Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iCloud tabs not syncing
- Thread starter Morac
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Mine started working again on Saturday. The following day they were broken again.
Sigh. I'm going to email Craig Federighi. It may receive proper attention, then. Or maybe it should be directed to Eddy Cue, since he is VP of services.... May just try both.
Sigh. I'm going to email Craig Federighi. It may receive proper attention, then. Or maybe it should be directed to Eddy Cue, since he is VP of services.... May just try both.
Last edited:
Shoot them a link to this ever growing thread. This is the kind of simple thing that makes you wonder how they cannot seem to get this right. Can we trust them on the more complex things??
Update: today tabs from my iphone/ipad appear on my mac safari, but they're tabs closed several hours ago and it's highly unstable. Pretty sure there must be something wrong at the server side. Also, as some pointed out, if I delete some remote opening tabs, the sync will crash.
I had a call with a higher level Apple Support rep today. We spent some time going through this over the phone, and we did a remote session so he could see what's happening with his own eyes. We ended up generating a system diagnostic file and sending back to Apple.
I did reference this forum post in my text, and I asked him to send this ticket to the engineering team as quickly as possible. With so many of us having this problem (including everyone in my household with their Macs and iOS devices), it simply cannot be a configuration setting on the client side. He mentioned that he has seen some chatter about this, so hopefully this is going to be resolved soon.
I was able to show him how quickly the bookmark syncing is working across devices, and that it's maddening how Apple is saying that everything is just fine when it clearly isn't. Of course, Apple lumps iCloud Bookmarks and Tabs in one grouping, but the former is fine and the latter clearly isn't. Fingers crossed this gets resolved soon. After all of this, I have to ask: why does this always work in Chrome or Firefox, yet it feels like we roll the dice in Safari when it comes to something that should really just work? It's frustrating, particularly for those of us who actually prefer to use Safari when possible.
I did reference this forum post in my text, and I asked him to send this ticket to the engineering team as quickly as possible. With so many of us having this problem (including everyone in my household with their Macs and iOS devices), it simply cannot be a configuration setting on the client side. He mentioned that he has seen some chatter about this, so hopefully this is going to be resolved soon.
I was able to show him how quickly the bookmark syncing is working across devices, and that it's maddening how Apple is saying that everything is just fine when it clearly isn't. Of course, Apple lumps iCloud Bookmarks and Tabs in one grouping, but the former is fine and the latter clearly isn't. Fingers crossed this gets resolved soon. After all of this, I have to ask: why does this always work in Chrome or Firefox, yet it feels like we roll the dice in Safari when it comes to something that should really just work? It's frustrating, particularly for those of us who actually prefer to use Safari when possible.
I’m also totally into this Safari iCloud syncing issue. I can’t really recall when it started, but I first notice that Safari on my MBP sees my iPhone’s tabs but not the other way. Impossible to “brute force” the sync, iOS Safari does just not want to see the open tabs on my MBP. That’s gave me the clue there’s was iCloud syncing problems. Today I had time to troubleshoot this but didn’t get any result. I finally found this growing thread!
I'm also seeing all of them on all devices.
Did absolutely nothing so, from now on, I will just wait because it CLEARLY is a issue with Apple's iCloud servers
Did absolutely nothing so, from now on, I will just wait because it CLEARLY is a issue with Apple's iCloud servers
The call with the Apple support lady was partially worthless, as I had to clean all of Safari data (and with htat I lost all my opened tabs, but thankfully I copied and pasted all websites to a note) and that didn't fix anything. But at least I had to send a log from both my iDevices to "higher level engineers", which will also check on something in my iCloud account. She'll call me on Wednesday. Finger crossed that something helpful happens...
This morning I tested it briefly - and on iPhone, iPad, and 2 MacBook Pro's, it worked! I even saw some changes of new tabs appearing instantly on other devices' lists! Then that quickly, a minute or two later, my iPad stopped working - it shows nothing. And now, the other 3 devices still show what the iPad had before it stopped working. It's like the servers lose the connection with a device somehow and things stop working at all for that device - or at least that's what I see this morning. Oops - just checked again before I sent this - the iPhone now shows nothing for anyone too. I suspect his tabs will not change for the 2 MacBook Pro's any more. Still rather broken.
Quick Poll, wondering if setting up a new device has something to do with it:
1) Recently replaced/added an iPhone, iPad or Mac to my iCloud account
2) No recent changes to devices, setup or installations.
