Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iCloud tabs not syncing

Phantom iCloud tabs said:
If it's on an iPhone or iPad, sign out of iCloud, reboot, and then sign back in. If it's on a Mac, then delete the CloudTabs.* files in the Safari directory.
Click to expand...
I deleted the CloudTabs.* files in the Library/Safari directory, three of them, and when I started Safari again the phantoms came back. Are there any other steps to do?

BTW - I have done the "Sign out of iCloud", the problem is that takes a while to recover from - depending what you have in iCloud, tons of photos have to repopulate, and other data as well. If this was a one-time occurrence great, but after working fine for a while it always seems to come back - so just signing out of iCloud all the time has it's pain point oo.
 
  • Like
Reactions: xpxp2002
donawalt said:
I deleted the CloudTabs.* files in the Library/Safari directory, three of them, and when I started Safari again the phantoms came back. Are there any other steps to do?

BTW - I have done the "Sign out of iCloud", the problem is that takes a while to recover from - depending what you have in iCloud, tons of photos have to repopulate, and other data as well. If this was a one-time occurrence great, but after working fine for a while it always seems to come back - so just signing out of iCloud all the time has it's pain point oo.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you have the permissions to delete these files? What I mean is: did you do a file list (ls is the command in unix) to verify that the cloudtab.* files were deleted? If so, then that is quite strange. It might require you to log out and back into iCloud on the Mac, though every time I've had phantom tabs on a Mac, just deleting ALL the cloudtab files fixed it, and I assume that the iOS equivalent of these files are deleted on the phones/tablets by logging out and then back into iCloud. FYI the "CloudTabs.*" files are the database files that Safari use to build its listing of open iCloud tabs locally. When you delete these files and then open Safari, Safari will contact the iCloud server for a current listing of open cloud tabs on all other devices, then use that data to rebuild the local database. And remember: Unix file names are CASE SENSITIVE. you'll want to rm "CloudTabs.*" (using that case).

And you're right that the time required for logging out and then back into iCloud can vary depending on how much stuff you have in the cloud. On mobile devices I find that it takes roughly 30 or so minutes from the time I start the process to the time I stop it. Not too bad considering that a phantom tab gets "stuck" only every few months for me.
 
Last edited:
I do know the Cloud.* files were gone from the folder when looking at them in a Finer window, and did not come back until I re-opened Safari. Even though the two phantom tabs show up on my Mac, and the phantoms show up on both iPad and iPhone, I wonder if the problem lies in the 2 iPhone/iPad?
 
donawalt said:
I do know the Cloud.* files were gone from the folder when looking at them in a Finer window, and did not come back until I re-opened Safari. Even though the two phantom tabs show up on my Mac, and the phantoms show up on both iPad and iPhone, I wonder if the problem lies in the 2 iPhone/iPad?
Click to expand...
No, if the tab actually isn't open on any device, fixing this will require removing the iCloud tab database file on each separate device per the iCloud sign-in/out advised earlier.
 
I think the main issue is that one fix in place for one person might not fix it for another. FWIW I’ve tried signing out of & into iCloud on my iPhone, and the tab pooped right back up again. And then my iPhoto library didn’t load. Caused more headache than just erasing my phone and restoring from an iCloud backup. And my iPhoto library loaded right up after the restore. Sooo… potato potato
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leschy
gank41 said:
I think the main issue is that one fix in place for one person might not fix it for another. FWIW I’ve tried signing out of & into iCloud on my iPhone, and the tab pooped right back up again. And then my iPhoto library didn’t load. Caused more headache than just erasing my phone and restoring from an iCloud backup. And my iPhoto library loaded right up after the restore. Sooo… potato potato
Click to expand...
I think the sign out then in might work in my case because right now my ipad doesn’t show any current real tabs from my phone if I leave some open. Something in iCloud tabs syncing to my iPad isn’t working right. The only open tabs being displayed are the phantom ones from more than a year ago. My phone will show any open tabs from the ipad so syncing in that direction works fine. I just have not been willing as yet to go through the sign out process. As everyone has experienced it is a major pain and not to be undertaken lightly but does seem to be the only way to deal with iCloud issues but not always successful as I have found out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Leschy
And today, it is working fine! No ghost tabs on either my iPhone or iPad from the Mac. Go figure.
 
