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iCloud tabs not syncing
- Thread starter Morac
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On macOS 10.14.6 and latest iOS/iPadOS, spent hours trying to figure out why my iCloud Tabs stopped syncing or in some cases (Safari 14.0.1) stop even appearing (iCloud Tabs suddenly greyed out) despite the ~/Library/Safari/CloudTabs.db clearly being on my Mac with a timestamp of around 2pm today. Then I find this thread. :-/
Note Apple's server status page notes all is well with the "iCloud Bookmarks & Tabs" services which is clearly inaccurate. (Well maybe the servers are up but the service has unravelled.)
Also submitted an apple.com/feedback submission and suggest others do the same to call attention to this.
FYI, If it is at least helpful for you to be able to temporarily view your existing (but not updating) tab lists from other devices, this little open source program on github can read the database file and present them to you via a menu item. That restored a tiny little bit of my sanity as I have a lot of tab "sets" going in between various iDevices. (phone, ipad, 3 macs).
github.com
Note Apple's server status page notes all is well with the "iCloud Bookmarks & Tabs" services which is clearly inaccurate. (Well maybe the servers are up but the service has unravelled.)
Also submitted an apple.com/feedback submission and suggest others do the same to call attention to this.
FYI, If it is at least helpful for you to be able to temporarily view your existing (but not updating) tab lists from other devices, this little open source program on github can read the database file and present them to you via a menu item. That restored a tiny little bit of my sanity as I have a lot of tab "sets" going in between various iDevices. (phone, ipad, 3 macs).
GitHub - josh-/CloudyTabs: CloudyTabs is a simple menu bar application that lists your iCloud Tabs.
CloudyTabs is a simple menu bar application that lists your iCloud Tabs. - josh-/CloudyTabs
github.com
On macOS 10.14.6 and latest iOS/iPadOS, spent hours trying to figure out why my iCloud Tabs stopped syncing or in some cases (Safari 14.0.1) stop even appearing (iCloud Tabs suddenly greyed out) despite the ~/Library/Safari/CloudTabs.db clearly being on my Mac with a timestamp of around 2pm today. Then I find this thread. :-/
Note Apple's server status page notes all is well with the "iCloud Bookmarks & Tabs" services which is clearly inaccurate. (Well maybe the servers are up but the service has unravelled.)
Also submitted an apple.com/feedback submission and suggest others do the same to call attention to this.
FYI, If it is at least helpful for you to be able to temporarily view your existing (but not updating) tab lists from other devices, this little open source program on github can read the database file and present them to you via a menu item. That restored a tiny little bit of my sanity as I have a lot of tab "sets" going in between various iDevices. (phone, ipad, 3 macs).
GitHub - josh-/CloudyTabs: CloudyTabs is a simple menu bar application that lists your iCloud Tabs.
CloudyTabs is a simple menu bar application that lists your iCloud Tabs. - josh-/CloudyTabs
yeah I use cloudytabs it makes easier to open all icloud tabs at once, but its also showing old tabs so for sure this is an apple issue with apples side/synching.
This morning iCloud tabs between iPhone and iPad are working correctly. Changes are made instantly in both directions. But then I was closing a tab and since then everything was broken again. Actually no tabs shown on iPhone and wrong tabs on iPad. So I think closing tabs causing the problem. Adding new tabs is no problem they were shown correctly
Same problems as above with the addition that when I open a new private safari window hundreds of tabs open and the spinning wheel then stops everything. I deleted the tabs eventually but they keep recurring. Like most, the bookmarks seem to be syncing correctly.
Same here, last night I logged out of iCloud then back in again on all devices - a total pain as I then had to re-verify my Apple Pay cards, and then checked to make sure that iCloud tab syncing was turned on for them all.
Devices then backed up to iCloud overnight. Made no difference, still no iCloud tabs on any device.
Then earlier today today they re-appeared on my phone but not my iPad. But they’ve now disappeared again from my phone. I’ve not been near my Mac to check that.
