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Zombie/Phantom MacOS Safari iCloud Tabs showing up on iOS devices

For quite some time now, one of my Macs has been showing long ago closed tabs (40+, some over a year old) on my iOS devices and other Mac. Updates, changing device names, logging one or all devices out of iCloud or anything else I tried would get them to disappear. If you deleted them on an iOS device, they would appear immediately if that Mac was online. If the Mac was shut down, they would disappear until the Mac was turned back on. While speaking with a Mac Senior Advisor I asked, ""What FILE do I delete on my MacBook Pro to clear the cache of the bad tabs that keep syncing to the cloud?" The Apple response: "There isn't one."

MacBook Pro Retina

Posted on Sep 23, 2021 7:03 PM

Top-ranking reply

commanderclif_me Author

Level 1

66 points

Posted on Sep 23, 2021 7:04 PM

Well there is a fix because here like a year later, they are also gone. If this is your issue as well try this:

• Quit Safari on MacOS

• Go to /Users/"yourMacName"/Library/Safari (This Libary is the hidden one revealed by holding Option down under Go menu in Finder)

• The folder here called Safari, rename it Safari.old (I made a backup to desktop too just in case)

• Restart Safari, new Safari folder will be created in Library

• On iOS and other Macs, quit Safari and open back up so it pings iCloud to get the new list of tabs right away without having to wait for whatever the ping period is when running.

Was glad to find a tip on this at MacRumors and stoke the 40+ zombie tabs are gone now.

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Zombie/Phantom MacOS Safari iCloud Tabs showing up on iOS devices

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