Some iPhone and iPad users appear to be experiencing a curious bug in Safari at the current time, with the app crashing when certain search terms are entered. The bug has been going on since last night, from what we can tell, and affected users are running a variant of iOS 16, though there are also reports from iOS 15 users.
Reports suggest that Safari crashes after the first three letters of select words are typed into the search bar, and it is not clear what's causing the issue. We've seen reports of "tar," "bes," "wal," "wel," "old," "sta," "pla," and other words crashing the app. What happens is that people attempt to type in something like "Walmart" or "Starbucks" or "best" and do not get beyond the first three letters before Safari crashes.
@AppleSupport hello, I have a very strange issue with my new iPhone 14 and my mothers new iPhone 14. When we start to type Walmart “Wal” into the search engine the phones instantly close safari. See video below.. please help? pic.twitter.com/P5mq1ahaih — 805 🇺🇸 (@Dakodes) November 14, 2022
It is not clear what is causing this issue, and not all users appear to be affected at this time. It is affecting those running iOS 15.7.1, iOS 16, iOS 16.1, iOS 16.1.1, and the iOS 16.2 beta, and Apple does appear to be aware of the problem due to reports people have provided to the support team.
@rsgnl @MacRumors super weird bug confirmed on two iPhones (at home network and cell). Open Safari, start typing the word best and hit the space bar. Safari completely crashes! Was trying to search “best wallpapers…” but can’t make it to wallpapers lol. — Chris Weaver (@chrisbweaver) November 14, 2022
Given that this issue popped up overnight, it is likely some kind of server side bug that Apple will be able to resolve without an iOS update.
Update: The Safari crashing bug has now been fixed.
