Bookmark Syncing is Broke in Catalina

Hey promoterguy,

I see that you're having some trouble with syncing bookmarks across devices. I'll be happy to help out.

There's some other steps you can take that might resolve this for you, like checking to make sure the date and time setting are correct on all devices. Check these steps out here: If your iCloud or Safari bookmarks aren’t syncing - Apple Support

Keep us updated. Cheers!

I don't have Catalina installed on any of my four Macs, that still run 10.14.6.

My bookmark syncing problem started as soon as I upgraded to Safari 13 on the Mac Book Pro.

Installed Safari 13.0 and now have a bookmarks problem

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250648574

Yeah, I have been having a problem with my iMac bookmarks not syncing with my other Apple devices since updating to Catalina. My MacBook Air (still on Mojave) and my phone (iOS 13) seem to be fine still but nothing I do seems to get my 2017 iMac to sync up with them. Everything was syncing up with Mojave.

And as a peculiar thing, I could not "sign in" to this community - I had to hit your "reply" button to get into the community.

Something very strange is going on.

Have you also noticed the number of posts by those that are presently having problems with the bookmark sync fiasco, that go unanswered?

That is why I resurrected any posts since Safari The Thirteenth was released and had mentioned bookmark problems, by asking if the problem was rectified.

When there is a problem, never let it get buried.

Do you have the firewall turned on? (System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Firewall) I was having tons of weird networking problems, like Safari bookmarks not syncing, websites not loading, DNS not resolving, and remote filesystems being very slow. Then I noticed in Console under Crash Reports that socketfilterfw kept crashing. When I turned off the Firewall, everything started working. The firewall had not changed since Mojave and still appeared to be configured correctly, but something seems to be wrong with it in Catalina for me.

You just might be on to something about the Firewall.

I’ve tried another experiment, and so far things are looking much better.

But I also performed a few more things than just turning off the Firewall.

I have a list of what I did, and if the correct bookmarks continue to remain on the source computer, I’ll post it.

Also, I haven’t as yet attempted to sync the correct bookmarks to my other devices. I’ll attempt that later today one device at a time, as long as the correct bookmarks are still remaining on the source computer.

I’ve also noticed an oddity when selecting Safari sync. Maybe it’s normal.

Stay tuned

It’s been almost two hours and the correct folders containing the correct bookmarks have remained intact on the source iMac.

I’ll post the list of what I did, but first a few specifics. 

The source iMac, the other iMac, and the MacBook Pro are running 10.14.6. 

The iPad Pro (12.9-inch) is running 13.2, and the MD510C/A iPad is running 10.3.3.

The source iMac in normally hardwired to a cable modem, and second on the list, by WIFI to the cable modem. The other devices are normally connected by WIFI to the cable modem. 

The cable modem was purchased a year ago, when I decided to get internet on the TV cable. I still have DSL internet, and for WIFI, there’s an AirPort unit connected to the DSL modem. I’ve had this particular DSL modem, since April 2011.

Here is what I did to sync the correct bookmarks that were on the source device, and so far have remained correct on the source device.

1/ Safe start.

2/ Selected normal user.

3/ Turned off Firewall. 

4/ Selected WIFI from DSL modem (AirPort).

5/ Deleted bookmark prefs.

6/ Opened Safari and deleted generic bookmarks that showed up from somewhere. Closed and opened Safari. If generic bookmarks kept showing up, continued to delete them until they no longer showed up. 

7/ With Safari closed, deposited the correct bookmark prefs in the Safari folder.

8/ Selected to sync bookmarks. NOTE: Checkmark didn’t show for a time. It finally showed in the box. Previously, I had always immediately clicked the box a second time to have the checkmark show in the box. Perhaps this was a mistake and I should have allowed the checkmark to show up on its own.

9/ Bookmark syncing was very quick.

10/ The bookmarks are normally kept in six folders, and which are the only things showing in the favourites bar. Not only did the folders show up in the favourites bar, they have remained there. And the folders have retained the correct bookmarks. 

11/ As with the problems that I’ve had previously, loose bookmarks again showed up that were outside of the folders. Took a few tries of deleting them, after opening and then closing Safari a few times. Finally had success. 

As for now, attempting to sync the correct bookmarks to the other iMac, and the MacBook Pro, I haven’t made the attempt. But I have done the above steps one through six on them. 

Nothing has been tried on the iPads as yet, but bookmark syncing is turned off on both of them. 

Coming up to three hours, and I just closed and opened Safari. The bookmark problem is nowhere to be seen. 

Still in the Safe Mode, Firewall still off, and still on AirPort WIFI which is connected to the DSL modem.

Now to see if the other devices will successfully receive the correct bookmarks from iCloud, and the correct bookmarks remain on the source device. 

If there is a successful migration, it’ll then be a normal start, FireWall on, and back to using the cable modem for both a hard wire connection, and WIFI. 

Fingers crossed. 

Eureka! 

Both the other iMac, and the MacBook Pro, have not only downloaded the correct bookmarks and retained them, nothing extra was added. And the source iMac has not only kept the correct bookmarks, nothing else was added.

Now to restart all three Macs, turn on their Firewalls, and return them to the cable modem for internet.

Hard to say what I did that made the bookmark syncing fiasco disappear, since I did everything the same time on all three computers. 

I’ll backup both iPads tomorrow, delete Safaris’ bookmarks that are on them, and attempt to download the correct bookmarks from iCloud. Hopefully, all will go well. 

Have normalized all three Macs. Turned on Firewall, and went back to internet from the cable modem for all three of them.

Correct bookmarks are remaining, with nothing extra being added, on every computer!

I haven’t had this happen since I mistakenly allowed ‘Safari The Thirteenth’ to be installed on the MacBook Pro on that Friday, when it was first released. 

Tomorrow, the iPads.

I'm also experiencing Safari bookmarks sync problems after upgrading my MacBook Pro to Catalina and iPhone XS to iOS 13.

The issue is: after doing some editing on my bookmarks (adding, deleting, etc.), the changes simply don't sync to the other device.

I've tried rebooting, turning off the firewall in macOS (possible fix mentioned in several threads), deleting all bookmaks on both devices and recreating the structure from scratch, verified Date & Time settings. Even after doing a clean install of macOS and resetting all content and settings on my iPhone, I still have the same problem. Sometimes it may start working for a while, but it always gets to the point where it simply isn't syncing anymore.

Hey promoterguy,

Thanks for going through those steps. At this point, Contact Apple Support directly for further help.

Have a great day.

Any luck having the correct bookmarks and/or bookmark folders and/or favourites return? And remain correct?

Interesting. I do have it on but bookmarks are the only problem that I have observed. I will have to check this out.