Apple from NeXT, and he and Avie Tevenian were instrumental in getting OS X out the door in the first place. Tevenian left in 2006, and 10.6 was Serlet's last OSX release, as he left in 2009. His replacement at OS X, Craig Federighi, only rejoined the company in 2009. Not much time for a handover...

[Bad Beaver]

Re: @Bad Beaver, Another mark on the list

Interesting point, thank you for that. Of course, we cannot really be sure about the true cause. Maybe the OS performance is fine (safe for personal niggles) and Apple just happens to sell €1.300 "basic" desktops that cannot run it without jitters, despite 16GB of RAM and a fusion-drive. You never know. They also sell you a €35 Thunderbolt / Firewire 800 adaptor that seems to max out at 34MB/s.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not sure why but it didn't affect me

I am running 9.2.1 and have suggestions enabled. The mention of resetting your DNS settings means it is probably a combination of factors that is required - that might explain why it made it past Apple's testers.

Also interesting that it hit now, I can't remember which day iOS 9.2.1 has been out at least a week I think. Has it been happening since day one and took this long to make the news, or did it start later?

[Salts]

Re: Not sure why but it didn't affect me

@DougS

The wife, who hits upgrade the second a new iOS version becomes available, has been complaining about Safari not working since the upgrade. I did my normal "let me know when it is working and I will upgrade" :-)