iCloud tabs not syncing

[collin_]

It's been over 3 months at this point and the issue is still not fixed for me.

This reminds me of the time that Apple News just randomly stopped updating on my iPhone (wouldn't load any new content). I didn't really care so it was just stuck that way for like 9 months until a software update finally fixed it.

 

[James Godfrey]

I upgraded to iOS 15.2.1 and ended up with a stuck iCloud tab on my iPhone. I haven't had that happen since upgrading to iOS 15.

The usual work around of setting the time ahead more than 2 weeks worked. I turned off iCloud reminders first so they wouldn’t get screwed up, but screen time got messed up and won’t show other devices now.

I find there is always bugs within iCloud, sometimes things work sometimes they don’t, I am currently finding that Hand Off apps not showing up on both my iPads, however, my iMac and iPhone are showing apps I am currently working on on all of my other devices including my iPads.

 

[Morac]

I find there is always bugs within iCloud, sometimes things work sometimes they don’t, I am currently finding that Hand Off apps not showing up on both my iPads, however, my iMac and iPhone are showing apps I am currently working on on all of my other devices including my iPads.

well I fixed iCloud tabs, but now screentime sharing is fubared. It won’t sync at all, even after turning it off everywhere and back on.

 

[croppy16]

I was having a problem where the tabs for all of my devices with Apple designed chips (M1 Max MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, 13 Pro Max) were syncing with each other but not my Intel based iMac Pro. I couldn't figure out what was causing the problem until I finally turned off Private Relay on the Intel machine (didn't turn it off on the ARM devices), closed and reopened Safari and the tabs started syncing for all of my devices.

 

[srbNYC]

My tabs were doing great. The latest two updates (iOS and Monterey) have made is stop again. Pretty sure it's a iPhone-originated issue, as the iCloud tabs section is not showing on the start page there.

 

[techguy82]

Oh man, I fixed it!! I posted earlier I had phantom tabs showing up on my new iPad Pro from my three existing / "rogue" devices. I wasn't quite up for the task of signing out of iCloud and removing them from my Apple ID since I would have needed to do it for each of those three devices. Plus, I didn't want to run the risk of potentially introducing new issues, or setting up my cards in Apple Pay again, among other things.

Searching the web about this issue indicates that an Apple support page apparently used to state "If you can't access the device that shared the tab, the tab will automatically be cleared from the list after 14 days if the tab isn't updated."

I was going to wait a couple weeks to see if they would disappear on their own even though I still had my devices, but then I thought what if I just change the date on my iPad to the future? So I did just that. I set my iPad Pro to July 1st, opened Safari, and BOOM...the phantom tabs were gone! I set the date back to the current date, they're still gone and the correct ones are still showing/working.

Obviously YMMV, but this may be another/simpler option to try rather than signing out of iCloud if you have phantom tabs (or just wait a couple weeks). I do realize some people don't like changing the date, but I've never had any implications from having done that several times in the past for other reasons. I figured this was worth a shot before trying other things that would have been a bit more involved.

Unbelievable! I had zombie tabs from my iphone on my Macbook. I just set the date on the iphone 1 month ahead in the future and back and now they are gone. Thanks for figuring this out! It's such a bizarr solution :-D

 

[Morac]

Unbelievable! I had zombie tabs from my iphone on my Macbook. I just set the date on the iphone 1 month ahead in the future and back and now they are gone. Thanks for figuring this out! It's such a bizarr solution :-D

Just a warning that this can cause recurring Reminders to get fubared as well as mess up ScreenTime.

 

[techguy82]

Just a warning that this can cause recurring Reminders to get fubared as well as mess up ScreenTime.

Thanks for the warning but I already have an iCloud reminder problem. When I set a specific time for a reminder on my phone while my MacBook is sleeping, it won’t get synced - does not happen if I only set or change the date. Happy to try every unusual solution should you have an idea .

 

[Morac]

Thanks for the warning but I already have an iCloud reminder problem. When I set a specific time for a reminder on my phone while my MacBook is sleeping, it won’t get synced - does not happen if I only set or change the date. Happy to try every unusual solution should you have an idea .

I ended up with a non-existent reminder firing any time I rebooted my phone. I had to do an erase and restore to get rid of it.

I’ve used the set the date ahead solution under iOS 14 without issues several times before. I ran into this issue the first and only time I tried it under iOS 15.

 

[Morac]

I ended up with a non-existent reminder firing any time I rebooted my phone. I had to do an erase and restore to get rid of it.

