iPhone Safari GLITCH: How to stop iOS app from CRASHING every time you tap the address bar

iPHONE users have reported problems with Safari CRASHING on iOS whenever a new URL or search is made in the address bar. Luckily there is a temporary solution.

Tapping the address bar in Safari crashes the app

iPhone and iPad owners have reported an infuriating bug in the Safari web browser.

Launching a new tab in the mobile web browser or trying to type into the address bar CRASHES the hugely-popular browser – sending users back to the iOS Home Screen.

Apple has yet to acknowledge the problem, which appears to affect multiple versions of iOS – and Mac computers, too.

In the meantime, there are a couple of workarounds to get users up-and-running on Safari again.

Tapping the Address Bar will instantly crash the Safari app

Browsing in a Private window temporarily fixes the issue. To do this, launch the Safari iOS app, then tap the Tab icon in the bottom right-hand corner.

Your browser windows will then fan out like a rolodex, and the word Private will appear in the bottom left-hand corner. Tap this to launch Private browsing.

Another option is to disable Safari Suggestions – the websites and search queries the browser pre-emptively guesses as you type into the address bar.

To do this, open Settings > Safari > then toggle Safari Suggestions to Off.

To stop the Safari iOS app crashing, navigate to Settings and then disable Safari Suggestions

Since the glitch appears to affect multiple versions of iOS, with issues reported in iOS 9.2.1 and iOS 9.2, some have suggested the problems may be server-side and tied to Safari Suggestions.

The news comes days after iPhone pranksters sent links to this infuriating website, which deliberately crashes the Safari browser.

One Reddit users posted: "iPhone 6 Plus running 9.2.1 safari crashes whenever I try to type in the address field. my bookmarks still work, I just can't type. Chrome works fine."

"Same here. All my devices running iOS 9.2.1. An iPad I have running 9.3 beta is too," another added.

Had successfully avoided the iOS update for a while now but stupidly decided to update only for Safari to crash each time I use address bar.
— AliCM (@AliCM) January 27, 2016

To people who clicked the crash safari thing: does anyone else's safari keep constantly crashing every time you open it now?
— Ania Magliano-Wright (@AniaMags) January 27, 2016

Oh wow. this iOS Safari bug is hilarious. Only today does it crash when opening a new tab or clicking the URL bar, due to Safari Suggestions
— Dan Bennett (@DanBennett) January 27, 2016

One Apple users wrote on the forum: "As soon as I tap the address bar Safari crashes unless I'm in Private Browsing mode.

"I've tried: * Clearing History and Website Data * Restarting * Disabling third party keyboards * Turning off iCloud bookmark syncing.

"I'm at a loss."

Another user in the r/Apple subreddit added: “Interesting! My iPhone and iPad both stopped working about 15 mins ago.

“Both were updated over the past couple of days - and both have been working flawlessly until just now.

“I’ve wiped my cookies, history and website data to no avail. Fortunately Chrome has not been impacted ......... Yet!”

The news comes hours after Apple announced one billion users now own an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac or Apple TV.