Old iPhone iCloud tabs show up in Mac Safari

I have faced the same issue. In my case the scenario was:

• iPad with iOS 14.X & 15.X
• iPhone with iOS 14.X & 15.X
• Macbook with MacOS 11.X

Safari was completely updated in the three devices.

I'm dragging this issue since iOS 14 and I've finally solved in iOS 15. I don't think that the issue is related to iOS or MacOS itself. I think that the issue is related to iCloud synchronisation.

In my scenario, both the iPad and the iPhone were showing "ghost" tabs from the Macbook that are already close. I've tried a bunch of different solutions, some of them found in this question.

After some tries, the final solution was:

1.- Completely close Safari in the three devices (even remove the app from the multitask)

2.- Disable Safari synchronisation in the Macbook

For this step, you have to go to "System Preferences > Apple ID" and untick Safari.

3.- Remove all files and folders related to Safari under your user's "Library". These files and folders are:

• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.parsecd/CustomFeedback/SafariAutoPlay (folder)
• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.parsecd/CustomFeedback/SafariAutoFill (folder)
• ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari (folder)
• ~/Library/SafariSafeBrowsing (folder)
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.share.System.add-to-safari-reading-list (folder)
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari.SafariQuickLookPreview (folder)
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari.DiagnosticExtension (folder)
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari.CacheDeleteExtension (folder)
• ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari (folder)
• ~/Library/Safari (folder)
• ~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~mobilesafari (folder) [Note: After removing this, it will be automatically recreated]
• ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~SafariShared~History (folder) [Note: After removing this, it will be automatically recreated]
• ~/Library/SafariSandboxBroker (folder)
• ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.share.System.add-to-safari-reading-list (folder)
• ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.Safari.SafariQuickLookPreview (folder)
• ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.Safari.DiagnosticExtension (folder)
• ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.Safari.CacheDeleteExtension (folder)
• ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.Safari (folder)
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.PasswordBreachAgent.plist (file)
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.SandboxBroker.plist (file)
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.SafeBrowsing.plist (file)
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncAgent.plist (file)
• ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist (file)

Notes:

• The symbol "~/" means your user folder. Don't search those files and folders in the system's Library.
• At the end of every file or folder, between parenthesis, is the type of element that you're looking for. File or folder.
• Also at the end of some lines, between square brackets, there are some notes about the file or folder.

4.- Open Safari in the Macbook

In this step, some of the previously deleted files and folders are going to be created again, but with the history, bookmarks, reading list, open tabs, etc. with no data. Those files and folders will contain a brand new Safari configuration.

5.- Enable Safari synchronisation in the Macbook

For this step, you have to go to "System Preferences > Apple ID" and tick Safari.

6.- Wait until all your bookmarks, history, reading list is synchronised

7.- In this step I've configured Safari again. Things like "Search engine", "How Safari opens", "Enable extensions", etc.

8.- Open Safari in the iPad and in the iPhone

At this point the "ghosts" tabs disappear and never appear again. At least in the last 5 days that I've waited between doing the procedure and writing this answer.

Hope someone finds this useful.

Have you tried completely logging out of iCloud on the Mac, shutting down, then restarting, and then logging back in to iCloud?

A more aggressive version of this would involve restarting in Safe Mode, then restarting normally and logging back in to iCloud. Safe Mode clears some caches, which could be "remembering."

I ended up fixing my problem this evening by signing out of iCloud on my Mac, rebooting, then signing back in. It was a total pain, but so far, my Mac cloud tabs have not reappeared on my phone. I noticed also that handoff was also not working properly with my phone/mac when this was happening. Now, everything appears somewhat normal at least for the time being.

I signed out of my Apple ID on my phone and iPad (was annoying as find my Mac and all stored cards in Apple wallet drop) but when I did that and logged back in the errant old tabs went away. It's been over a week and they haven't returned.

I had this same problem and searched everywhere for a solution. Finally, what worked is what steve626 suggested:

I logged out of iCloud on all of my Apple devices. Then I logged back into iCloud on one device at a time. And that fixed it.

(Caveat: After logging back in, some settings on your device(s) may need to be reset. I've filed a bug report with Apple about this. Logging out/in to iCloud shouldn't change settings, but it does. Still, it fixed my stuck iCloud tabs.)

Been dealing with this for a while. Phantom tabs from Nov 2020. Waited until Safari 15 in the hopes they would address it. Still wasn't fixed. Did all the things said here. So decided to call apple.

It's an issue on their back end. We tested as such. I saw it for myself by creating a new user on my MBP and then logging into iCloud and turning on sync. Phantom tabs were there right away.

So I sent a whole bunch of diagnostic info. The phone rep said they were going to forward it to the devs. In the meantime they said they'd clear something on their end in within a few days.. And 2 days later no more phantom tabs. Been about 4 days. Fingers-crossed.

Point of the story is. I don't think there's anything we can do beside call apple and tell them to clear some cache on their side. And pray that they're aware of and will fix the issue now.

Hay all,

Unsure if this has been answered, however, a similar issue was happening with my MacBook; old iPhone iCloud tabs kept showing up even though the iPhone in question had no tabs open in Safari. Tried login out of my iCloud account on multiple devices time and time again with no results.

Just tried clearing the history and clearing the cache on all devices logged into (will mention I had not logged out at this time), closed the tabs in Safari on Macbook, shut down and rebooted the computer and started up Safari and at the time of posting this the old iCloud Tabs were not present.

The pathways to clear the history and caches are as follows:

Mac (Please note, Safari must be open before clearing and ensure Show Develop Menu is selected under Advanced tab under Preferences).

History: History > Clear History > chose all history from the drop-down then press Clear History

Cache: Develop > Empty Caches

iOS and iPadOS

History: Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data > press Clear History and Data

Cache: Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data > press Remove All Website Data

I will monitor to see if this is a permanent fix or not.

Signing out of all Apple ID on all devices and restarting resolved it for me

I had this exact issue. Tabs showing as ‘open’ on my iPhone from my iPads safari. This is how I solved it. I went on my iPhone (the device my iPad was reporting had open tabs that weren’t actually open). I turned off safari in the iCloud settings. I went on my iPad and swiped each tab and clicked delete until they were all gone. I waited a while and then turned safari back on on the iPhone settings. They phantom tabs have not shown back up on the iPad and all my devices report the correct tabs now.

You could try this:

Close all the tabs you want to get rid of in Safari on the Mac.

Then, in Safari Preferences on the Mac, select Advanced and then Show Develop Menu

In that Develop Menu select Empty Caches.

Quit Safari. Then reboot in Safe Mode, holding down the shift key until the boot completes, which will take a long time, as many as 10-20 minutes.

Then restart normally and see if the problem persists.

I had this problem with my iphone safari. Clearing history didn't work at all, neither did logging out of icloud completely on my phone. What somehow worked was turning off handoff on iphone settings then after a while turning it back on. It resetted the iphone icloud tabs I think. I've tried it before and it didn't work, but now it suddenly worked.

+1. Logging out of iCloud on my iPhone worked and resolved the issue or old safari history showing up on my other devices despite having cleared / deleting the search history.

What helped me was sign out of my Apple ID on all my devices and then log back in.