For me, #1, I setup an iPad and iPhone when I noticed this. removed the old ones from my iCloud account (and they still show when the synced tabs on others devices shows up once in a blue moon, like right now I just tested it)
1) Recently replaced/added an iPhone, iPad or Mac to my iCloud account
2) No recent changes to devices, setup or installations.
For me, #1, I setup an iPad and iPhone when I noticed this. removed the old ones from my iCloud account (and they still show when the synced tabs on others devices shows up once in a blue moon, like right now I just tested it)
This could have something to do with it. I upgraded from an iPhone 7 to an SE 2020, and my Mac tabs are days old or simply do not sync to the phone. The iPad tabs synced a little better, but not by much.
I abandoned Apple’s Twitter support. They were trying to get me to do what troubleshooting I’d already done (and told them I had). I ran out of patience unfortunately.
Currently my iPad shows no tabs open on my iPhone (despite there being a tab open since yesterday afternoon). My iPhone shows one tab open on my iPad...I do have one tab open - that being this forum - but the tab it’s showing is a Google search I conducted last night.
I’m disappointed that MacRumors haven’t put an article on their website regarding the issue as this is a big thread with a lot of people affected. Sometimes a story might be adopted by other sites and the media attention prompt Apple to look into the issue.
Currently my iPad shows no tabs open on my iPhone (despite there being a tab open since yesterday afternoon). My iPhone shows one tab open on my iPad...I do have one tab open - that being this forum - but the tab it’s showing is a Google search I conducted last night.
I’m disappointed that MacRumors haven’t put an article on their website regarding the issue as this is a big thread with a lot of people affected. Sometimes a story might be adopted by other sites and the media attention prompt Apple to look into the issue.
I do have a question for you guys: Did you update to macOS Big Sur?
My wife changed her iPhone, (iPhone X to XS) and she has no issue with tabs sync or any other syncing trouble.
BUT, on her MacBook Pro 15 retina (mi-2012) the latest update is Catalina.
So her iCloud account wasn't impacted by Big Sur.
I was simply wondering, do you have this issue, even if you don't own a Mac or if you didn't move to Big Sur yet?
My wife changed her iPhone, (iPhone X to XS) and she has no issue with tabs sync or any other syncing trouble.
BUT, on her MacBook Pro 15 retina (mi-2012) the latest update is Catalina.
So her iCloud account wasn't impacted by Big Sur.
I was simply wondering, do you have this issue, even if you don't own a Mac or if you didn't move to Big Sur yet?
Maybe, Maybe not.
Had the issue on my MB, IPP 11, and 11 ProMax.
Changed 11PM to 12PM. Still have the issue.
A one sample size 🤨
I have that issue even if I don't own any Mac (as I am a PC gamer). I only have an iPhone XR and iPad Air 2019.
Another symptom I discovered, when you clicked on a link and had a tab open that already had that URL it would switch to that tab, now it opens a duplicate tab. So something that was syncing the open tabs which includes this function is broken too.
oh I'm so happy this is not just me! I haven't done any updates and my iPhone 8 on IOS 13, my iMac and MBA both on Mojave are not syncing tabs now at all, although I added a new bookmark on one device and it shows up on the others. I even logged out of iCloud on several devices and that did not help.
Did someone try to change iCloud password?
I know that changing this password instantly remove all devices even old ones.
It solved my issues with Safari history sync once.
I don't know if that can solve the issue...
I know that changing this password instantly remove all devices even old ones.
It solved my issues with Safari history sync once.
I don't know if that can solve the issue...
Hi. I was having the same issues as all of you - in particular, while iCloud tabs showed up on my iOS devices (iPhone and iPad), they did not show up on my Mac. Frustrating. (Weirdly, yesterday at one of your suggestions I tried resetting network settings on my iPad - that caused the tabs to appear on my Mac, briefly - then they disappeared again).
My recent changes have been: new iPhone 12; update to iOS 14 on iOS devices; update to Big Sur on Mac (I think the Big Sur update may be what did it.)
As of this morning, having done nothing, they just appeared on my Mac finally. Hopefully they "stick." Bottom line: I think Apple is having some kind of iCloud issue too.
My recent changes have been: new iPhone 12; update to iOS 14 on iOS devices; update to Big Sur on Mac (I think the Big Sur update may be what did it.)
As of this morning, having done nothing, they just appeared on my Mac finally. Hopefully they "stick." Bottom line: I think Apple is having some kind of iCloud issue too.