iPad iPadOS Safari History Syncing.

[3460169]

I have a 2017 iPad Pro on iPadOS 13.1.2; iPhone 11 Pro Max on 13.1.2; and 2019 MBP on Mojave 10.14.6. All devices logged into my iCloud account. iCloud syncing of Safari bookmarks and open tabs works fine across all three devices. Browsing history, however, only seems to work between the iPhone and the MBP. The iPad doesn't sync its history at all -- pages viewed on the iPad do not show up in the history on the iPhone or MBP; likewise the iPad doesn't get any of the history from iPhone or MBP.

I did try turning off Safari syncing in iCloud settings on the iPad, and chose not to "keep" any of that data when doing so. I confirmed that the history/bookmarks/tabs were wiped, and then turned syncing back on on the iPad. I got the open tabs, bookmarks, and an initial set of history items from the other devices -- but no new history items will sync. Seems like a bug but can't confirm with only one data point. Gotta take a look at the Other Half's devices later to see. ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[papbot]

I have a 2017 iPad Pro on iPadOS 13.1.2; iPhone 11 Pro Max on 13.1.2; and 2019 MBP on Mojave 10.14.6. All devices logged into my iCloud account. iCloud syncing of Safari bookmarks and open tabs works fine across all three devices. Browsing history, however, only seems to work between the iPhone and the MBP. The iPad doesn't sync its history at all -- pages viewed on the iPad do not show up in the history on the iPhone or MBP; likewise the iPad doesn't get any of the history from iPhone or MBP.

I did try turning off Safari syncing in iCloud settings on the iPad, and chose not to "keep" any of that data when doing so. I confirmed that the history/bookmarks/tabs were wiped, and then turned syncing back on on the iPad. I got the open tabs, bookmarks, and an initial set of history items from the other devices -- but no new history items will sync. Seems like a bug but can't confirm with only one data point. Gotta take a look at the Other Half's devices later to see. ¯\(ツ)/¯

It’s a bug. I’ve posted here several times but I don’t think people are aware of it yet because it can vary between devices. My iPhone 11 Pro and MacBook Pro sync Safari normally. My iPhone 7 and iPad Pro do not. No history syncing and I don’t believe bookmarks either, I created a bookmark as a test on one device and it only showed up on one other. For me the major bug in 13 has been any app that uses iCloud for syncing. It may work, it may not, one device may once but not again. Anyway you’re not alone

 

[3460169]

It’s a bug. I’ve posted here several times but I don’t think people are aware of it yet because it can vary between devices. My iPhone 11 Pro and MacBook Pro sync Safari normally. My iPhone 7 and iPad Pro do not. No history syncing and I don’t believe bookmarks either, I created a bookmark as a test on one device and it only showed up on one other. For me the major bug in 13 has been any app that uses iCloud for syncing. It may work, it may not, one device may once but not again. Anyway you’re not alone

Thanks for the feedback. My Wife has an XS, the same iPad and an MBP as well and her setup is just wonky. The only thing that seems to sync properly for her is bookmarks. Tabs and history? Nope. :/

 

[papbot]

I was having a few syncing issues with other apps as well but they seem to have settled down, when I had marked a reminder as completed it wasn’t being picked up by the other devices. But thats a lot better now. But Safari on my iPhone 7 and iPad Pro doesn’t sync at all. I both toggled off and on Safari under iCloud settings as well as signed out of icloud on both devices. That forces a sync but afterwards neither one syncs. On my Mac and iPhone 11 Pro it works fine. My guess is the software just does not initiate background syncing on certain devices, for Safari anyway.

 

[Ikertxo40]

I was having a few syncing issues with other apps as well but they seem to have settled down, when I had marked a reminder as completed it wasn’t being picked up by the other devices. But thats a lot better now. But Safari on my iPhone 7 and iPad Pro doesn’t sync at all. I both toggled off and on Safari under iCloud settings as well as signed out of icloud on both devices. That forces a sync but afterwards neither one syncs. On my Mac and iPhone 11 Pro it works fine. My guess is the software just does not initiate background syncing on certain devices, for Safari anyway.

