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iCloud tabs not syncing

Same issues. Started November 7th, 2020. iPhones (8, SE and SE2) and an iPad Pro all running 14.1. I cleared histories and turned off Safari sync for five days on all devices. Cleared history again and turned on sync. All previous tabs where gone up no new tabs. After a few hours new tabs showed up but from the morning, not current tabs. It’s an issue on the Apple side. I remember having the same issue several years ago. It eventually resolved itself but it did not take this long. Updated everything to 14.2 today and will see what happens.
 
Morac said:
Is anyone having a problem syncing iCloud tabs?


Last night I noticed that when I went to the tab list in Safari on my iPad Pro 11 it showed a tab opened on my iPhone 7 Plus that I had closed earlier that day. I thought maybe I hadn’t closed it, but I checked and I did. I tried removing it on my iPad Pro, but it kept coming back. I tried restarting both devices, but that didn’t do anything. I then powered on an old IPad Air 2 on the same iCloud account and checked Safari there and there were no tabs listed for other devices.

At that point I started opening tabs on various devices and closing Safari and then closing the tabs. Eventually all 3 devices showed no tabs opened on other devices.

This morning they are all completely wrong again. My iPhone shows 1 tab opened on my Pro, which has no tabs open. My Pro shows 1 tab from my Air that has no tabs opened. My Air shows 3 tabs opened on my Pro. All the tabs were things I had opened last night.

I tried opening and closing tabs and nothing seems to resolve this. I even tried toggling Safari off and on in the iCloud settings on my Air 2, but that just removed the iCloud tabs and then brought them back. As such the problem seems to be with what’s stored in iCloud.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Yup, confirmed here. iCloud tabs are not syncing at all. My Mac still shows tabs from my iPhone that I closed ages ago and vice versa.
 
I_M_JUST_NORMAL said:
I just started downloading iOS14.2. AFAIK this clears caches first.

(can be forced/ done with cold restart as well)

right now, I have the correctly synced tabs. Just don‘t ask me what makes it getting stuck other than sth with the cache.
Click to expand...
🤩🤩🤩🤩Hey all: it‘s six hours later and after my download and install of iOS14.2 it works: I can now „pick up from Safari on MacBook“ directly from home screen(swipe down to search/find last actions) as well as within Safari by swiping up.

note that I saw that this suddenly worked DURING the download process of the iOS update. The procedure clears /wipes unnecessary caches in order to always have enough space to indtall.

i‘d say try cold reboot (press two buttons according to your device model) and see if thst resolves the issue.
 
I have been on iOS and iPadOS 14.2 since the dy it was released, abut a week ago? I did hard reset too, it's still broken for me.
 
donawalt said:
I have been on iOS and iPadOS 14.2 since the dy it was released, abut a week ago? I did hard reset too, it's still broken for me.
Click to expand...

Same here.

I’m actually starting to see even older close tabs. It’s like it’s going backwards in time.
 
Leschy said:
is there anybody watching this thread who is in contact with Apple already? Maybe he / she can advise to this thread, to show how many users are affected.
Click to expand...
Rhonindk seems to have escalated the issue on Friday to Apple and they seem to have opened a ticket.
 
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I'm sure it is not related to the newest firmwares, as I have iOS 13.7 and MacOs 10.15.7 and still facing the problem with tabs syncing
 
Same here. Running the latest software on all devices and they're not in sync – iMac, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPad Pro. They all have different tabs showing yet all have Safari sync turned on in their iCloud settings.
 
- Safari iCloud Tabs on iPhone XS show old tabs from MacBook Pro and iPad Pro (3rd gen)
- Safari iCloud Tabs on iPad Pro (3rd gen) show old tabs from MacBook Pro and iPhone XS
- macOS is 11.0.1 (public release)
- iOS and iPad OS are 14.2 (public release)
 
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I_M_JUST_NORMAL said:
Rhonindk seems to have escalated the issue on Friday to Apple and they seem to have opened a ticket.
Click to expand...

I’ll mention that Apple won’t prioritize this with a single ticket. I’ve had tickets opened for years for bugs that Apple has never fixed. More people need to contact Apple.
 