donawalt said:
And today, it is working fine! No ghost tabs on either my iPhone or iPad from the Mac. Go figure.
Click to expand...
I’m going to wait until the coming release of ios 15, and the new phone I’ve ordered to be completely set up. Then I’ll see where I am and if it’s the same I’ll sign out of iCloud on my ipad. Every other thing with Safari is working properly except for showing any tabs open from the other devices, other than those phantoms. Odds are it is an iCloud issue but weird that it‘s the only iCloud syncing issue in Safari that’s presenting itself, that would suggest some software issue. I was just hoping to avoid the signing out step.
 
And that fast, a phantom tab from yesterday is showing up from the Mac that won't go away - showing on iPad and iPhone.
 
donawalt said:
And that fast, a phantom tab from yesterday is showing up from the Mac that won't go away - showing on iPad and iPhone.
Click to expand...
Just curious if your phantom ones had always appeared on both other devices - phone and ipad? I never had this problem until I activated and set up my M1 iPad Pro last spring. After everything was set up then the phantom tabs, 20 of them, showed up. Only on the ipad. Have had multiple phones and iPads as well as my laptop and had never seen this before. Why those 20 appear and not just say 10, or 50 I can’t figure out. Unless it’s capped at 20 tabs. I have submitted a bug report through Feedback Assistant for the beta testers and it still shows no other reports. Which could indicate it is strictly an iCloud issue and not software affecting a significant number of others. Still quite a mystery.
 
My phantoms appear on both iPad and iPhone, although infrequently it will be different tabs on each - for me, never more than 2 but I don't keep many tabs open.
 
donawalt said:
My phantoms appear on both iPad and iPhone, although infrequently it will be different tabs on each - for me, never more than 2 but I don't keep many tabs open.
Click to expand...
I’ve never had 20 tabs open on any device. Don’t know why these 20 are there, it’s been the same ones every day since last spring. Each one may have been open at one time or another on my phone last year but not at once.
 
Just a new way of closing them which I did. But I expect them to come back, we’ll see.
 
Leschy said:
Ok they’re still there. Just visible on the start page down below….
Click to expand...
As are the phantom tabs and the new way to close them. So far mine have not reappeared since I closed them. Not really thinking they’re gone but nice not seeing them for a while.
 
Well the iCloud tabs do work in the new Mac Safari 15, and in iOS 15, but they often do not refresh on their own, requiring users to close out the app and restart it to see the updated tab list. I can handle this much better than the bug from last year where tabs simply didn't show up at all, or were very badly outdated and couldn't be closed.
 
After months with the issue and iOS 15 and safari 15 not fixing it I singed out iCloud in the iPhone, restart and sing in again and it works.
It is a pain to synchronize all data again but it worked...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Phantom iCloud tabs and papbot
alayal said:
After months with the issue and iOS 15 and safari 15 not fixing it I singed out iCloud in the iPhone, restart and sing in again and it works.
It is a pain to synchronize all data again but it worked...
Click to expand...
After seeing your post I thought id just go ahead and bite the bullet. However after all was synced up again the phantoms were back, all 20 of them, so this is not the answer.
 
When I signed out of icloud I signed out on my iPad Pro which is where the phantom tabs appeared, that accomplished nothing except for a headache. Then I looked up more posts about related issues going back 2 years and a recommendation I found was to sign out of iCloud on the device whose tabs are appearing on the other device - which is my iPhone. That, at least for now, seems to have worked. Another headache but if this holds up it will have been worth it. Although I’m getting my new phone Friday and will then be wiping this phone and signing out of everything which might have resolved the issue without the headache.

i would suggest for anyone doing this to first check the iCloud System Status page if there are any reported outages you may be unable to sign back in for a time - a huge headache.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back