Same here . I updated to 13.2.2 and my iphone 11 pro doesn't sync properly safari links and reading list with my laptop and ipad. My laptop and ipad refresh in real time links added or deleted, the iphone doesnt sync anything.

i went to icloud, put safari off, all was deleted in my iphone, and when i put it on again , it doesnt retrieve anything from icloud.

i tried a total icloud log out, nothing. I tried updating 13.2.2 via itunes downloading the file in developer.apple.com. Nothing.

i dont know what more I can try. iOS 13 is sucking big time...

 

[papbot]

I’m using the 13.3 beta on my iPad Pro but this still isn’t resolved. I’ve used the Feedback Assistant to file a report but so far it’s showing that no other reports have been submitted. yet I keep seeing a lot of random posts like this about the issue. My guess is that most people don’t look at their History lists between devices and don’t notice what’s going on. It takes something else to get them to go hunting for this. This was the first bug I found when I updated my ipad to 13.0 when it was released. I will say that the current beta of 13.3 solves most of the issues I was having except this so don’t get too frustrated, it should be out fairly soon. I consider it to be the actual first non-beta release of 13. The earlier ones are still beta versions.

 

[TonyC28]

Same here. iPhone 11 and MacBook share browsing history but nothing on my iMac. For me this has been going on since before iOS 13.

 

[Leschy]

Same here. iPad and iPhone are syncing to my MacBook. But history on iPhone and on iPad keeps just the sites visited on the device itself. Logged out and in, deactivated safari on iCloud settings. Nothing. I have no idea what else I could do. Just waiting for a fix. And I think too, too few people recognise this issue because the don’t look at their browsing history.

 

[papbot]

. And I think too, too few people recognise this issue because the don’t look at their browsing history.

That’s what I’ve assumed. First you have to use Safari on several devices and then you actually have to look at the History list. I first saw this on my iPhone 7. It‘s a secondary device for me and I only use Safari on it to clear History. I can clear the list from it which will clear it from my other devices without touching their cookies or web site data. But after 13.0 was installed when I went to do this there was nothing in Hustory. My iPhone 11 Pro Max, my MacBook Pro and IPad Pro all had long lists of History items. Then I started looking more closely and saw like you that only the sites I had accessed on my iPad Pro were listed there. On the iPhone 11 and MacBook Pro all sites were listed, not just the ones accessed from them.

So I started playing around and found that any sites visited on the laptop and the iPhone 11 were listed on each. And any that I visited on my ipad also appeared on those two devices. But nothing from them was shown on the ipad or iPhone 7. So even with multiple devices it doesn’t affect each one, so this can be missed for quite a while. The other thing that becomes noticeable in this is that Frequently Visited sites, which is also synced through iCloud/Safari, does not match between devices. The only thing that temporarily corrects this is to toggle off/on Safari under your iCloud settings. That will force a sync but only for that moment.

 

[Leschy]

The only thing that temporarily corrects this is to toggle off/on Safari under your iCloud settings. That will force a sync but only for that moment.

that's exactly the same experience which I made.

and yes, I discovered the problem by chance and then I took a closer look und further testings.

 

[toddluger]

I've been having the same issue since I upgraded to iOS 13 on my phone, where do most of my web browsing. I have an iPad Air 2 that is not compatible with iOS 13, which I assume is the issue here. It seems like my browsing history on the iPad is only being stored locally. I do not have access to pages that I have browsed on the iPad from other devices or vice-versa. I have performed all of the normal steps to fix this that have been described by numerous others in this thread

It actually seems analogous to not being able to sync iOS 12 reminders to devices using the upgraded iOS 13 Reminders app. Notes and Messages still sync properly.

