Apple’s Safari 10, a standard part of iOS 10, provides top-notch web surfing for the iPhone and iPad – if you know what you’re doing. A few reported gremlins, including performance hiccups and crashes, can be solved with a few tweaks in Settings. And several new features, introduced in version 10, make Internet browsing smoother and more convenient.

Slow Performance and Crashing

Some Safari users have reported sluggish performance or crashes. If you run into this problem, try the following fixes.

Private Browsing

For pages that give you trouble, try viewing them in Private mode. In Safari, tap the “Tab” symbol, then tap “Private” to open a private-mode browsing window. Note that Private mode ignores cookies and does not save the sites you visit to browsing history.

Disable Search Suggestions

“Safari Suggestions” and “Search Engine Suggestions” are handy features, though they also place demands on computing power. Disable Safari Suggestions and Search Engine Suggestions in “Settings.” Go to “Settings -> Safari -> Search,” and turn the settings off.

Clear History and Disable Javascript

In “Settings -> Safari,” tap “Clear History and Website Data,” then tap “Clear History and Data” to confirm. In “Settings -> Safari -> Advanced,” turn the “Javascript” setting off.

Close Unused Tabs

Each open tab in Safari steals a bit more memory from your iPhone/iPad. Many open tabs can strain available memory, especially for older devices. A device that’s low on free memory can slow significantly, act erratically, or crash. Close unused tabs to free up memory.

New Features in Safari 10 for iOS

Unlimited Tabs

With iOS 10, Apple boosted the maximum number of open tabs from 36 to “unlimited.” In reality, the tab limit is determined by your device’s memory – newer iPhones and iPads with more memory can handle more tabs than older models.

Having tons of tabs open might lead to a situation where you have a hard time finding a tab, but Safari 10 now includes a tab search. On your iPhone, tap the “Tab” symbol to see all the open tabs, then “tilt the phone” so it displays horizontally; a “search field” will appear. Enter text to find the tabs you want to see.

Close All Tabs

As you can imagine, having unlimited tabs can be a mixed bag. Say, for example, you have 50 tabs open; how do you close them all without going nuts? Safari has an answer. Tap and hold the “Tab” icon. Safari will give you the choice of closing all open tabs. Tap “Close 50 Tabs.” Note: Safari displays the correct number of tabs.

Text Search

Safari 10 has an improved text search, letting you find particular words in a web page more easily than in previous versions—a handy feature for longer, text-heavy pages. To do a text search, tap the “Share” icon and scroll right until you see “Find on Page”, then tap it. Enter the text you want to search for, then tap the magnifying glass icon to find the text.

Conclusion

Performance and stability issues with the mobile version of Safari 10 can usually be solved by adjusting a few settings. Handy new features included with the iOS 10 release add convenience to an already well-rounded Internet contender – though to use them, you have to know where to look.

John Parsons is a freelance writer with many years in software development. He has a Physics degree and lives in Chicago with his wife and a zooful of animals.

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