Must be server side issue at Apple - hope they sort it out soon, it’s very annoying.
Have you received any feedback from Apple second level support?
Yes. When I went through the thread I noticed few reports. I was escalated to the second tier after I pushed a bit. She could not solve this issue and sent a report to the engineering team. I am supposed to hear back on Wednesday.
Ah good to see there's a lot of you with this issue! I did the sign out of iCloud restart devices, sign back in, only to see my tab sync is still completely missing.
Nice to see Apple don't update their system status page. 🧐
Nice to see Apple don't update their system status page. 🧐
Tested this morning and synced instantly between iPad and iPhone so thought fixed, now after a bit longer iPhone still showing old tabs and iPhone not showing anything. So not fixed
as long as you don't use Safari on a Mac with Big Sur, it seems to work. And if you don't close any tabs. So in fact, it does still NOT work
Yeah, I expected this to be fixed or noticed quickly, but no, complete radio silence. I'm amazed that Macrumors hasn't put an article on the front page "iCloud Tab Syncing in Safari Broken for Several Weeks and Apple Never Noticed!"
I wondering if the “average user” doesn’t even know this is a feature? Otherwise, this should be posted as a sticky on the front page.
As of this morning, the iCloud Tabs in Safari on Big Sur appeared to be updating from my iPhone and iPad correctly. I opened a tab from my iPhone in Safari successfully. Then, I clicked to close that tab on my iPhone using the Mac and it instantly lost all of the cloud tabs. Now it just says "iCloud automatically shows all the open tabs on your other devices" again.
Really? Mine doesn't even say that – I've just go big blank space under my open tabs on my Mac, and no option to drag upwards beyond the open tabs on my iPhone.
Incorrect slightly...my issue is that I don’t have an Mac at all and my tabs between Apple devices that I no longer have (iPhone 7 and iPhone 12 Pro) still show up on my new 12 Pro Max.
I'm starting to think this is more of (as in at least partially) a client side issue (maybe even Safari 14.0.1 itself?) and not so much an iCloud issue as related to Apple's backend or the client side services that operate with it (do the syncing).
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm running CloudyTabs which presents all of your iCloud Tabs as a menu bar item. Today CloudTabs was showing me an accurate picture of the tabs open across my devices. The time stamp on my ~/Library/Safari/CloudTabs.db file was 12:21PM. Hmmm, I thought, maybe they fixed it.
So I go into Safari and sure enough, the iCloud Tabs button is not grayed out. However, upon clicking on it, it presents the blank default window. After that, the iCloud Tabs button goes back to grayed out and I can't click it again at all.
Now why would the OS be updating the CloudTab.db file and another utility be able to read it but not Safari? Strange indeed. Unfortunately, all of my machines and devices are updated so I have no way of analyzing if an older version of Safari may display them properly or not.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm running CloudyTabs which presents all of your iCloud Tabs as a menu bar item. Today CloudTabs was showing me an accurate picture of the tabs open across my devices. The time stamp on my ~/Library/Safari/CloudTabs.db file was 12:21PM. Hmmm, I thought, maybe they fixed it.
So I go into Safari and sure enough, the iCloud Tabs button is not grayed out. However, upon clicking on it, it presents the blank default window. After that, the iCloud Tabs button goes back to grayed out and I can't click it again at all.
Now why would the OS be updating the CloudTab.db file and another utility be able to read it but not Safari? Strange indeed. Unfortunately, all of my machines and devices are updated so I have no way of analyzing if an older version of Safari may display them properly or not.
Mine came back on iPhone and iPad today - and I just watched them disappear before my eyes after opening Safari on my Mac. So Safari definitely does seem to be a common factor.
Unfortunately I don’t have any older devices and/or older OSs/Safari versions to test either.
Grrrrr
In fairness I suppose I should grudgingly concede that if this is the extent of the issues with the latest devices and OS updates they’ve done quite a good job really (at least for me and my things)