I’ve used the set the date ahead solution under iOS 14 without issues several times before. I ran into this issue the first and only time I tried it under iOS 15.

I just had my iPhone get a stuck closed tap for my Mac again and fixed it using the set date ahead method without managing to break everything by doing the following:

1. Went into the Screen Time setting so it would update and hopefully not try to update again while the date was changed.

2. Turned off reminders in iCloud.

3. Set date ahead 3 weeks. Quickly did steps 4 to 7.

4. Went into Safari and tap and hold and chose to close the stuck tab.

5. Killed and reopened Safari to make sure it was gone.

6. Set date back to automatic.

7. Rebooted my iPhone.

8. Turned iCloud reminders back on. Waited for them to load.

9. Rebooted again to make sure nothing was broken.


Of note, while this was broken I found out something interesting. If I tried to close the iCloud tab on my iPhone and Safari on my Mac was running, then when I killed and reopened Safari on my iPhone the tab would come back. If I quit Safari on my Mac and did that, the tab would not reappear until I launched Safari again. What this means is that closing the tab on the iPhone causes a message to get sent to Safari on the the Mac via iCloud to close the tab. If Safari responds no (because there is no open tab) then the tab returns on the iPhone. As such another way to fix this would be to not power on the “bad” device for several week (not really a solution).

Also I’m pretty sure I triggered this by closing Safari on the Mac before the iPhone updated its tab list. Oddly I’ve only had this problem on my iPhone recently, not my iPad.

 

[srbNYC]

I can't figure this out, but now the option to show iCloud tabs has disappeared entirely from the Start Page menu of Safari on my MacBook Air. (And, yes, I have the Safari box ticked in iCloud preferences. Haven't changed anything there.)

 

[Morac]

I can't figure this out, but now the option to show iCloud tabs has disappeared entirely from the Start Page menu of Safari on my MacBook Air. (And, yes, I have the Safari box ticked in iCloud preferences. Haven't changed anything there.)

On the Mac, the checkbox only shows up if there is currently an iCloud tab visible. If not the checkbox won’t show up. In iOS the checkbox will always be there.

 

[srbNYC]

On the Mac, the checkbox only shows up if there is currently an iCloud tab visible. If not the checkbox won’t show up. In iOS the checkbox will always be there.

Got it. Thanks. ..Although I have a bunch of tabs open on my iPhone, and Safari turned on for iCloud sync there. So I should have iCloud tabs available.

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

Got it. Thanks. ..Although I have a bunch of tabs open on my iPhone, and Safari turned on for iCloud sync there. So I should have iCloud tabs available.

It means Safari doesn't see those iCloud tabs, which means there is a syncing issue of some kind.

 

[Morac]

Got it. Thanks. ..Although I have a bunch of tabs open on my iPhone, and Safari turned on for iCloud sync there. So I should have iCloud tabs available.

iOS Safari won’t push out iCloud tabs until you exit back to the Home Screen. If you’ve done that, then try rebooting the iPhone and logging out of your Mac (don’t need to reboot) and back in.

If it’s still not showing up, you have an iCloud issue.

Edit: this applies to Safari 15.

 

[srbNYC]

iOS Safari won’t push out iCloud tabs until you exit back to the Home Screen. If you’ve done that, then try rebooting the iPhone and logging out of your Mac (don’t need to reboot) and back in.

If it’s still not showing up, you have an iCloud issue.

Edit: this applies to Safari 15.

Thanks. You inspired me to experiment. Seems like turning my MacBooks' iCloud sync for Safari off and on did the trick; they suddenly populated. Not sure what triggered the sudden failure a few weeks ago, but back in business.

 

[Morac]

I just had my iPhone get a stuck closed tap for my Mac again and fixed it using the set date ahead method without managing to break everything by doing the following:

1. Went into the Screen Time setting so it would update and hopefully not try to update again while the date was changed.

2. Turned off reminders in iCloud.

3. Set date ahead 3 weeks. Quickly did steps 4 to 7.

4. Went into Safari and tap and hold and chose to close the stuck tab.

5. Killed and reopened Safari to make sure it was gone.

6. Set date back to automatic.

7. Rebooted my iPhone.

8. Turned iCloud reminders back on. Waited for them to load.

9. Rebooted again to make sure nothing was broken.


Of note, while this was broken I found out something interesting. If I tried to close the iCloud tab on my iPhone and Safari on my Mac was running, then when I killed and reopened Safari on my iPhone the tab would come back. If I quit Safari on my Mac and did that, the tab would not reappear until I launched Safari again. What this means is that closing the tab on the iPhone causes a message to get sent to Safari on the the Mac via iCloud to close the tab. If Safari responds no (because there is no open tab) then the tab returns on the iPhone. As such another way to fix this would be to not power on the “bad” device for several week (not really a solution).

