Safari Keeps Crashing on iPhone 13 (iOS 15.3.1)? Here’s How to Fix It
If Safari keeps freezing, glitching, or crashing on your iPhone 13 running iOS 15.3.1, there are a few common causes—and plenty of ways to fix it. From outdated browsing data to weird settings conflicts, here’s how to get Safari stable and working again.
1. Force Quit Safari and Relaunch It
The first thing to do is close Safari completely and open it again fresh:
- Swipe up from the bottom of your screen and pause in the middle
- Swipe up on the Safari window to force close it
- Reopen Safari and see if it loads normally
This clears temporary glitches that might’ve built up in the background.
2. Restart Your iPhone
A soft reset helps flush out minor bugs:
- Press and hold the Side button + Volume button
- Drag the Power Off slider
- After 30 seconds, turn your iPhone back on by pressing the Side button
Reopen Safari once your phone finishes booting.
3. Clear Safari History and Website Data
Corrupted cache files can crash Safari. To clear them:
- Go to Settings > Safari
- Tap Clear History and Website Data
- Confirm by tapping Clear History and Data
Or for a deeper clean:
- Go to Settings > iPhone Storage > Safari > Website Data
- Tap Remove All Website Data
Then relaunch Safari and test again.
4. Disable Safari Suggestions and JavaScript
If Safari’s still acting up, try turning off features that might be causing it:
Turn off Suggestions:
- Go to Settings > Safari
- Disable Search Engine Suggestions and Safari Suggestions
Disable JavaScript (temporarily):
- Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced
- Toggle JavaScript OFF
If Safari stabilizes, you can turn JavaScript back on later.
5. Turn Off iCloud Safari Syncing
Syncing issues between devices can sometimes glitch Safari:
- Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud
- Toggle Safari OFF
Reopen Safari and see if performance improves.
6. Check Content & Privacy Restrictions
Restrictions could be limiting Safari’s functionality:
- Go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions
- Tap Allowed Apps and make sure Safari is turned ON
- Under Content Restrictions > Web Content, make sure it’s not overly restricted
After adjusting settings, relaunch Safari.
7. Reset All Settings (No Data Loss)
If nothing else helps, reset system settings without deleting your data:
- Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset
- Tap Reset All Settings
- Enter your passcode and confirm
Your Wi-Fi passwords, privacy settings, and customizations will reset—but your photos, apps, and files will stay.
8. Make Sure iOS Is Updated
Safari updates come bundled with iOS updates. Go to:
- Settings > General > Software Update
If an update is available, install it. This often fixes bugs in pre-installed apps like Safari.
9. Check Apple’s System Status Page
If Safari is crashing when trying to load specific sites or services (like iCloud or Apple Pay), visit Apple’s System Status page to check for outages.