iCloud tabs not syncing/working

goaway7 wrote:

Also having the same issue. Started happening when I got iphone 12. All software up to date. Tried turning safari on and off on icloud. Restarted everything. Please fix this vital feature!!

I did the same thing. Also having trouble with iCloud tabs.

I noticed the issue too when I purchased the iPhone 12 Pro. However, at the same time when I got this new phone, macOS was moving away from Catalina into Big Sur (I haven't upgraded to Big Sur yet). I don't know if this is a result of having a new phone or Big Sur.

I'm leaning towards this might have something to do with the mix of Big Sur and iCloud.

I have an iPad Pro which also isn't seeing iCloud tabs either from my phone or Mac.

Indeed, the iCloud Safari tabs are now working on my iMac with Mac OS 14.6 (Mojave) and my iPhone 12 mini with IOS 14.3. However, they do not work on my MacBook with Mac OS 13.6 (High Sierra), which is normal.

The tabs reappeared without any action on my part, as was the case for other users. Therefore, it seems that the problem was not with user devices, but with Apple's servers. It is nice to have the problem finally resolved after two months. Hopefully, next time this kind of problem occurs, the solution will come a bit quicker.

The issue is now solved for me. I don’t know exactly how it got fixed but two things happened:

• Safari received a standalone update (I saw a notification). I’m on latest Catalina with MBP2015.
• I upgraded from an iPhone X to a 12. Both in latest iOS though.

I still moved to chrome since I haven’t seen an official statement that this has or will be looked into. It seems it might break at any time. if by late January I see no issues I’ll gladly go back to safari as my main browser.

Continuing on my post from yesterday, I neglected to mention that my other Apple device I’m using with my iPhone 12 (iOS 14.2.1) is a MacBook Air (M1 with Big Sur 11.1). This morning my iCloud tabs started showing on my iPhone for the first time since the reset. It also started showing on my MacBook. However, it does not seem to sync any changes in my Safari tabs between my iPhone and MacBook in a reasonable amount of time.

For interest's sake I tested the syncing of Safari bookmarks across my iPhone and MacBook. It syncs within seconds:

• If I edit the name of a bookmark on my MacBook, it shows a few seconds later on my iPhone.
• If I undo the edit to the bookmark name on my iPhone, it shows a few seconds later on my MacBook.
• If I add a new bookmark on my MacBook, it shows a few seconds later on my iPhone.

So the syncing of Safari bookmarks works great for me. It is only the syncing of Safari tabs that needs attention. The syncing of Safari history also seems a bit sluggish.

I know things are rarely as simple under the hood than what it seems from the outside, but whatever syncing approach you're using for bookmarks, could you apply that to tabs/history?

For me it is now works well enough (after a few days resetting + iCloud-restoring my iPhone 12) that I have gone back to using Safari:

• Tabs are syncing between my MacBook and iPhone, albeit in a delayed fashion.
• The syncing of browser history and bookmarks are snappy.

Allright, wow. I Think I fixed the problem!!!!!!!. At least for me. I’m very excited.

I use an ipad and an iPhone. I don’t own a MacBook Pro anymore

I tell you how I have done it.

• turn off battery save on your iPhones
• Go to settings, general, info, change the name of your iphone, iPad and your other iOS and macOS devices. Be sure it’s an username you never chosen before. Then go back to the homescreen.
• Wait for about 2 minutes
• shut down your devices one by one. No sleep mode!
• wait for 1 minute
• start your iPhone. Wait 1 minute after it’s fully booted. Then start the next device. Wait another 1 minute and start the other and so on.
• its magic. I hope this works for you too! Please let me know.

All the most current (non-beta) OS's...

Checked again:

• MBP: Shows 3 iCloud tabs that aren't currently open on iPad, no iPhone tabs
• iPad: Shows nothing
• iPhone 12 Pro Max: Shows nothing

I've rebooted and toggled iCloud Safari on/off multiple times. Including toggle off, reboot, toggle on. Nothing works...

