Slow initial load on iOS Safari

[jsgra1]

When opening Safari on iOS, the first page takes 10s to load. Some site are worse than others, eg:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-british-airways-club-446/

Subsequent visits to any other site or back to the same site are fine.

Leaving Safari and going back in is fine, but if you end it (swipe up) and go back from scratch it has the same problem.

[seia-soto]

Hi @jsgra1 ,

I'm sorry to hear that happened. The first load can be slow especially when there's no cache which stores the reusable website assets available. I wonder if the same thing can be reproducible with and without Ghostery. Our product may speed up loading the website by blocking unnecessary assets such as tracker. However, we cannot really get better for the first load timing on the website because it depends on multiple networking factors as well.

As another flyertalk user using Ghostery, loading the website only takes ~2 seconds for me regardless of the first load. Please, let us know if any of follow affects to your symptom: 1) try disabling vpn if installed 2) try disabling dns/or adblocking dns profile if installed 3) try disabling ghostery extension if active.

I would love to address the issue but isolating the extension issue would be the first step.

Best

[jsgra1]

Thanks for your help.

To mention that it is only the first page after Safari starts that is slow. Using the flyertalk example above, if I go to any other site first (which is slow), then to flyertalk its loads much quicker (2s).

I have tried: a) with and without VPN; and b) I don't have any other DNS /adblocking profiles.

On c), disabling the Ghostery extension made go a bit quicker but it was still slow on first page load (variably 5 or 6s) which made me think it was something else. Deleting Ghostery seemed to make quicker still but still not good and I only tried this once so not definitive.

Also tried d) deleting browser history, e) using only mobile rather than wifi, f) reboot, g) toggling other network and safari settings h) reset network connections. Still slow on first load.

Ended up wiping iOS.

Page load with vanilla Safari was much faster (i.e. fine). Installed Adblock Plus - page loads all fine. Disabled ABP, Installed Ghostery (now it is back in the UK App Store?!?) and the problem is back - i.e. 10s initial page load.

Tried disabling Ghostery again, and better but still slow. Tried deleting Ghostery and going back to ABP - page load is fine.

So I'm 100% certain there is a problem with Ghostery, and pretty sure something persists even after disabling it.

[seia-soto]

Hi @jsgra1 ,

I appreciate your testing method and the results. It isolates a lot of factors.

Would you like to share a brief geolocation you're located at? One big difference of Ghostery from those mentioned adblockers is that we handle the cookie consent gracefully, which means that we actually click the reject button on behalf of you rather just fully blocking it. I believe that this might make a difference on the load speed.

I'm testing stuffs from South Korea (I don't have cookie consent here) but if you're located in potentially US or EEA countries, you might be affected by the consent handling feature of our extension.

[jsgra1]

Hi Yes, sure - in the UK so we have the cookie consent banners. On 12 Mar 2026, at 07:13, HoJeong Go ***@***.***> wrote:  [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/30369714?s=20&v=4]seia-soto left a comment (ghostery/ghostery-extension#3152)<#3152 (comment)> Hi @jsgra1<https://github.com/jsgra1> , I appreciate your testing method and the results. It isolates a lot of factors. Would you like to share a brief geolocation you're located at? One big difference of Ghostery from those mentioned adblockers is that we handle the cookie consent gracefully, which means that we actually click the reject button on behalf of you rather just fully blocking it. I believe that this might make a difference on the load speed. I'm testing stuffs from South Korea (I don't have cookie consent here) but if you're located in potentially US or EEA countries, you might be affected by the consent handling feature of our extension. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#3152 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APQRGENMFQXBWGAL3CRN7KD4QJPRFAVCNFSM6AAAAACWOABFNSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHM2DANBUGUYTGNZSGI>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[atineo]

Spain-based user here. I’m experiencing the same issue on iOS 26.3.1 on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, with the “Never consent” option for cookies disabled. If you need any additional data or logs, I’d be happy to provide them.

[hemarton]

Same here (Hungary). Both on iOS and iPadOS (26.3.1), as mentioned above, first loading is like 10 seconds, and after that normal speed returns. It only happens since like a week or so.

[Dimi-GE]

Has been testing it today, and removing the extension does not seem to help anyhow. At least on my end. Here is the scenario I was following:

1. Removed the extension.
2. Cleaned website data in Safari settings.
3. Restarted the device (optional - result is the same anyway).
4. Used nytimes.com as an example.

On my end it takes the same amount of time to load - first launch is the slowest one. But as mentioned, having Ghostery uninstalled doesn't make any difference for me.

[jsgra1]

Has been testing it today, and removing the extension does not seem to help anyhow. At least on my end. Here is the scenario I was following:

1. Removed the extension.
2. Cleaned website data in Safari settings.
3. Restarted the device (optional - result is the same anyway).
4. Used nytimes.com as an example.

On my end it takes the same amount of time to load - first launch is the slowest one. But as mentioned, having Ghostery uninstalled doesn't make any difference for me.

Unfortunately the only solution for me was to wipe iOS entirely - once done all sites were much quicker on first load. As soon as I reinstalled Ghostery it was back to being slow. The implication is that Ghostery has messed something up which is not fixed by either disabling or uninstalling the app.

[atineo]

More people with the problem here https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/1rp8stv/safari_performance_is_inconsistent_in_ios_26/
looks like that happens with other adblockers

[jsgra1]

More people with the problem here https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/1rp8stv/safari_performance_is_inconsistent_in_ios_26/
looks like that happens with other adblockers

I think it does - certainly on Adblock Plus, but Ghostery is worse (about twice as slow in my testing).