How to: Safari feeling sluggish? Clear your cache, cookies, history
There are a lot of things that just don’t go wrong on the Mac, like Windows BSOD (blue screen of death) or computer viruses and worms. Still, anyone who’s been on the fairer platform for more than few days is acquainted with the hated spinning cursor—here’s how to prevent perhaps the most common causes of the beach ball of death.
Buried amongst Safari’s billions and billions of features are a handful of tools that can help you keep Apple’s WebKit-based browser running smoothly and beachball free. Because I live my life online and devour absurd amounts of information, I perform these at least once a week, though those with more modest proclivities and appetites can probably get along just fine cleaning up Safari’s various chock points once a month.
Clear the those cookies!
If you’ve ever called your internet service provider complaining about poor performance, it’s likely whomever answered the phone walked you through the process of clearing your cookies. For whatever reason, cookies can cause Safari to hang intermittently and locating the offending one can be well nigh impossible.
That said, it’s a lot more efficient to clear the lot:
1.) In the Safari menu, go to Preferences (⌘ + comma)
2.) Click the Security icon, then click Show Cookies
3.) Click remove all, then click Done*
See also:
— Sync your Safari bookmarks without MobileMe
— How to: Edit, manage Safari 4’s Top Sites
— How to: Password protect your Mac, set up a security hot key
— How to: Desktop pictures for your Mac
Empty that cache
When you surf the Internet, Safari automatically caches web pages and images in temporary storage for easy repeat access and faster page loads, which is perhaps more important for those on dial up versus those on broadband. Regardless of your connection type, regularly dumping the contents of this folder can greatly improved performance:
1.) In the Safari menu, select Empty Cache (⌘ + ⌥ + E)
2.) A dialog box will appear, click Empty*
Clear History
I don’t believe clearing your history will improve Safari performance, but regularly removing references to the less savory websites you’ve visited can’t be a bad thing. Think of it like keeping your feet toe jam free—it just feels good.
1.) History -> Clear History
2.) Click Clear (note the option to simultaneously clear Top Sites)
One more thing*
I’d strongly suggest that you perform these three actions on a regular schedule (ie set up an iCal event to remind yourself). Thereupon, when you’re done clearing the cookies, cache and history, you should notice a palpable improvement in Safari after *logging out and back in, or restarting your Mac.*
Got a nifty little trick for keeping your Mac running smoothly? Share your tip and a link in the comments below…
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August 1st, 2009
I knew about the cache and history, but that cookies one was great. I had hundreds of cookies! So that was worth it.
Another tip. Clearing your history doesn’t get rid of your entire history, likewise the cache tip doesn’t clear everything off of your cache.
1.) go into finder
2.) type in “history”
3.) Delete everything in the history folder. Mine still has websites in even when i’ve done it in the safari menu
Also
1.) Go into finder
2.) type in cache
3.) go into cache folder, and delete anything in there.
August 1st, 2009
Thanks chipping—Great tips!
August 1st, 2009
If you get rid of cookies, don’t you also get rid of site passwords?
August 1st, 2009
Brock – yes you do, but i have them saved on keychain so most of them get replaced when i visit the site.
August 1st, 2009
Safari Cookies is a great app for managing cookies. You can set up your favorites list and have it automatically delete any other cookies on exit! It keeps the list small and manageable!
August 1st, 2009
Safari Cookies is a great app for managing cookies. You can set up your favorites list and have it automatically delete any other cookies on exit! It keeps the list small and manageable!
One other thing… I personally wouldn’t delete cookies en masse unless you’re willing and ready to re-enter all your passwords for your favorite sites (and have the passwords written down somewhere). OTOH, if you have that, deleting them all makes good sense and then start using Safari Cookies
August 1st, 2009
“If you get rid of cookies, don’t you also get rid of site passwords?”
Actually, no. You lose the current log in session, whether that’s a single day or two weeks (ie yahoo, facebook, etc).
If you’ve previously saved the password for a site using Safari, it will still be there.
August 2nd, 2009
Whoa. I just cleared all my cookies and lost about ten pounds.
August 15th, 2009
Why is it that cookies or show cookies (no mention of cookies) is what I see when clicking Security. I have checked 4 sources which describe the same (click security, click show cookies) but mine has no mention of cookies under Security.