Safari frequently visited sites missing and open tabs not syncing

Question

Safari frequently visited sites missing and open tabs not syncing

I have a Mac, iPad, and iPhone and I have two issues with Safari 15 across my devices

On my iPad, the frequently visited sites disappeared sometime after the iOS 15 upgrade. Settings show they are supposed to be visible and toggling Frequently Visited off and back on makes no difference. My iPhone doesn't have this issue.

Also on my iPad and iPhone, they show tabs supposedly open on my Mac that haven't been open in months. If I close the tabs from the iPad or iPhone, they just re-appear the next time I use it so I have no way to get rid of them. This issue is obviously on the Mac end, it's not syncing to iCloud correctly. I have tried turning Safari syncing to iCloud off and back on but there's no change.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Oct 5, 2021 6:51 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Michael Loader Author

Level 1

118 points

Oct 6, 2021 7:00 AM in response to Michael Loader

Also while Safari 15 iPhone shows me outdated tabs from my Mac it doesn't show them from my iPad.

I assume something in the cache is corrupted but how do I reset this mess?

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Answer 2

Oct 12, 2021 1:43 PM in response to Michael Loader

Yup, just today all of a sudden my frequently visited section disappeared on my iphone ios15

toggling it off and on does nothing

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Answer 3

Nov 2, 2021 1:46 PM in response to Michael Loader

Did apple ever resolve this? I got iPadOS 15.1 updated still facing the same issue.

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Answer 4

Oct 18, 2021 7:59 PM in response to heshie1

I found another iCloud sync issue and I hoped that fixing it would fix this issue, too, but no such luck. I discovered that my Mac wasn't syncing some files to iCloud - the downloads directory was out of sync. I had to turn iCloud sync off on my Mac and then back on (and I backed everything up first to be safe). It appears to have fixed that problem but it had no impact on the Safari setting sync issues. However, based on the dates of the files that hadn't synced I believe both problems started at the same time.

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Answer 5

Oct 19, 2021 10:52 AM in response to sunnysunw

My iCloud Drive sync issue is resolved but it doesn't appear related to the Safari iCloud tabs and frequently visited sites issues.

I contacted Apple for support on both issues. The iCloud Drive issue appeared to be caused by a 2.5GB file that hadn't synced properly. I deleted the file, restarted in safe mode, turned iCloud Drive off again and this time deleted all local files from my Mac, turned it back on, and allowed the files to resync. But this had no impact on the other issue.

I spoke with second-level support and he reviewed my devices and confirmed the issue. He gathered up all the log files and took screenshots for the engineers to review. I added that others had reported the problem online, too.

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Answer 6

segawm

Level 1

16 points

Oct 26, 2021 2:20 AM in response to Michael Loader

This issue has been reported from so many users. (6 posts only in a few days)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253222110

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253292709

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253289835

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253283431

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253285661

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253282235

I also reported to Apple support twice, but they always say "We recognize this issue, but no progress in investigation"...

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Answer 7

Oct 26, 2021 7:57 AM in response to segawm

A couple of those threads may be different issues, but Apple is actively working on this issue. They phoned me again yesterday and we spent another hour debugging to capture more log files for the engineers.

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Answer 8

Oct 26, 2021 9:45 AM in response to Michael Loader

Same here, since iOS 15 my 4 gen iPad doesn’t show those sites on start page. However my older iPad Air 2 works. Another annoying “improvement” in Safari, side bar with bookmarks, reading list, history, one extra tap now added why!!!!

And I could go with iPhone “features”……..

As an old saying goes, ain’t broken don’t fix it stupid.

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Answer 9

Nov 2, 2021 2:03 PM in response to Reason2Smile

No. The engineers thought they had it fixed but it's still broken. I got a new Mac yesterday and we wanted to wait and see what happened and it has the same problem as the old Mac, so either corrupted data was transferred or it's corrupted in iCloud. The ticket is still open.

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Answer 10

dembow

Level 1

53 points

Nov 14, 2021 3:40 AM in response to Michael Loader

Add me in on this issue. Have been using my new iPhone 13 Pro Max for almost two months now and Frequently Visited section in Safari should've been populated by now, especially since I regularly visit webpages that aren't listed in my Bookmarks. Safari on Mac however shows the Frequently Visited section just fine.

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Answer 11

Nov 28, 2021 7:50 AM in response to zsolt147

Well, they keep adding “features” to justify selling more new hardware (at least they offer trade-in, otherwise old not working anymore junk gets dumped). However not much really worth having it terms of those “features”. Usually more annoying than helpful. For instance “tab groups” showing up when you access Safari app. They are fine if you need many tabs accessible, but you should be able to hide this feature. If you have few tabs open it shows current group page and new group “start page”, which isn’t really needed, because you could simply start new group if you wanted.

My peeve is my alarm system app that with latest iOS 15.1 has trouble to arm my home alarm. It churns away and eventually times out. I can check the status of it, but can’t operate it anymore with the app. In hour house we got two different iPhones SE and 13 pro, apps on both have the same problem. So, I have to do things manually. My alarm company is looking into it.

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Answer 12

Dec 20, 2021 1:06 PM in response to srzuch

Well, they went through couple of iOS updates and except useless and annoying icons at the bottom at Safari page nothing made it better.

Made in China hardware, perhaps made in China software updates?

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Answer 13

Jan 7, 2022 8:22 PM in response to Michael Loader

Absolutely same crap here. Happened on all my devices. Fixed on Macs (don’t know how) but nothing helps iPhone. Reset cache and turned this feature on/off many times. I see tabs from other devices but not frequently visited sites

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Answer 14

slaaice

Level 1

8 points

Feb 2, 2022 5:02 PM in response to Scotts_Tots

Bug's still there.

No frequently visited sites.

Old "zombie" tab from Mac iCloud Tabs keeps showing on iPhone. Clearing data, deleting Safari folder, logging out, closing this tab multiple times doesn't help. Renaming devices doesn't help. Safe mode didn't help.

Mac's "iCloud tabs" also is out of sync. Checkmark on toolbar "show iCloud tabs" often disappears and reappears only after rebooting.

The problems only started with iOS 15.

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Answer 15

Mar 3, 2022 6:53 AM in response to Michael Loader

Same issue. As a workaround, I added my most used sites to my Reading List, and moved the Reading List to the top of the new tab page. That way when I click in the address bar I can at least access those sites quickly.

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Safari frequently visited sites missing and open tabs not syncing

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