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I_M_JUST_NORMAL said:
🤩🤩🤩🤩Hey all: it‘s six hours later and after my download and install of iOS14.2 it works: I can now „pick up from Safari on MacBook“ directly from home screen(swipe down to search/find last actions) as well as within Safari by swiping up.

note that I saw that this suddenly worked DURING the download process of the iOS update. The procedure clears /wipes unnecessary caches in order to always have enough space to indtall.

i‘d say try cold reboot (press two buttons according to your device model) and see if thst resolves the issue.
Click to expand...
I have done all of that.
Fresh install of iOS without restore from backup. New iCloud ID. Restart, force reset.
Nothing resolves the issue.
 
Hi all,

I was on the phone with a few Apple support reps last Thursday into Saturday. It took some patience, but they opened a ticket for me and are having the engineers look into the issue. No updates yet as far as I can tell.

I have experienced a few of the problems you are describing, including:
  • Bookmarks syncing but 0 history sync and delayed/outdated tabs sync.
  • Stuck tabs despite many attempts at removing them from all of my iCloud devices.
It might be better to temporarily turn off the feature for now until a fix is in place unless you actively use bookmark syncing for work. I just decided to update and manage my bookmarks on my MacBook and turned safari sync off on both my phone and laptop for the time being. With Big Sur, it seems to drain the battery dramatically (and sporadically) when polling the servers for iCloud updates in Safari.
 
I thought about turning off Safari iCloud sync too. I think I read somewhere that iCloud clears in 7 days for Safari, is that true? If so, maybe turning all devices off, and letting iCloud clear, will fix whatever is broken.
 
Since updating to the iPhone 12 pro max last Friday after I restored from iCloud backup from previous 11 max pro, my favorites page in safari has all greyed out icons. They used to be colored. Anyone else having this issue?
 
asu1996 said:
Since updating to the iPhone 12 pro max last Friday after I restored from iCloud backup from previous 11 max pro, my favorites page in safari has all greyed out icons. They used to be colored. Anyone else having this issue?
Click to expand...
Yea, exactly the same issue in safari 14 on my mac with Catalina. Ios 13.7 safari is ok
 
I_M_JUST_NORMAL said:
🤩🤩🤩🤩Hey all: it‘s six hours later and after my download and install of iOS14.2 it works: I can now „pick up from Safari on MacBook“ directly from home screen(swipe down to search/find last actions) as well as within Safari by swiping up.

note that I saw that this suddenly worked DURING the download process of the iOS update. The procedure clears /wipes unnecessary caches in order to always have enough space to indtall.

i‘d say try cold reboot (press two buttons according to your device model) and see if thst resolves the issue.
Click to expand...
Is it handoff feature you’re talking about? Handoff works fine, Siri Suggestions also even pick up active tabs opened on my other device. It’s just iCloud Tabs that sync old tabs.
 
asu1996 said:
Since updating to the iPhone 12 pro max last Friday after I restored from iCloud backup from previous 11 max pro, my favorites page in safari has all greyed out icons. They used to be colored. Anyone else having this issue?
Click to expand...
Hello. I have that too, but only sporadically. Either, I see the coloured icons in folders, or I see grated out folders. This does not happen parallel to the iCloud tab syncing problem. So, right no, all favourites in colours, while tabs not synced.
realpras said:
Is it handoff feature you’re talking about? Handoff works fine, Siri Suggestions also even pick up active tabs opened on my other device. It’s just iCloud Tabs that sync old tabs.
Click to expand...
as of now, none of the features work. They ALL worked for about six hours right during and after the download and install iOS update to 14.2
Today, the handoff isnt available and iCloud tabs are delayed showing Sunday.
 
I_M_JUST_NORMAL said:
Hello. I have that too, but only sporadically. Either, I see the coloured icons in folders, or I see grated out folders. This does not happen parallel to the iCloud tab syncing problem. So, right no, all favourites in colours, while tabs not synced.

as of now, none of the features work. They ALL worked for about six hours right during and after the download and install iOS update to 14.2
Today, the handoff isnt available and iCloud tabs are delayed showing Sunday.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks. Yeah once in awhile after visiting one of my favorites and then going back to favorites page, I will see that favorites icon colored but then next time it is greyed out. This has to either be a software bug or server side error. I hope they fix it.
 
Morac said:
I’ll mention that Apple won’t prioritize this with a single ticket. I’ve had tickets opened for years for bugs that Apple has never fixed. More people need to contact Apple.
Click to expand...
I sent a Radar also. Cannot see tabs of other devices from MacBook & iPad, but see all 3 from iPhone.
 
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