Recently, Apple’s Safari web browser encountered a rather embarrassing bug that caused it to freeze and not work properly. According to reports of a Safari bug affecting iPhones and iPads in any version of iOS 16, the issue caused the browser to crash without explanation when users tried to load a webpage while typing certain alphabets.

According to most reports, the problem was not worldwide and some regions were apparently immune to it, while many other regions, especially the US market, were unable to use Safari properly due to the error. According to a report by 9to5Mac, multiple three-letter search strings can trigger a Safari bug that causes the browser to crash. This error and search strings included “tar”, “bes”, “wal”, “wel”, “old”, “sta” and “pla” along with a number of other potential string terms.

It’s possible that the error was caused by an incorrect internal server configuration that could cause the web browser to crash when entering these terms. Errors like this are not uncommon, and companies using operating systems like Apple can easily fix them.

According to reports, the bug has been found in all versions of iOS 16. The issue was fixed with an internal server-side patch from Apple. This means that you as users do not need to manually apply patches via future software updates. There’s no way to test the issue yourself at this point, and Safari now seems to work fine on both iOS and iPadOS, even using the above search terms.