Update: I forgot to mention that it started to work after I deleted the beta profile from my iPhone. Even with the latest beta, which was essentially the release version, it wasn't syncing. But when I updated my MacBook (which wasn't running beta profile) and deleted the beta profile from the phone it was fixed - and it still is, working perfectly fine.
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iCloud tabs not syncing
- Thread starter Morac
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adriank1410
macrumors newbie
Still not working here on iOS 14.5.1 and macOS 11.3.1. Glad I'm not alone though... Gosh, I hate such bugs when there is no error or any feedback, it just doesn't work and we don't know why.
I think there are some things wrong with iCloud as a whole, all my issues on my Apple devices are related to iCloud.
- iCloud tab not showing up and/or syncing, even on 14.5.1, sometimes it does but even when it does, it may disappear again after several hours without even reboot or force close the Safari
- If I change my device name, the new name will not update across the device iCloud page in setting but the new device name does update on iCloud.com immediately, I have to do things like sign out iCloud and sign back in or unpair apple watch, signout iCloud.com on the webpage to trigger a new device name update in the device setting page.
- I have one carrier sim card that can't activate iMessage/Facetime since early this year, have been using it for over 5 years and never had this issue, it always activates. Called support multiple time and till now they still cannot figure out why. That card and send/receive SMS and take/make calls, just cannot activate iMessage/Facetime now.
- Handoff in APP switcher would suddenly disappear on iPhone, require sign out iCloud and sign in again to work properly again.
I tried anything that I can find under the sun; change my iCloud password, restore my iPhone in DFU mode, reset the network setting, delete and erase all content...so on and so on. Never able to fix my issues.
If sign out iCloud doesn't require me to add all the cards back to Apple Pay I would be less frustrated, not only it take a lot of time and after several trials, the cards reach maximum activation limit, I have to call the bank and reset it..etc it's very annoying.
- iCloud tab not showing up and/or syncing, even on 14.5.1, sometimes it does but even when it does, it may disappear again after several hours without even reboot or force close the Safari
- If I change my device name, the new name will not update across the device iCloud page in setting but the new device name does update on iCloud.com immediately, I have to do things like sign out iCloud and sign back in or unpair apple watch, signout iCloud.com on the webpage to trigger a new device name update in the device setting page.
- I have one carrier sim card that can't activate iMessage/Facetime since early this year, have been using it for over 5 years and never had this issue, it always activates. Called support multiple time and till now they still cannot figure out why. That card and send/receive SMS and take/make calls, just cannot activate iMessage/Facetime now.
- Handoff in APP switcher would suddenly disappear on iPhone, require sign out iCloud and sign in again to work properly again.
I tried anything that I can find under the sun; change my iCloud password, restore my iPhone in DFU mode, reset the network setting, delete and erase all content...so on and so on. Never able to fix my issues.
If sign out iCloud doesn't require me to add all the cards back to Apple Pay I would be less frustrated, not only it take a lot of time and after several trials, the cards reach maximum activation limit, I have to call the bank and reset it..etc it's very annoying.
adriank1410
macrumors newbie
Here's the thing, you shouldn't have to restore every device to get every feature working. Like, c'mon Apple, you're not a small startup, fix your goddamn stuff... There are people who are not good with tech, some older people too, can we really expect them to restore all of their devices just to get tab syncing between devices? It's crazy.
gank41
macrumors 603
I agree! But I was also tired of this not working and tired of Apple saying they don't see what the problem is. It is crazy to have to go to such great lengths to solve a problem, but again, for me that's what worked. And I've had this issue for a while now, and actually assumed it would STILL be an issue after the restore on both devices. I was pleasantly surprised to find that iCloud Tabs were working again.
I’ve tried doing multiple clean reinstalls in the past without any success. I don’t restore from a backup, but setup as a new device instead.
I can’t believe that this feature has been broken for about 5 months now. To make matters worse, Siri on my Mac and iPhone seem to behave completely different from each other when using the Dutch language.
gank41
macrumors 603
The reason I suggested to restore from a backup was because as soon as I opened Safari on my iPhone after the restore completed, the erroneous Safari Tabs that macOS said I had open, were there. And after closing them individually on my iPhone, I could see each iCloud Tab listed for said iPhone on macOS close out. Whatever the disconnect is, it wasn't disconnected after the restore. I'd assume if you set up as new, those erroneous tabs would still be listed.
My problem is that the iCloud tabs don’t appear at all anymore ever since Apple tried to fix it over the phone with me. Before that i’d see old tabs from weeks or even months ago, but now the feature is completely broken.
Was told that I would receive a call this week regarding the issue.
gank41
macrumors 603
Well I hope everything gets sorted out with them then. From what I can tell, the issue was only broken on one of my two iDevices. Honestly not sure which as I restored both my iPhone and iPad at the same time. I had re-installed macOS 11.3, but it was still showing the open tabs on the two devices.
When you do talk to someone, mention this forum. Can’t hurt. This has happened to me twice now- once on iOS 13 & Catalina, and now on 14 and Big Sur. I’m just hoping this doesn’t happen again.
I reset and restored my iPhone today for no gain. I shan’t restore the Mac; it’s too much effort.
I have created a MacRumors account just to tell you guys that my iCloud Tabs started working perfectly again after I updated my iPhone to 14.5.1 (they still weren't working on 14.5). The 14.5.1 update fixed the feature on both my iPhone and my Mac (which was on Big Sur 11.3 at the time I updated my iPhone, but after that I updated it to 11.3.1 and everything still works perfectly).
