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iCloud tabs not syncing

StumpyBloke said:
I wouldn’t waste your time. So many people have done all this accounts messing about and at best it’s only a short-term fix.
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It fixed my issue. My suspicion is somewhere in the iCloud database a lock was initiated. Removing the device from the account unlocked it and allowed the tabs to clear. I did this yesterday and haven't had the issue return since.

The only thing I can't remember is when the phantom tabs disappeared and how exactly. Did removing the device delete the tabs automatically, or did I explicitly close the tabs while the device was no longer on my account?!?
 
srbNYC said:
I'm game to try that! Does it require lots of re-setting-up on the Mac?
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Not much for me since I don't keep much on iCloud. If you use iCloud photos (I don't), then this might be more painful. Just delete the device from iCloud and then signin to add it back.
 
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meanbits said:
Not much for me since I don't keep much on iCloud. If you use iCloud photos (I don't), then this might be more painful. Just delete the device from iCloud and then signin to add it back.
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Thanks for the quick reply. I just turned on iCloud photos a couple of weeks ago, so now I think I might be scared to try! The "phantom" tabs bug me, but I can live with them... ;)
 
srbNYC said:
Thanks for the quick reply. I just turned on iCloud photos a couple of weeks ago, so now I think I might be scared to try! The "phantom" tabs bug me, but I can live with them... ;)
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Signing out of iCloud, which will remove the device from iCloud, won’t delete iCloud Photos.

It’s a fairly harmless troubleshooting step on a Mac. It will require the Mac to re-index the photos though, so searching them may not be available for a little while.

Theoretically signing out of iCloud on any device shouldn’t cause issues, though I don’t like doing so on an iPhone as it takes a long time for things to go back to normal on it once logging back in.
 
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Morac said:
Signing out of iCloud, which will remove the device from iCloud, won’t delete iCloud Photos.

It’s a fairly harmless troubleshooting step on a Mac. It will require the Mac to re-index the photos though, so searching them may not be available for a little while.

Theoretically signing out of iCloud on any device shouldn’t cause issues, though I don’t like doing so on an iPhone as it takes a long time for things to go back to normal on it once logging back in.
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You convinced me. I'm going for it. Wish me luck (he said, nervously).
UPDATE: It said something about removing or downloading all my photos, and then something about turning off all iCloud services, so I chickened out.
 
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meanbits said:
I had an issue with iCloud tabs showing on my iPhone for my iMac that weren't' actually on my iMac. Whenever I closed them on my iPhone, they would re-appear.

Fix: signout of iCloud on my iMac and remove iMac from my iCloud account, then add it back.
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I tried this, and now I have about twenty more phantom tabs on both my Mac and iPhone that won't go away. Also, many of these tabs are websites that I haven't visited in months.
 
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meanbits said:
It fixed my issue. My suspicion is somewhere in the iCloud database a lock was initiated. Removing the device from the account unlocked it and allowed the tabs to clear. I did this yesterday and haven't had the issue return since.

The only thing I can't remember is when the phantom tabs disappeared and how exactly. Did removing the device delete the tabs automatically, or did I explicitly close the tabs while the device was no longer on my account?!?
Click to expand...

I’m glad it worked for you, obviously. I just have a feeling, going by the rest of this thread which I have read all of it, that it’s just a short term fix. Apple have fundamentally screwed something up with this particular part of iCloud and they seem unwilling and/or unable to fix it for everybody.
 
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adp-20 said:
I tried this, and now I have about twenty more phantom tabs on both my Mac and iPhone that won't go away. Also, many of these tabs are websites that I haven't visited in months.
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Did you remove the device from your account after signing out of iCloud? Did you close all of the tabs for your device from another device before adding the device back to your account?
 
meanbits said:
Did you remove the device from your account after signing out of iCloud? Did you close all of the tabs for your device from another device before adding the device back to your account?
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I tried removing the device and Safari syncing from iCloud and then put it back. I guess we'll have to wait for another fix from Apple. Somebody told earlier that it's a server problem.
 
I've had this same issue for the past few months and just now attempted to fix it. What worked was 1) removing the device with the wrong tabs (M1 MacBook Pro here) from iCloud (from the MacBook) 2) When removed, go to iCloud.com and ensure it is removed from your account 3) Check iPhone iCloud list to ensure it's gone 4) Sign into iCloud again in MacBook settings. This worked for me and now my tabs are syncing correctly.
 
I've tried removing all devices and signing back into iCloud too... I don't get any phantom tabs. I just don't get any tabs at all! This seems to have been the case for the last few months for me.
Screenshot 2021-05-20 at 13.46.39.png
 
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The tabs from my iPhone and iPad stopped syncing to my MacBook Air in real time today. They would only update after quitting Safari and launching it. My iPhone and iPad would update in real time though. I remembered I had an Internet outage yesterday so I restarted my Mac. That fixed everything for me.
 
Just realized something - My tabs are syncing in real time, but my iPhone shows lots of "phantom” tabs for my MBA. However, my iPad does not show them; it has an accurate, current list. So that would mean it’s somewhere between my iPhone and a server, but the server info isn’t entirely to blame, right? And signing out of my iCloud account on my MBA probably wouldn’t be the solution….
 
