Freeform not syncing across ipad, iphone and Mac

Same issue for me - I created and then duplicated a random board on my iPhone (which wouldn't sync). This random board then appeared on my Mac. Hey presto - my iPhone now has the board I created on my Mac. I've tested making changes on both my Mac and my phone, and all the changes are syncing with no problem. I will continue with reserved optimism!

Thank you! I tried all of the options and checked everything in this entire post. Your suggestion was the only one that seemed to work. The issue is when creating a board on the Mac,it won't sync to iPhone. But if I created it on my iPhone, it would sync to my MAC. I marked the board as a favorite, and, voila, it synced from Mac to iPhone! Thank you!!!!

My issue was that ipad's data were not synced to icloud, despite the fact syncing was enabled and other apps worked fine. Sharing a canvas from freeform displayed a message "wait a minute to finish icloud syncing". That state persisted for weeks.

What finally helped was to mark a canvas, that does not want to get synced to icloud, as "favourite". After a while the canvas start to get synced from ipad to icloud and then to other devices. Seems like some caching issues and incorrect state of syncing on ipad, but who know really.

Have any of you tried to access your Freeform boards from iCloud.com? I don't have any other devices besides my iPhone, so I don't know if the issue I'm encountering is related to what everyone else is encountering. When I login to iCloud.com, I'm not even seeing the Freeform app as being available.

I did turn off the iCloud / Freeform setting on the phone (at which point the boards on my phone disappeared), and back on (at which point the boards reappeared on the phone). So it seems like there's some syncing that's been done, but I'm just not seeing anything accessible via iCloud.com.

Tried the suggestion of duplicating a board, but nothing changed. Have logged out of iCloud.com and back in, but have not tried logging out of my iPhone & back in.

Have also noticed at least one other app that I use on the iPhone (Voice Memos) which is turned on in iCloud setting, but similarly there's no Voice Memos app showing up at iCloud.com.

Thanks...

Replying to my own post... Looks like there's only a limited set of apps available to use via iCloud.com. Freeform doesn't seem to be available...

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-can-you-do-on-icloudcom

Same here - I duplicated all of my boards (on the Mac), did nothing for a couple of minutes...and then deleted all the duplicates (also on the Mac). Suddenly Synch kicked back in and everything was up to date.

Thank's for sharing this workaround!

I just figured out that was wrong in my case, so sharing here:

Go to System Settings > Apple ID > iCloud and look for the section named Apps Using iCloud. At the end of that section there should be a button saying Show All. Click on that and find Freeform in the list. Make sure the toggle is on, so the app can use iCloud for syncing.

(macOS Sonoma 14.0)

I seem to be able to fix a 'no sync' issue by turning it off on my iCloud account and then turning it on again (and worse, sometimes, by having to sign out completely) - both of which is an absolute pain. Perhaps even worse here is that, elements I use my iPad for (e.g. hand drawing etc... with Apple Pencil) don't always sync properly while other elements (like the insertion of photos) do. I absolutely love the concept of the App for story boarding etc.. and it has huge potential for collaboration on creative projects, but fixing the sync issues is critical for me if I'm going to rely on it.

I seem to be able to fix a 'no sync' issue by turning it off on my iCloud account and then turning it on again (and worse, sometimes, by having to sign out completely) - both of which is an absolute pain. Perhaps even worse here is that, elements I use my iPad for (e.g. hand drawing etc... with Apple Pencil) don't always sync properly while other elements (like the insertion of photos) do. I absolutely love the concept of the App for story boarding etc.. and it has huge potential for collaboration on creative projects, but fixing the sync issues is critical for me if I'm going to rely on it.

Have you tried turning it off and on again? :)

The issue most people are describing seems to be the exact same as mine, which is that FF board created on MAC do not sync to other devices, and cannot be shared. (Boards created on any other device sync to cloud fine).

I know it seems obv but often people just dont think to do it. I restarted my mac, and all was fine. Seems like a small bug in FF where the sync gets stuck, and a restart resolves it. Worth a try if you have forgotten to try that simple move.

That did it for me too! All I had to do was favorite one board and they all appeared on other devices. Even could edit on the other devices in the and it would appear on the original device. thank you thank you thank you!!!!!

How did you fix? its still not working

I duplicated a Board on the device that was not syncing and suddenly it synced all the missing boards.

I'm having same sync issues ... docs created on my phone sync to macbook but docs created on macbook dont sync to phone - tried with VPN no and off and am update to latest OS version on both devices

If you go into the iCloud settings on the Mac and iPad Check to see if Freeform is turned on with the slider button. I don't recall if I had to turn that on or if it was on by default.