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iCloud tabs not syncing

uandme72 said:
I have also checked and found that the tabs from one device do not show up on any other device till the safari is not sent to back ground on the first device. The tabs do not sync to other device even of the safari OSD kept on fire ground for more than 10 minutes but immediately syncs the moment safari is sent to background.
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This is how mine works, very reliably, now. In my iPhone just sending Safari to the background updates happen immediately on my Mac. The other way works perfectly too - my Mac Safari updates its tabs to iCloud as soon as I click off of it to another app, or to the desktop.
 
garethjs said:
still not working for me in big sur and iOS 4.3. When it broke it broke for everyone at the same time. And now when it’s “fixed” seems to be only for a few
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I am not saying this is a fix, but it did get my Catalina working.
And don't worry you won't lose your history or bookmarks.

quit safari, wait an hour
then unchecked safari in icloud,
waited a day
launched safari and let that sit for a day
quit safari
then, the next day
went into icloud (sys pref)
checked safari icloud
DIDN'T open safari (left closed and quit'd)
waited a DAY (after enabling icloud safari)
launched safari and let sit for over a day

did on all machines
they all work except High Sierra (but History and Bookmarks are there, go figure!)

Good Luck!!

p.s. what sucks is if you have a ton of stuff in (iCloud) and 3-4 machines, you gotta give iCloud time to get up and running. What's great is once this pig starts working YES it does get to "DON'T TOUCH IT" status, but hey...

I have a server that I sync with my house, and it's 8GB of data, but once I get the initial 8GB, the backup process takes like 60 seconds, cause it just does the "small" changes and not the whole enchilada (8GB)

2¢
 
I think what's at issue here isn't so much checking or unchecking safari as it is just letting safari "rest" with tabs closed for a day or two to let whatever is going on in their server sort itself out. I'm trying this and will report back.
 
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This finally started working again for the first time today since November when I got new iPhone 12 Pro Max, had never worked since I replaced my phone
 
hobsgrg said:
This finally started working again for the first time today since November when I got new iPhone 12 Pro Max, had never worked since I replaced my phone
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Did you do anything with your settings just before it started working? Have you been regularly using Safari in recent days?
 
Just started working, I didn’t do anything. I use Safari constantly on my phone, hadn’t touched my laptop for a couple of days though.
 
CamW222 said:
Did you do anything with your settings just before it started working? Have you been regularly using Safari in recent days?
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No messing with settings on my end. I have a sneaky suspicion Apple got to a point where they just purged their iCloud tabs syncing system, and rebooted it.
 
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djlythium said:
No messing with settings on my end. I have a sneaky suspicion Apple got to a point where they just purged their iCloud tabs syncing system, and rebooted it.
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Well, they forgot to reboot the icloud server I'm connected to, then, because it still isn't working for me :(
 
CamW222 said:
Well, they forgot to reboot the icloud server I'm connected to, then, because it still isn't working for me :(
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Why don’t you just switch to a different iCloud server?




...totally JK! Hopefully, they get you sorted out quickly. 🙏🏼
 
Well some improvements today but still not fixed.

Glanced at my iPhone during the day and lo and behold 2 tabs that I had opened on my Mac this morning was showing up on my iPhone.

Came back home to check my Mac and the one tab I had opened on my iPhone was visible on my Mac!

But then I opened a few more tabs on both and guess what its not updating lol
 
Well for me after it has been working for 5 days or so, this morning both my Mac and iPhone had old tabs showing for other devices, and the tabs that were not up currently, did not show. The old tabs were 1-2 days old. So I closed all tabs on my iPad, iPhone, and Mac, closed/quit the apps, let it sit for a minute or two, then reopened and started using. Tabs are ok again. We will see if it lasts, they may still be working on it.
 
I just got off the phone with Apple, and the latest word from them is that it is a known issue that will require a software update to fix. It (obviously) has not been fixed yet. So for those who have been saying it works now: lucky you, I guess! But for the rest of us who are still having problems, it's not just us and there's nothing we can do except wait for Apple to do its thing.
 
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CamW222 said:
I just got off the phone with Apple, and the latest word from them is that it is a known issue that will require a software update to fix. It (obviously) has not been fixed yet. So for those who have been saying it works now: lucky you, I guess! But for the rest of us who are still having problems, it's not just us and there's nothing we can do except wait for Apple to do its thing.
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Any likely timeline?
 
I have the impression that here they are also working just fine. They probably did something on the backend and that's it.
 
After working perfectly for a couple of weeks or so now, they’ve stopped working again today. Remote closing a tab did not work.

Tabs are now not in sync. I’ve closed all tabs on my iPhone, but the iPad shows there are open tabs on the iPhone. Oh well, it was good whilst it lasted.
 
I really wish people would stop saying that it's a fixed issue when even Apple itself has said it's not. Yes, the tabs will sync and work properly for some period of time. For me, it's just ten minutes or so. For others, it appears to be days. Then it stops working again, with the tabs directory disappearing on devices or no longer updating. This requires a SOFTWARE FIX that will hopefully be out next week with the release of 14.4 but may not be released until some time after that.
 
CamW222 said:
I really wish people would stop saying that it's a fixed issue when even Apple itself has said it's not. Yes, the tabs will sync and work properly for some period of time. For me, it's just ten minutes or so. For others, it appears to be days. Then it stops working again, with the tabs directory disappearing on devices or no longer updating. This requires a SOFTWARE FIX that will hopefully be out next week with the release of 14.4 but may not be released until some time after that.
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Apple rarely admits when there are problems or when they are fixed, unless the problem makes news sites. I’m not taking about support agents as they frequently just make things up, especially first level support. I’m talking a statement from Apple.

Whoever told you this requires a software fix is just wrong. It broke without new software, so it doesn’t require new software to fix.
 
CamW222 said:
This requires a SOFTWARE FIX that will hopefully be out next week with the release of 14.4 but may not be released until some time after that.
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iCloud tabs resumed working for me without putting 14.4 on any devices. There are others in this thread with the same experience, so to say that it requires 14.4 is clearly untrue.
 
Morac said:
Apple rarely admits when there are problems or when they are fixed, unless the problem makes news sites. I’m not taking about support agents as they frequently just make things up, especially first level support. I’m talking a statement from Apple.

Whoever told you this requires a software fix is just wrong. It broke without new software, so it doesn’t require new software to fix.
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Whom will I believe? Multiple engineers and senior support specialists at Apple, or a random forum post online? Hmmm...

As for your claim that this broke independent of a software update, well -- when was the exact date and time that it broke? I don't know and you don't know any better than the other end users in this thread or anywhere else like Twitter or Facebook know. We know *generally* when it broke, and it was right around the time that 14.2 came out and macOS 11 came out. Which seems to point to right where Apple has been telling me is the problem: software.

Edit: I just realized you're the original poster. Look at the time/date stamp of your post. Literally two days after 14.2 came out.
 
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chrfr said:
iCloud tabs resumed working for me without putting 14.4 on any devices. There are others in this thread with the same experience, so to say that it requires 14.4 is clearly untrue.
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Yes, and it "resumes working for me" early in the AM when I first begin to use my devices. Then it very quickly stops working 10 or 15 minutes or so later. We have other people in this thread saying that iCloud tabs resumed working for them, then a few days or weeks later, it stopped again and began exhibiting the exact buggy behaviors that have been discussed over and over and over again throughout this entire thread. So this "it works for me now, so it must be fixed and any problems anybody else is having is specific to them rather than iOS/macOS software dependent" is bogus and rather self-serving speculation.
 
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