iOS 17.4 iCloud tabs syncing bug

[13paul13]

iCloud tab syncing was working fine until I upgraded to iOS 17.4 on my iPad and iPhone and now the way it works has changed.

If i close Safari with tabs open it works the same way it used to. My other devices, including my Mac on 14.3.1 will show those tabs as iCloud tabs on my other device.

Now though, if I close all tabs and close Safari, instead of the other devices showing no open tabs on my device, it just shows the tabs that had been open.

Syncing isn’t broken per se as opening new tabs and closing Safari will remove the old tabs, but basically tabs won’t sync if there are no open tabs. Effectively that makes clearing out the closed tabs from other devices impossible. icloud tabs has effectively become currently open or recently open tabs.

Basically tabs only sync when at least one is open.

I’ve updated my iPad and iPhone to 17.5 today and this appears to be fixed. (I’m quoting this post to bring clarity to what I’m referring to as there appears to be a couple of different issues being discussed in this thread.)

 

[gank41]

I’ve updated my iPad and iPhone to 17.5 today and this appears to be fixed. (I’m quoting this post to bring clarity to what I’m referring to as there appears to be a couple of different issues being discussed in this thread.)

This is absolutely not fixed for me.

 

[garethjs]

I think they mean it’s fixed the clearing of the last tab closed on safari on the mac

With ios 17.4, when multiple tabs were closed all at once on safari on the Mac it wouldn’t reflect on iOS.

With iOS 17.4, if you closed individual tabs on the Mac, the last tab would show as still opened on iOS

Now with 17.5 it has been fixed

With iOS 17.5, previous ghost tabs that exist do not get removed automatically. Solution is to untick safari in iCloud settings on iOS, select remove from device, wait 5 min and enable safari sync again.

If u have issues with history, bookmarks and everything else safari related not syncing then that’s an individual issue that needs reporting to apple

 

[gank41]

Well, regardless of what’s happening here, there’s a longstanding post with 64 pages started in November of 2020, with many folks still having this issue and posting there within the last few months. I’ll stand by saying this is NOT fixed, and only looks to be resolved for you now- until it happens again.

iCloud tabs not syncing

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...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Morac]

Well, regardless of what’s happening here, there’s a longstanding post with 64 pages started in November of 2020, with many folks still having this issue and posting there within the last few months. I’ll stand by saying this is NOT fixed, and only looks to be resolved for you now- until it happens again.

iCloud tabs not syncing

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...

forums.macrumors.com

I started that thread and the underlying issue was eventually fixed. Apple also eventually added a way to resolve the phantom tab issue by turning off Safari in the ICloud settings, telling it to delete the Safari stuff and then waiting a bit and turning it back on.

I created this thread when Apple broke syncing in iOS 17.4 when all tabs are closed. That was fixed in iOS 17.5.

I’m sure there are still one off cases, but there are no longer issues that impact everyone.

 

[gank41]

I started that thread and the underlying issue was eventually fixed. Apple also eventually added a way to resolve the phantom tab issue by turning off Safari in the ICloud settings, telling it to delete the Safari stuff and then waiting a bit and turning it back on.

I created this thread when Apple broke syncing in iOS 17.4 when all tabs are closed. That was fixed in iOS 17.5.

I’m sure there are still one off cases, but there are no longer issues that impact everyone.

Yeah, this doesn’t work (turning off Safari in iCloud settings). And these issues never impacted everyone anyways. That thread is still active with folks having this same issue. Saying it’s resolved all together is only going to hurt the folks that are still having the issue. And for you, it’s “fixed” until it happens again. That’s the only consistency here, that it will eventually break again.