 

[papbot]

I've been having the same issue since I upgraded to iOS 13 on my phone, where do most of my web browsing. I have an iPad Air 2 that is not compatible with iOS 13, which I assume is the issue here. It seems like my browsing history on the iPad is only being stored locally. I do not have access to pages that I have browsed on the iPad from other devices or vice-versa. I have performed all of the normal steps to fix this that have been described by numerous others in this thread

It actually seems analogous to not being able to sync iOS 12 reminders to devices using the upgraded iOS 13 Reminders app. Notes and Messages still sync properly.

You may yet see this fixed. With the debut of iOS 13 there of my four devices did not sync Safari history. Bookmarks synced properly but not History items. The new beta 13.3.1 fixed this on my iPad Pro. So it now displays sites I’ve accessed on my other devices but they still only show locally accessed ones. I’m looking forward to the general release of 13.3.1 to fix my other devices.

Syncing of iCloud functions has been the biggest problem for me since 13.0. Since they seem to have fixed the Safari history issue now they may get this out to devices that can‘t upgrade to 13. At least they hopefully know what the problem is. What I did for a while until this was fixed was to toggle Safari off/on in iCloud settings occasionally. that forces a momentary sync. If you do this and find that you now see History items from your other devices on the ipad then I think you may eventually see a fix for this. There is something in the ios that causes an app, Safari, to automatically sync to icloud for various items. With 13.0 and also iCloud that was borked.

 

[uandme72]

Issue not resolved on iOS 13.5 released a few hours ago.

 

[Steven Jackson]

This has been a problem for years, and there are multiple similar posts in multiple similar forums describing more or less the same thing.

Safari history sync stopped working for me years ago, not long after the feature was first launched. Tab syncing has been almost as flakey. I noticed yesterday that Apple News+ history sync suffers the same problem, so I spent the evening trying to sort it out.

At the moment I have one iPhone and one iPad — I used to have a Mac, but no longer. I tried every combination of turning off Safari in iCloud, clearing history, restarting devices that I could think of. Nothing worked. Sometimes history synced one way, sometimes the other, sometimes just on initial launch and never again thereafter. Tabs were equally frustrating. Sometimes my iPad tabs would show on my iPhone, sometimes the opposite. Once, tabs synced both ways, but history sync was broken.

Ditto Apple New+ history.

I think this feature is just broken, and has been for many years. It works well for some, intermittently for others, and not at all for lots of us.

A few years ago @Gruber made a bit of a fuss about keyboard shortcut syncing — he was right, it was flakey as hell — and because he has a loud public voice, Apple listened and sorted it out in a point release. Until Safari history sync gets a similarly well known champion, I think we're stuck with a broken system...

Steve.

 

[papbot]

Safari history syncing is extremely erratic. It worked well for me through most of iOS 12 but was completely ruined with the debut of iOS 13. Later versions have improved it but it’s still hit or miss as you’ve found.

My theory is that iCloud syncing is very poor currently. The same situation occurs with Reminders. A specific reminder does sync across devices, that works well, but marking one completed on one device may or may not be picked up on another device. I have 3 devices that I manage Reminders with - an Apple Watch, iPad Pro, an iPhone 11 Pro Max. Marking a reminder completed on one of those may or may not be reflected on the others even after a considerable amount of time. I gave up using my MacBook Pro for Reminders, syncing with it is totally unreliable. And this may not be specifically an iCloud syncing issue. I use a Reminders-like app named Due. It syncs through your iCloud account. I use it on all my devices and as soon as I mark one notification complete on one device I immediately get a pop up notification on the other devices that the reminder was “modified”. So the background mechanism for Safari and Reminders just does not function reliably.

 

[alloja]

It’s seems completely broken today on all my devices: macOS, iOS, iPadOS.
I have to manually trigger the sync by disabling/re-enabling Safari in iCloud settings.

 

[papbot]

It is very erratic. And even when it does work it takes a long time before one device catches up its the others, if ever. Background syncing like this, especially with Safari, has been the most consistent bug throughout iOS 13. I hope this is improved in 14 either with improvements in the OS or in iCloud syncing.