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iCloud tabs not syncing

Morac

Morac

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Dec 30, 2009
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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?
 
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I had issues with bookmarks, reading list and tabs sync... after doing all usual steps to fix a problem i managed to get bookmarks and reading list working but my iCloud tabs are days old and I cant get them to sync.
 
jandorn said:
I had issues with bookmarks, reading list and tabs sync... after doing all usual steps to fix a problem i managed to get bookmarks and reading list working but my iCloud tabs are days old and I cant get them to sync.
Click to expand...

My bookmarks sync, but the iCloud tab ones are just old. I managed to get them to sync this morning by a combination of opening and closing tabs on one device, deleting them multiple times from another and killing Safari multiple times, but that’s not at all reliable.

I have a feeling what did it was deleting the tabs and then leaving Safari open for 5 minutes. Overall though it’s broken.

It reminds me of the same problem there was with reminders a year or two back where they wouldn’t sync for hours.
 
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Morac said:
My bookmarks sync, but the iCloud tab ones are just old. I managed to get them to sync this morning by a combination of opening and closing tabs on one device, deleting them multiple times from another and killing Safari multiple times, but that’s not at all reliable.

I have a feeling what did it was deleting the tabs and then leaving Safari open for 5 minutes. Overall though it’s broken.

It reminds me of the same problem there was with reminders a year or two back where they wouldn’t sync for hours.
Click to expand...
I did noticed change in tabs as I was tying to fix them but they were still not current tabs.

I did update my mac to 10.15.7 yesterday. Maybe that contributed to the issue.
 
Yup. Having the same issue. Closed tabs are definitely appearing in other devices. Doesn't matter which. iPhone on 14.2, iPad on 14.2 and MBP on Big Sur.
It wasn't doing this throughout 14.2 RC and I don't recall having this issue last Thursday or Friday but only started to happen this weekend. Hopefully it's just a backend issue with iCloud sync.
 
Same issue here for the MacBook Air, iMac, and iPhone.

Bookmarks and Reading List are working. I did the close all tabs, turn off / on Safari fix methods several times and it either shows old tabs or doesn't show one of the devices.
 
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I have noticed several time deferent tabs were displayed in Safari tabs UI on both iPhone and Mac without me doing anything. It is possible that sync might be working but with significant delay.
 
I have the same issues as most of your. iCloud tabs only syncing every couple of hours. History doesn't seem to sync at all. It was all working fine a few days ago and yeah happened after Mac OS 10.15.7 I have escalated the case with Apple support to the senior engineer level. They still say it's not their backend issue. I will keep your updated on how the troubleshooting goes later.
 
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gwang73 said:
Yup. Having the same issue. Closed tabs are definitely appearing in other devices. Doesn't matter which. iPhone on 14.2, iPad on 14.2 and MBP on Big Sur.
Click to expand...
Yes, noticing the same too. MBP '17, macos 10.15.7 and iPhone xR (ios 14.2)
 
I have this problem too, as I was going to post a thread about it just now. Apple needs to fix this soon.
 
I'll add my voice to those who have this issue as well. Tabs that have been long closed appear on other devices. I'm relieved it isn't just me!
 
This is happening to me as well, tabs from my other iCloud sessions (pre hard reset) that were showing up on 14.2 RC and Final release stopped showing up a few days ago now...
 
Oh good, not just me. Spent an hour troubleshooting this. iMac running 10.15.7 -- tabs long closed on this device continue to show up on an iOS 14.2 iPhone. They return even when I slide and close the iCloud tabs from the iMac on the iPhone.
 
Add me to the list too. iPhone and iPad both on their respective 14.1 versions of the OS.
 
exi said:
Oh good, not just me. Spent an hour troubleshooting this. iMac running 10.15.7 -- tabs long closed on this device continue to show up on an iOS 14.2 iPhone. They return even when I slide and close the iCloud tabs from the iMac on the iPhone.
Click to expand...
Same here :(
 
I've noticed that icloud tab list refreshes, but there is huge delay (hours..). Maybe smth with icloud server side?
 
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Same here, with iCloud only on the iPhone and iPad. In Baja MX (in case it's a server cache problem).
 
I just remembered that I'm running the Safari beta preview from AppleSeed.

I'm curious how many other people in this thread might be running it? Wondering if it might a bug in that.
 
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