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I received my new iPad today and transferred the data from one to this new one. The shared tabs work perfectly on the old iPad and iPhone, but the new iPad shows dozens of phantom tabs supposedly from the iPhone (and includes current real ones).

If I swipe to close them in the list they just reappear straight away. I have set the iPad up three times but it’s made no difference. The only thing I haven’t done is remove the iPhone from my account et cetera. I really don’t want to go down this route because it’s so much work to get it back up and running again. I don’t know if I can restore from an iCloud backup or if I have to set it up from scratch to get round this problem that Apple are so completely and utterly incapable of fixing.
 
Several months ago I had this problem. Apple engineers requested a number of "profile reports" that I sent them, and after about a month, they said they located the problem in iCloud. They thanked me for helping them because they were aware of others with similar issues. Ironically, the representative I was working with was surprised when I told her that the problem had been resolved. Nobody had told her, so I asked her to see if she could inform her colleagues about what had happened.

I'm disappointed to see this issue still exists for others.
 
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These phantom tabs make no sense. After 7 days tabs should delete themselves.

So even if u left it, these tabs should disappear
 
StumpyBloke said:
I received my new iPad today and transferred the data from one to this new one. The shared tabs work perfectly on the old iPad and iPhone, but the new iPad shows dozens of phantom tabs supposedly from the iPhone (and includes current real ones).

If I swipe to close them in the list they just reappear straight away. I have set the iPad up three times but it’s made no difference. The only thing I haven’t done is remove the iPhone from my account et cetera. I really don’t want to go down this route because it’s so much work to get it back up and running again. I don’t know if I can restore from an iCloud backup or if I have to set it up from scratch to get round this problem that Apple are so completely and utterly incapable of fixing.
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Just a quick update. I followed a post from above which suggested signing out of iCloud on the rogue device, removing said device from account and then signing back in again. This worked for me, which I have to admit I am gobsmacked. Thanks to whoever posted that suggestion above.
 
StumpyBloke said:
I received my new iPad today and transferred the data from one to this new one. The shared tabs work perfectly on the old iPad and iPhone, but the new iPad shows dozens of phantom tabs supposedly from the iPhone (and includes current real ones).

If I swipe to close them in the list they just reappear straight away. I have set the iPad up three times but it’s made no difference. The only thing I haven’t done is remove the iPhone from my account et cetera. I really don’t want to go down this route because it’s so much work to get it back up and running again. I don’t know if I can restore from an iCloud backup or if I have to set it up from scratch to get round this problem that Apple are so completely and utterly incapable of fixing.
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I have the exact same issue. The iCloud tab syncing is working fine on my existing devices (Mac, iPhone, old iPad). However, my new iPad is insisting I have million tabs open on those devices. Some are from sites I haven't visited in months. I can swipe to close them, but they'll come back as soon as Safari is opened on those other devices. It's a never ending process.

Since all my existing devices are working fine, I really don't want to sign out of iCloud to attempt to fix this issue. I guess I'll wait a couple weeks to see if they start disappearing on their own, but it's really odd it's showing sites I've visited 6+ months ago, especially considering my history has been cleared since then.
 
iStorm said:
I have the exact same issue. The iCloud tab syncing is working fine on my existing devices (Mac, iPhone, old iPad). However, my new iPad is insisting I have million tabs open on those devices. Some are from sites I haven't visited in months. I can swipe to close them, but they'll come back as soon as Safari is opened on those other devices. It's a never ending process.

Since all my existing devices are working fine, I really don't want to sign out of iCloud to attempt to fix this issue. I guess I'll wait a couple weeks to see if they start disappearing on their own, but it's really odd it's showing sites I've visited 6+ months ago, especially considering my history has been cleared since then.
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Just sign out of iCloud: do as I said above. It’s a really quick job. The thing that took the longest was to synchronise my photographs again but I just left it running in the background. I had my tabs problem sorted out in 10 minutes.
 
srbNYC said:
So if my iPhone shows phantom tabs for my MacBook, which is the "rogue" device?
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MacBook.

My new iPad was showing rogue tabs for my iPhone. And it was my iPhone which I signed out of iCloud, removed it from my account, signed back in again and was all good to go.
 
StumpyBloke said:
Just sign out of iCloud: do as I said above. It’s a really quick job. The thing that took the longest was to synchronise my photographs again but I just left it running in the background. I had my tabs problem sorted out in 10 minutes.
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I’ll save this as a last resort if it doesn’t fix itself within a few weeks. Apparently all three of my existing devices are “rogue”, which means doing the process several times. I don’t want to run the risk of messing up text message forwarding or Messages in iCloud, which have also been flaky in the past. Signing out of iCloud also removes the cards in Apple Pay, so I’d need to set them up again too. Still a fairly simple process, but not worth the effort for me at this point…maybe if I just had one “rogue” device.
 
FWIW, I’ve tried the “log out of iCloud” thing before and that’s caused more problems than it’s fixed. Ive had all of my photos disappear and my files and some settings…

This problem does have a “fix”, if you will. I had this problem and found this thread; ended up doing a backup/erase/restore all three of my devices to get there, but everything’s been working consistently since.
 
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