iOS 18 Safari tabs not syncing via iCloud

I discovered a way to get at least some improvement to sycing. On my iPhone, I went to Settings, then my Apple Account, then iCloud then iCloud Storage. I found two lines for saved Safari data, which seemed odd. One was 400KB, the other about 800KB. Anyway, 1) turned off iCloud Tabs and Safari syncing to iCloud on both my iPhone and iPad. 2) I deleted both Safari lines from iCloud storage. Restarted my devices, turned everything back on. Now it seems to sync when I force close Safari on both devices, which is an improvement. But still not fast and automatic like it was back in iOS 17. I also notice that Safari no longer shows up in my iCloud storage, so I think that continues to be an indication that something underlying is still broken.

Okay, force closing Safari and reopening it will update the tabs. It's just not pinging iCloud to update on its own for some reason.

I had noticed that my larger Safari file had been growing exponentially throughout trouble shooting, so it was probably corrupted. As such, I ultimately deleted them both.

This has fixed the problem — all three devices are synchronising perfectly again — but at the expense of Profiles (easy to recreate) and Tab Groups (much more upsetting). Bookmarks are preserved.

So the workaround for other people who do not want to lose tab groups might be a favourite folder for each tab group and save them there first.

Same here. My iPhone (15 Pro Max) and iPad Pro (first 11 in) seem to stay in sync with each other, but my Mac will only display the tabs open on the other two if I either A) toggle off and back on Safari syncing or B) quit and re-open Safari. Once synced, I can see and even close tabs on the other devices, but adding new tabs to either my phone or iPad does nothing. All devices are on the latest (non-beta) software versions.

I have tried toggling all 3 devices off simultaneously then re-syncing, and also (huge pain) signing out from iCloud on all devices and logging back in, but the problem persists.

Very frustrating that this feature that I have come to rely on remains broken throughout this software release cycle. This should have been an 18.1 fix.

Same issues! I have to AirDrop pages from my MacBook to my iPhone or the reverse because the tabs showing are either old closed tabs that there anymore or the current ones just don't show up. It's so frustrating. The only time it ever works is if I sign out a back in on my both devices or clear histories and restart the browsers but then it only works for a day if that.

iCloud tabs -- I LOVE THEM!!!

But they break frequently and simply stop showing iCloud tabs across devices, one device will show old tabs from one device, one tab on my phone. New iPad shows zero from phone or Mac.

It's on again, and mostly off again. When they work I use them a ton because I keep a lot of tabs open.

I'm just adding to the chorus. Same issue. I did the 'turn them off and on again' thing and they all updated, but then everything just stuck on the newer version. According to iCloud Safari tabs, nothing has closed or opened since this reset several weeks ago, which is not the case. Based on my experiences, it would mean repeating the initial turn it on and off again across devices every time you want a current version of your tabs, and providing you never want any new additions you're set... which sort of defeats the whole idea.

Still a trainwreck of a feature as of Mar 9 25. Current OS on Mac, iPhone, iPad, turned off Safari iCloud on all devices, waited, turned back on. Bookmarks and Favorites sync fine but iCloud Tabs a mess. Randomly syncs/does not sync/resurrects previous tabs.

Force Quit on Mac appears to restore the correct tabs. Force quit on iOS does nothing.

It's rare that Apple ships features that just flat out don't work but this is going on a year with iCloud Tabs, and it's hardly the only poor feature implementation on Safari.

One wonders whether Charlie Deets left or was pushed, and what his replacement is doing to earn his pay.

Yep, exact same. I finally have tabs syncing, but 2 zombie tabs that pop up again after closing them. Frustrating as it seems like we've got a partial fix -- the server is updating the tabs that are supposed to be synced, but not clearing out old tabs that should be gone.

Apple support article on turning on iCloud tabs says we should:

1. Go to Settings > your name > iCloud.
2. Tap See All, next to Saved to iCloud…
3. Make sure that Safari is turned on.

I am on iOS 18.5 and that Show All now no longer offers any choices other than a toggle to “Sync this iPad”.

My iPad stopped syncing tabs recently. iCloud tabs was broken for me earlier this year. Then it started working better than ever. Now completely broken on my iPad. June5, 2025. Yes, I restarted the iPad!

On my iPhone 15 Pro running iOS 18.5, iCloud tabs is running well and that Show All command does offer all the different choices.

You might have found the cause. After many attempts deleting/restarting/toggling, I have two devices synchronising perfectly again, but the third is not at all. And it turns out I also have two Safari lines (of vastly different sizes) in Icloud storage.

I will just try deleting the small one to start with, and will report back if there is subsequent meaningful progress. But it feels like the right path.

If anything, I think the zombie tab problem that was largely fixed is now getting worse. I regularly see tabs I closed days earlier come up until I reset the iCloud sync option.

Yep, same issue here as of 3/5/25 (iPhone 15 Pro Max - iOS 18.3.1) it’s like the sync is delayed by 24-36+ hours or something.

I’m here not to answer but to say I’m having exactly the same issue. Used to mostly work fine. Now my iPhone can see tabs from iPad , but not vice versa, and none from my MacBook. Rebooting and turning off iCloud tabs did nothing. I’m in Spain. I updated two days ago and they were working on iOS 18, but today stopped. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

so frustrating.