Also I’m pretty sure I triggered this by closing Safari on the Mac before the iPhone updated its tab list. Oddly I’ve only had this problem on my iPhone recently, not my iPad.

I don’t know why, but ever since I did this, my iPhone’s battery has been draining 3 to 4% every hour without any usage at all. I even tried a hard reset.

Edit: erasing the phone and restoring from iCloud fixed the battery drain. It’s annoying that the steps I took to fix a stuck iCloud tab ended up causing a battery drain which then required a wipe and restore to fix.

 

[quartznost]

I last wrote about this over a year ago… the tabs seemed to have ‘fixed themselves’ back then. Now…I recently bought a new iPad, and everything’s hosed again (might have been happening before I bought this iPad… not quite sure - part of the frustration). I have a 2017 MacBook Pro, an iPhone 12, and this new 2021 iPad Pro. I have phantom tabs that won’t go away from weeks ago. That’s if the devices show up at all. Sometimes they do, sometimes not. I tried closing all tabs, shutting on and off iCloud on all devices, reboots, setting the time ahead a month (real trip on the iPhone when you do that… screen goes dark for a few moments - ughh). Why are we all being forced to run experiments like this? How much collective time is being spent on this? Other people here have been pointing out how long this has been going on. Even if I eventually get to “works for me,” all these other poor folks will still keep posting because they’re in the same boat. I think I got an account on this MacRumours forum for this issue specifically. I wonder what Steve Jobs would say.

 

[freediverx00]

The problem with Apple's cloud services is that while most of the time they just work, when they don't there's nowhere to check for sync status or force a sync. So basically in the spirit of making things simpler for most people most of the time, they make things excruciatingly difficult and frustrating for some people some of the time. And it's entirely unnecessary. Just give us a damned sync now button.

I ran into a related issue recently when I discovered that iCloud Tabs and Tab Groups hadn't sync'd to my iPad for weeks. After some trial and error, I finally got it fixed by disabling iCloud for Safari on the iPad, waiting 15 minutes, and then re-enabling it. If I had called Apple Support, they would have asked me to disable iCloud across all apps on all my devices, which is something I would not have been willing to do, and clearly would have been an enormous waste of my time.

 

[xpxp2002]

I wonder what Steve Jobs would say.

“Try holding it differently.” ?

 

[Morac]

iCloud had a major outage for a few hours today. Even though it’s been marked as “resolved” I’m finding a number of services are not syncing in a timely matter. Reminders is one and iCloud tabs is another. Reminders are taking anywhere from 5 minutes to over an hour to sync. I haven’t waited long enough to see how long it will take iCloud tabs to sync, but it wasn’t doing so within a few minutes.

Basically all the changes that didn’t happen when iCloud was down happened all at once when it came back up and that seems to have overloaded it.

I’m hoping things will return to normal within 24 hours.

 

[quartznost]

“Try holding it differently.” ?

Lol. That Reality Distortion Field is strong.

 

[Morac]

Over 24 hours later and iCloud tabs still isn’t working at all. Tabs open on my iPhone, iPad and Mac don’t show up on any other devices.

Edit: it’s not just iCloud tabs. Nothing in Safari is syncing including bookmarks, iCloud tabs, the start page or iCloud tabs.

Edit 2:

I unchecked Safari in the iCloud settings on all my devices, waited a few minutes and checked them one at a time and everything is working again.

 

[furou]

Over 24 hours later and iCloud tabs still isn’t working at all. Tabs open on my iPhone, iPad and Mac don’t show up on any other devices.

Edit: it’s not just iCloud tabs. Nothing in Safari is syncing including bookmarks, iCloud tabs, the start page or iCloud tabs.

Edit 2:

I unchecked Safari in the iCloud settings on all my devices, waited a few minutes and checked them one at a time and everything is working again.

Thanks for sharing the solution. I just noticed that my Safari iCloud tabs stopped syncing as well after the downtime. I’ll try to do that and hopefully it’ll work.

 

[Morac]

I did learn something looking at the Console app on my Mac. All Safari stuff (other than passwords which are in keychain) is synced with Bookmarks cloud data. This includes bookmarks, start page settings, tab groups and open tabs.