My iCloud Tabs broke completely in autumn as far as I can remember, probably after I updated to iOS 14/macOS Big Sur. I have been following this thread quite often to see what everyone else's experience is.
I really hope this problem has actually been fixed behind the scenes, and I am not just one of the lucky ones to have the feature working again by mistake.
Anyone else got their iCloud Tabs working again after updating to iOS 14.5.1?
My iCloud Tabs broke completely in autumn as far as I can remember, probably after I updated to iOS 14/macOS Big Sur. I have been following this thread quite often to see what everyone else's experience is.
I really hope this problem has actually been fixed behind the scenes, and I am not just one of the lucky ones to have the feature working again by mistake.
Anyone else got their iCloud Tabs working again after updating to iOS 14.5.1?
Still doesn't work after the most recent round of updates. Glad it's working for you now, though.
Damn, that sucks. I really hope they'll get their act together and fix this problem for good in iOS 15/next macOS at least. Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated in case mine breaks again, because it wouldn't surprise me at all if it happened, even though I hope it doesn't 🙂.
Even if they *hypothetically* fixed this problem now, it's still unbelievable how it takes Apple, a multi-trillion tech company, so long to fix some basic functionality in their own browser. The browser that they promote so much and encourage us to use it. I'm not even talking about some minor bugs, I'm talking about basic functionality that Safari should have, and that virtually every other browser implemented properly.
I remember a while ago after Big Sur came out, I was still on Mojave at the time and they pushed a small Safari update. That update broke the basic Safari functionality to be able to upload files on Mojave (Big Sur was ok), yet it took them THREE MONTHS to fix it. Apple, a multi-trillion company. Disappointing.
Good to hear it's working for you, for me, 14.5.1 completely broke the iCloud tab for me
Before 14.5.1 iCloud tab was sometimes showing up on my iPhone and sometimes it doesn't, on the iPad it almost 100% showing up. Mac is like iPhone but even when showing up, it shows out of sync iCloud tabs.
And here comes in 14.5.1
- iPhone never seen iCloud tab show again after update to 14.5.1
- iPad now iCloud tab sometimes shows up sometimes disappear, like the iPhone pre 14.5.1
- Mac no change
- Call blocking and identification is now magically disappeared in the setting page on my iPhone, sometimes it would come back but once you close the setting page via app switcher, it disappears again, after few hours or so, it shows up again.
- iPad cannot receive iMessage/SMS via handoff, whereas Mac and Apple Watch work fine.
- When I open handoff supported apps on iPad, it won't show up on my iPhone's app switcher view but the other way around works, when I open reminder on iPhone, my iPad dock would show up the handoff icon.
- above two issues I had to sign out the iPad iCloud and erase all content, restore from backup, then sign out iCloud again, reset network setting, reboot and sign in iCloud again to finally fix it. the iPad is now still updating the photos library as we speak, it wasted me 2 days to finally fix it.
It's been a nightmare for me since 14.2, each new iOS and iPadOS update introduce more and more issue.
In case anybody wants to know, I'm still in contact with support. They in turn are in contact with engineers. The latest from them, from yesterday, is that they are aware that it's still a problem, that they are working on it, but that they have no timetable for when it will be fixed. Of course.
This issue seems to have partially fixed itself for me. Suddenly, the tabs are syncing again between my iMac and iPhone.
However, the iMac list contains some additional very old tabs. I can remove them but they return in time. Otherwise, it seems to work perfectly. Incidentally, the old tabs are from February 11.
However, the iMac list contains some additional very old tabs. I can remove them but they return in time. Otherwise, it seems to work perfectly. Incidentally, the old tabs are from February 11.
gank41
macrumors 603
This was my same experience as well. Once I restored my iPhone & iPad, those erroneous tabs showing up on macOS for those devices were actually there and I was able to close them out.
Yes, I don’t seem to be able to get rid of the older ones. I hope that they become less persistent with time.
srbNYC
macrumors 68020
Same. Syncing is good (knock wood) but my iPhone has a dozen old ones (mostly duplicates) than I can't make go away. And I'm not trying too hard so I don't mess it up again!
I have 4 devices and it's not working on any of them. I've tried all the usual steps... signing out and back in, toggle safari from iCloud etc and still not joy. The iOS devices don't show any open tabs and the Macs show a blank box as below. Handoff and all the other iCloud functions work, just the tabs are not. I can see that it has started working for some users but is anyone in the same position? I don't mind waiting for Apple to fix this at their end but I just want to check to see if it's just me!
The tabs kept reappearing and so I finally gave in turned off iCloud on the iMac. Once that process completed, I was able to close the tabs; they have not reappeared since I deactivated iCloud on the iMac. Everything appears to be working perfectly now. I have a feeling that, if I had signed out of iCloud prior to whatever changed yesterday night, it would not have fixed the issue.
Mlrollin91
macrumors G5
Got a replacement iPhone 12 Pro a few days ago. After restoring from backup, I have iCloud tabs from my other devices from November constantly showing on my iPhone. I close them and they all come back. Roughly 75 tabs between my 5 devices. I've done the usual trouble shooting, sadly didn't change anything.
No, you are not alone. This feature is not working for many, many users.