iCloud Safari won't sync on iPhone only (of three devices)

[exi]

In part of my troubleshooting with Advanced Data Protection breaking Safari bookmarks sync on my iCloud account, for which I've sought help in threads of mine elsewhere here, I turned off ADP.

I then had a variety of Safari sync issues across two separate macOS machines and one iOS device with ADP off.

Long story short, after extensive reboots/resets/plist deletions and various other troubleshooting over hours, the two macOS machines now sync flawlessly.

Despite multiple reboots, "hard restarts" (up/down/hold power), toggling of Safari sync settings, and logging out/in of iCloud on iOS, the iOS device in question simply will not sync Safari bookmarks.

At times, after force-closing Safari and restarting, I am getting extensive periods of time of the error message "Bookmarks are being synced. Please edit the bookmarks once syncing has completed." It does not appear this is actually doing anything. iCloud tabs do sync.

ADP is still off. iPhone 15 Pro. Devices all up-to-date.

I appreciate any insight.

(Edit - and reenabling ADP again disrupts Safari sync even between the two macOS devices.)

 

[toasted ICT]

I appreciate this is a while since you posted but I want to ask did you ever get this fixed?
I have been battling with Apple support for weeks over the same issue with no fix.

 

[exi]

Yes, it was. As I recall, it took a number of cycles of deleting everything, disabling all devices, enabling one device to be canonical for bookmarks, and eventually managing to get that to propagate over time. I recall there being a couple of times where it took creating new bookmarks with sync re-enabled for all devices on account to trigger re-sync. I'm sure there's a more efficient pathway to getting it back on track, but I tried so many things in such a short period of time, I don't remember the exact order of steps.

As to the ADP thing, that was fixed on Apple's end, best I can tell.

 

[toasted ICT]

Yes, it was. As I recall, it took a number of cycles of deleting everything, disabling all devices, enabling one device to be canonical for bookmarks, and eventually managing to get that to propagate over time. I recall there being a couple of times where it took creating new bookmarks with sync re-enabled for all devices on account to trigger re-sync. I'm sure there's a more efficient pathway to getting it back on track, but I tried so many things in such a short period of time, I don't remember the exact order of steps.

As to the ADP thing, that was fixed on Apple's end, best I can tell.

Thank you for your reply. I am at my wits end.

I have tried everything on Apples site listed under "if your icloud or safari bookmarks aren't syncing".

Also I have:
1. Checked for Hidden Profiles or Accounts to
ensure there isn't an additional iCloud account or hidden profile on any of device that might be interfering with sync settings.

2. check if Keychain sync is working correctly.... Keychain syncing is off or showing issues, apparently this could affect other sync features including bookmarks.

3. Changed DNS settings to Google DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1) on the router

4. turned off private relay

5. Reset Network Settings.

6. Deleted all bookmarks on all devices. Created a test bookmark on one device and see if it syncs to the others.... it did not.

Meantime photos and other stuff continue sync no problem.

Using Firefox bookmarks sync 100% on all three devices.
Maybe thats the answer.

 

[toasted ICT]

Besides using Firefox instead, is there no solution to this problem?
It seems crazy : photos and other stuff continue sync no problem... bookmarks not at all.
If you have a solution that worked for you please let me know.