The day after it revealed its sales of iPhones have somewhat plateaued, a global bug in its Safari browser has been found that causes it to crash when trying to enter a search term in the address bar.
While not happening universally across all devices, the vast majority of iPhones and Macs are coming across the somewhat annoying bug.
The issue first really became apparent following the posting of a Reddit thread earlier today (27 January), with users joining in to complain about the issue and, so far, at least, Apple has not released an official comment on the matter.
From testing within the Siliconrepublic.com office, those using the iPhone 6 have reported no issues, but the problem appears to be occurring on older iPhones.
If it’s working for you, you either: 1) have search suggestions turned off, 2) you have a cache. Fresh Safari doesn’t work
— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) January 27, 2016
Although, this appears to be related to one iOS developer, Steve Troughton-Smith’s, suggestion, with Smith saying those with Safari still working have either a cached version of Safari and/or their search suggestions tab deactivated.
iOS users are now being unofficially advised to leave search suggestion switched off or switch the Safari browser to private mode.
If you happen to have an older version of iOS or OS X, it doesn’t appear to give you any exemption from the bug, but just relates to those with the updated 10.11.3 version of Safari.
It’s now in Apple’s hands to announce any news of a potential patch.
It’s being advised to switch off search suggestions until a patch has been issued.
Safari app icon image via charnstir/Shutterstock
