iCloud tabs not syncing/working

Maybe it’s coincidence but wasn’t working until I reset my device names. it’s working now

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.

I can confirm. Seems to be working again, even remote tab closing is working. Nice. But nobody knows what happened 😂 Important for alle affected users: you don't have to do anything on your devices. It is / was an Apple problem related to their infrastructure.

Most people, including me, who have seen their iCloud Safari tabs reappear say they did not do anything. Doing nothing might be your best guess for now: make sure that Safari is checked in the iCloud settings of all your devices, then wait for a couple of days.

Mine works now too. I sent my issue to Apple.com/feedback. And had sent my diagnostics to Apple engineers. And the iCloud safari tabs have come and gone over the last few days. Today they are working on all my devices!

I know it sure is frustrating. If you call Apple, it is free to talk with an advisor. I worked with a senior advisor, told them the steps I already did. We ran through some more steps and I ended up having to send my diagnostics to their engineers. It took a few days (the engineers work via email only), but they did get mine working. With that being said it took a lot of time and caused heaps of frustration. I made two appointments Apple certified repair locations and they both said it had to do with Apple iCloud servers. So I don’t think you can do anything to fix it, if you already ran through the steps. I think they have to fix it at their end. I had three Apple devices not working. They asked me to clear my device and start again. I refused to do that because there was no way three devices were not working correctly. Also, one of my devices was brand new. I also had an Apple location removed the newest iOS I just put on and replace again, just to see if they could fix it. They could not help me. I’m just trying to save you some time. This is what finally ended up working for me. I hope this helps.

Mocharuns, I am having the same problem. I am also working with a senior advisor to try to get this fixed. Is there anything specifically you can share with me that might help me to get this resolved more quickly? Thank you.

Yes, have it escalated to the engineers. It’s an iCloud problem. The senior advisor can talk you through it. I did have to send them my diagnostics. Then I had to re-create the problem by turning Safari on and off and showing where my iCloud tabs should be. My advisor had me go to settings, tap my name, tap iCloud, then turn Safari on and off. Had to do this 3 to 4 times, then went to where the tabs should be showing up on my device. The tabs were all wrong but they were able to see that. Then the advisor sent that info to their engineers. And after struggling with this issue it got fixed perfectly. I noticed my tabs were changing and in two days they were all fixed. It did take a few days, then the weekend got in the way. But like I said I could see the engineers were working on it.

Mocharuns: I have already sent my diagnostics to the senior support person, which has already presumably been passed along to the engineers. To be clear: it was NOT your turning the "safari" setting in iCloud off and on three or four times that fixed the issue, right? Instead, that just confirmed for the engineers that there was a problem, and they then adjusted some setting on their side?

I think I contacted them and it ended going over the weekend (which doesn’t count). So 4 days. Then 2 days later the adviser called me to check how it was working, and it was fine. I kept asking for the advisor to call me (we set up an appt with her) each time we spoke.

Ahhh, she never said. Just that they must have. I told her they DID fix it because I could see my iCloud tabs changing over the weekend. At one point all my regular safari tabs disappeared (tabs I had opened and was working on) but then they all came back. So I could see they were actively working on the issue. Plus the fact that I had google searched the issue, had gone to 2 apple genius bars, spoke with senior advisors and am pretty knowledgeable about apple products. We had exhausted all trouble shooting multiple times.

I am in the same situation. I have an open incident since beginning December. I also have a problem with notes only syncing on 4g, not on WiFi. I’ve spoken to three senior advisers and several technicians and sent one set of diagnostics. Yesterday I spent 90 minutes on the phone where he screen shared my MacBook, iPad and phone all at the same time and he saw with his own eyes the bizarre iCloud tab behaviour. We turned the safari setting on off etc, and he saw how the tabs appeared, then disappeared, then reappeared but shouldn’t have done. He’s going to follow up on Monday.

Do you have any certificates or profiles installed? Something you install on Settings which grants you access to an University wifi or some company’s wifi. Try deleting those certificates, rebooting and check if it works

iOS 14.4 (18D52): Closed iCloud tabs reappear automatically again and again, ghost iCloud tabs and tab groups show up even after erasing the device and restoring it as new without using backup (tabs were closed every time before erasing).

Yep, I'm getting the same thing. After not browsing with Safari for hours, the tabs seem to "catch up" and show correctly what's open. Then when I start browsing again, the tabs tend to disappear altogether from my device. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Working fine for me again now, they seemed to have changed the behaviour you now need to open a webpage on one device and then close safari, i.e press home button or swipe back to Home Screen and the it syncs in the background. It used to sync when open I guess they changed it to reduce the amount of unnecessary traffic through their servers.