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Sending Back my M1 MacBook Air: No Bookmarks!

D

DrSkywalker

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 28, 2009
24
5
I'm on the verge of sending back my M1 MacBook Air 16GB. Ordered in November, received early Dec. Got it going, everything seemed fast and zippy - but the Safari bookmarks didn't sync. They do on the many other devices I have but not this. After spending a few weeks and many hours with Support, including having it escalated to Engineering, there were no solutions. So they sent me another one. Finally arrived early February and... the bookmarks don't sync. Have seen glitches with other things like Calendar that resolved by turning iCloud sync off and on, but not this. Sometimes Safari tabs sync - but not always, and not across all devices.
It all sounds kinda trite, but you just try using your machine with no bookmarks. Can't even create a bookmark or even a folder, because an error message pops up telling me that it's busy syncing - but has been doing so for a month.
Very disappointed.
 
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It's curious that you're having this problem.
I've had 2 M1's, a MBP and now a MBA and both have synced normally through iCloud - even after a total of 4 re-installs of both machines.
It's a really obvious thing to suggest and I'm sure you've looked at it with Support but is Safari checked in iCloud?
Have you tried creating a new user to see if the bookmarks download correctly?
 
Yes, tried a new user a few times - even with a completely different iCloud account - and nothing!
Completely wiped the machine and did a fresh Big Sur install. No dice. Has been escalated to Engineering twice and never heard a peep so far. Can't even create a bookmark! And this is since early December, on 2 different machines. Have 2 iMacs, a 2018 MB Pro 15, iPhone, 2 iPads; everything else is just fine.
 
I see. Very strange.
So what happens if you're on a website in Safari and you click on Bookmarks in the menu bar?
Nothing, or everything goes normally but it won't save it?
Do you use the bookmarks favourite bar?
 
From the menu, click on Bookmarks and you get the usual dropdown menu. On all other machines, you get a Favourites folder, then all of the other folders that I have saved. What is contained in Favourites on the M1 is completely different than the other devices. If you go to Edit Bookmarks on the other devices, you have 2 primary folders; Favourites and Bookmarks Menu (and everything else is a subfolder). You can't even Edit Bookmarks on the M1 because "it's busy syncing" according to the error message.
 
Huh very strange, but this is a macOS issue and not related directly to it being a M1 machine. There must be something odd about the iCloud account itself and causing it not to sync properly on a new machine.. wonder if you reformatted your existing Mac and setup with a fresh install of macOS Big Sur you'd see the same.
 
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DrSkywalker said:
From the menu, click on Bookmarks and you get the usual dropdown menu. On all other machines, you get a Favourites folder, then all of the other folders that I have saved. What is contained in Favourites on the M1 is completely different than the other devices. If you go to Edit Bookmarks on the other devices, you have 2 primary folders; Favourites and Bookmarks Menu (and everything else is a subfolder). You can't even Edit Bookmarks on the M1 because "it's busy syncing" according to the error message.
Click to expand...
Wow, something's obviously got stuck.
Not very convenient at all.
I wish I could suggest something but if re-installing hasn't cured it I don't know what will.
You could ask Apple whether they can see if there is suddenly some kind of problem with your iCloud account. They looked for me.
 
Quackers said:
Wow, something's obviously got stuck.
Not very convenient at all.
I wish I could suggest something but if re-installing hasn't cured it I don't know what will.
You could ask Apple whether they can see if there is suddenly some kind of problem with your iCloud account. They looked for me.
Click to expand...
Did exactly that with no effect.
 
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DrSkywalker said:
Did exactly that with no effect.
Click to expand...
Have you checked your bookmarks on another machine for odd characters? Perhaps a bookmark uses an unusual character and that is stored in your iCloud account and is blocking the sync process? This would still be a bug but if you found something like this you might be able to change the bookmark and clear up the blockage.
 
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On your other machines, they all have the same bookmarks now, have you tried adding a new bookmark and seeing if it syncs across all devices?

Another thing I think you could try would be to Export your Bookmarks on your other machine. Erase them all, and then reimport them from the export. Might clear up any issue of syncing.
 
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As above, not a hardware problem. I was two and a half months without bookmarks/tabs syncing. Tried every possible solution to no avail. Eventually I just gave up and ignored it, until one day I opened up my MacBook and everything mysteriously started working as it should, god knows why but I’m guessing a server-side issue as it involved me doing nothing for it to start working.
 
I may have missed it, but have you tried exporting your bookmarks to another browser, clear Safari's bookmarks, history, cache, etc. completely, then import them back?
 
FWIW, my iCloud tabs on Safari aren't synching and haven't for a month -- and that includes my Macs (which are both Intel). What you're describing is almost certainly an iCloud server-side issue that you should contact support about.
 
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