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iCloud tabs not syncing
- Thread starter Morac
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Just noticed all of my iCloud tabs are absent from my iPad recently updated to 18, even the ones from other iOS devices updated to 18. Will check Macs and others in the morning
the iCloud tabs are synced but only if you do a force quit on iOS / iPadOS. no realtime syncing. Maybe it will be fixed with a x.0.1 Update
Actually It's working perfectly for me I just got down to testing it. It actually got rid of the ghost tab I had on my iPad Pro as well
with Macbook Safari open, iPad Safari open, I opened a tab on my iPhone. It appeared in both Mac and iPad almost immediately. I then closed it on the iPhone and it disappeared from both.
I then tried opening it on the Mac and it appeared on both iPad and iphone
with Macbook Safari open, iPad Safari open, I opened a tab on my iPhone. It appeared in both Mac and iPad almost immediately. I then closed it on the iPhone and it disappeared from both.
I then tried opening it on the Mac and it appeared on both iPad and iphone
And it’s such a glaring issue. For me this was working quite well prior to 18. I would regularly be on my iPad or phone later in the day and see in Safari a list of tabs from the other device that I had forgotten to close.
Now, when force quitting Safari to get the tabs to appear, using the option to close a tab only clears it from that screen, but does not close the tab on the device that the tab is open.
Now, when force quitting Safari to get the tabs to appear, using the option to close a tab only clears it from that screen, but does not close the tab on the device that the tab is open.
Yep, it's a complete mess and if Apple can't fix it in almost half a decade of people reporting the problem I doubt they're going to get round to it any time soon.
Unfortunately I think you’re right; a number of these syncing issues have occurred over the years. They shouldn’t even be called features, just wishful thinking.
It’ll get fixed at some point then break again next year. This is why these massive yearly updates need to stop. Every fall it’s rinse and repeat.
I hadn't thought about this, but definitely a good point. The proverbial "don't put all your eggs in one basket." For the record, I do use a third-party password manager, but in the past it had really been because Apple's solution was incomplete for my needs.
Many years ago, I used to listen to this podcast, and the host described his frustrations with OneDrive being inferior to Dropbox, at least at the time. And he described around a philosophy that, with software, companies who do "one thing" focus on that one product alone and make it the best it can be. Meanwhile Microsoft OneDrive (or Google Drive, Apple iCloud Drive, etc.) represents a 0.1% or less portion of their owner's yearly revenue and competes for attention among tens of thousands of other products and product features.
And at the end of the day, the success or loss of customers very well can make or break a company like Dropbox, while if Microsoft or Google discontinued their online storage services, they'd easily survive. And the resources that those companies dedicate to those services are generally reflective of what they think the revenue potential is for the service. It's something I think about when deciding which services to use or avoid. Sometimes the first party solution can still be better due to integration with an ecosystem, but sometimes it's just not.
I take it back. I think what happened is the restart after the software installation, like a force quit, caused the open tabs from my phone to be shown. But without restarting or force quitting this still seems not to work.
On a related issue, is anyone having an issue with bookmarks and reading lists syncing? I only have my new phone on iOS 18 everything else is on iOS 17. Nothing that is added to bookmarks or reading lists on the iOS 18 device will sync to the other devices still on iOS 17, however all the iOS 17 devices sync to whatever is added or deleted but not to the iOS 18 device. Anyone else with this issue? Seems like a bug in iOS 18 but haven't seen anyone else post on this issue.
I have seen other posts mentioning the issue with bookmarks syncing. I have not checked myself. My phone and iPad are on 18.1, and with the issue of iCloud tabs not appearing, I wouldn’t be surprised if bookmarks were an issue also. Just out of curiosity you could try force quitting Safari on the device that doesn’t display the bookmarks or restarting the device to see if they appear.
Cloud Syncing and background network traffic in general in iOS 18 seems wonky. The Safari start page doesn’t sync at all. Deleting of messages sync, but the notifications don’t get removed. Mail rarely downloads. Basically iOS 18 seems like early beta software.
Syncing is definitely a significant flaw. Regarding messages, they are deleted from my other synced device but I frequently have to restart that device to get rid of the number badge on the Messages icon when there are no more unread messages. Safari syncing is very puzzling. I can look at History on either my phone or ipad and see the sites that I was viewing on either device, but bookmarks and iCloud tabs only appear if I force quit Safari or restart the device.
Thank you for your feedback. I did force quit and restart countless times, but that didn't fix it. And the crazy thing is that I was obsessed with the iCloud tabs disappearing for many years and I kind of gave up on that, but that is working in iOS 18 for me, at least for now (knock on wood). I just can't believe how useless a system it is that it is actually so difficult to edit these bookmarks even on a Mac. I think I am going to look into a 3rd party app like Anybox, Raindrop or Goodlinks that I have seen people referring to.