Like others I continue to have problems. And, like others, I don't have hours to spend on the phone with Apple customer service/engineers either. So I keep waiting for a fix. Something I find interesting is my devices have reached a sort of "stable" level of disfunction. I have three Apple devices:

• 2020 16" MacBook Pro: On system reboot, the Safari iCloud tabs accessed via the task bar cloud button will display currently open tabs on both my iPad Pro and iPhone Pro Max. However, the iPhone tabs aren't current - and they change between reboots. So, iPhone tabs are displayed, but they are never accurate to what is actually open on the iPhone. I can click on one of the iCloud tabs and Safari will open a window to that tab. What's interesting is if I try to close one of the tabs by clicking the semi-opaque "x" that appears next to the iCloud tab in the list, the entire list of open tabs will disappear for both devices. The only way to get them back is to restart the MacBook Pro. I've reproduced this behavior many, many times.
• 2019 iPad Pro: Never display iCloud tabs for either of the other two devices
• 2021 iPhone 12 Pro Max: Never display iCloud tabs for either of the other two devices. this is actually a brand new phone I recently acquired through AppleCare due to a cracked screen. iOS was restored via iCloud back up.

I've tried all the tricks to get iCloud tabs back including: restarting, signing in / out, new profile, etc. Also had several software updates. Nothing solves the problem.

Has iCloud tabs started working for anyone yet? 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 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!

cng1990 wrote:

iCloud Tabs has stopped working on all of my devices

iCloud Tabs isn't working on any of my devices. I can't see them from my MacBook Pro (macOS Catalina), nor from my iPhone X (running 14.2). I have quadruple checked and iCloud is on and Safari is checked and everything is correct on each device. It was working fine up until I noticed the issued several days ago. I haven't changed any settings or behaviors or changed any features, but for whatever reason it isn't working anymore. And if it does, my computer shows iPhone tabs from the day before and not current tabs and my phone doesn't show my computer tabs at all anymore. Although it's small, it's a feature of iCloud that I use quite often and it's a nuisance to have it not working properly.

I followed all suggestions on forums and articles to turn off iCloud, turn off Safari, etc. on each device and turn it back on but still nothing. I've restarted and rebooted a plethora of times and it's still the same issue. Does anyone have any insights on what could be causing this issue and how to fix it?

If you've performed the steps as you described above, then the next step - Get Support.

Thank you for posting this. I have the same issue running the latest version of Catalina and iOS 14.2 on an iPhone 12PM.

At the risk of distracting - because it may or may not be related - but I also keep getting told my phone can't connect to my computer without a software update. The connection seems to be allowed despite the message, but no explanation is available as to which device needs an update, and what the update would be to (Big Sur?).

I can't decide whether to be happy that I was not the only one to suffer from this, or to facepalm at the very thing happening to people in the first place...

Anyways, I also tried everything to fix my iPhone Xs MAX and iPad Pro (1) combo starting about 16 hours ago from writing this, and like @(Bernard Desgagné) said, it seemed to be gone until I found out 8 hours later that it does update, in an outrageous time lag...!

So after some help from the local Apple help phone service, I tried the following recommended steps in order;

1) turning Safari exempt from my iCloud connection temporarily,

2) blowing up all my cookies and web data for Safari,

3) resetting network settings (+ the automated reboot)

...as of writing this now, the iCloud tabs are gone again. Who knows, maybe it would update hours later? (sarcasm)

Has anyone found a solution?

This is really annoying as I've tried all the known solutions, and it's preventing me to do my research, I have certain tabs open on my phone/iPad that I need to access via my Mac, but of course this is not possible. This was working fine yesterday, and today as I sat down to write, I can no longer see the iCloud tabs.

All softwares are up to date on all my devices.

I'm having the same issue.. my MBP is running Big Sur, my iPhone XS is on iOS 13.5, iCloud tabs are not synchronizing at all. Will probably call Apple Support later this week if the issue doesn't resolve.

Same issue, wish I had found this prior to spending over an hour of pointless chat time with apple support !!!

They failed to acknowledge it being a problem and end the chat as resolved after they went thorough all the various stuff already done.

My issue is with the new Iphone Pro Max 14.2.1, no icloud web page sync of the pages on my Macbook 10.15.7 or iPad Pro Max 14.2

It is an iCloud sync issue, my Macbook and iPhone show on my iPad, but out of date / ones no longer open > even afire clearing all data and they refreshed !!!!

The phone & iPad did appear on the MacBook but after clearing data on the iPad and phone have gone again.

Come on Apple sort it please :-)