iOS 6 iCloud bookmarks sync stuck in limbo... any idea?

If you find the iBackupBot/iTunes solution easy, I am happy. However, I found it close to impossible to follow the instructions so I was lucky that I came accross with the other solution.

All I have to say is Shawn Lebbon is the man. THANK YOU for solving this crazy problem. Apple needs to fix this!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for that really helpful thread.

I had the very same issue on my iPad mini with iOS 6 and 6.1 but I managed to fix it thanks to iBackupBot (trial version).

First, with iTunes I restored to a clean state just in order to extract the default bookmarks.db and bookmarks.db.info, then imported those into my original backup that I restored with iBackupBot.

Apparently I've been lucky since only one restore did the trick, without any brick or hard reset to do.

Good luck to all!

Perfect post, my phone is syncing as i write this.. But just some of the things that i fought with, that might help newbies on the thread:

1) drag/drop bothe the bookmark.db file AND bookmarks.info file to the desktop.. iBackUpBot can only use the info file when importing to the backup at hand. When importing the .info file, apparently the .db "takes it place"

2) when exporting the new backup library.. DONT and i repeat DONT just chose desktop.. it'l dump around 4.000 files on your desktop seperatly.. so make a folder first and call it f.x "Clean Backup", and export the backup into that folder.. then drag/drop that folder into the mobilesync -> backup folder..

3) when finished with step 2, copy the old corrupted backup folder onto the desktop, for security reasons 🙂 and the delete it from the mobilesync -> backup folder, so the newest backup is the one from iBackUpBot.. that'll make picking the right one in iTunes much easier.. mine just showed two backups created at the same time at first, but only the right one, after deleting the older one.. well ofcourse.. but.. -.-

well now my phone stopped syncing, hope that this has helped the batterylife etc:)

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

THANK YOU

All of you are fantastic. This problem was bugging me for weeks. The fix was so simple. Never knew you could edit the iPhone back-up files.

5480 - I did exactly what they said to do on this thread and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately I am not good at making You Tube videos - someone should make one - you will kick yourself if you see how easy it is.

Here's what I did if this helps - just repeating everyone else but spelling it out in detail.

1. Make sure your iPhone is set to back up with your MAC. On your iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup and make sure Backup is set to “off”. This turns off the cloud backup. 2. Turn off Safari Bookmark sync. To do this, on your iPhone, go into Settings > iCloud and turn Safari to "off". When it asks if you should delete all previously synced bookmarks, just say “yes”.

3. On your MAC, delete all previous back-ups of your iPhone to minimize confusion later on. To do this when in iTunes select iTunes > Preferences > Devices. Delete all back-ups with your iPhone’s name.

4. Make a new back up your iPhone: connect your iPhone to iTunes and on the Summary tab, under Backups, select “Backup Now”. Wait until this is completely done. This creates a latest and greatest back up file from which you can restore your iPhone. But first you must edit the back up file to fix the corrupt bookmarks.

5. You can skip steps (5-7) but to be safe, make a back up for your iphone's Back-Up library. Reason for this is that if your screw something up in the process, you can always go back and restore the back-up files on your MAC.

6. To do this, open Finder and go to the menu on top and click "Go". Then scroll down and select "Go to Folder". Then cut and past this location: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

(the reason you will need to do this is because the MobileSync folder is hidden on most Macs - I couldn't find it on mine with normal means)

7. Once you do this, it will open a folder called "Backup" with a bunch of very ugly looking folders underneath - don't worry about this. Copy the main folder called "Backup" to your desk top. Easy way to do this is drag the "Backup" folder to your desktop while holding down the Alt/Option key - you will see a plus sign indicating it will be copied vs. moved. Mine was about 2.5GB so it took aout 5 minutes to copy.

8. Next go to this site and download a copy of the software called ibackupbot:

http://www.icopybot.com/itunes-backup-manager.htm

BE SURE TO GET MAC VERSION / download and install. Don't launch yet.

9. Next, go to this dropbox location which will give you clean bookmark files that you will need in step 13 below.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o8nueh3s5kwkjq8/MkOM4s1QaF

10. When you click on this drop box link, it will show you two files. Each one will be a link. Click on each one and select download. This will place these files into your user folder called "Downloads". Go find both files and to make this easy, drag both files to your desktop. You need to have both files on your desktop called:

Library_Safari_Bookmarks.db

Library_Safari_Bookmarks.db.info

(I know you probably know how to do this so don't be insulted)

11. Launch ibackupbot and it will load up all of your iPhone, iPads, iPods back-up files including the most recent backup you made in step 4. It will take a good 20 seconds to load up all this data.

12. Click on the folder with the same name of your iPhone. Don't worry about all the garble that appears to the right.

13. Click on "File" then "Import". Select the Desktop for your location to find the files and then select the one file called:

Library_Safari_Bookmarks.db.info

Then click Open

(I know there are two files on your desktop but you only need to select this one - everything elese will take care of itself)

14. What just happened is that within your iPhone back-up files, you just replaced all of your corrupt Safari bookmarks with an empty, clean bookmark folder. So all that is left to do is to restore the files on your iPhone and you are done.

15. To restore your iPhone, simple connect to iTunes, and under the section called "Backups", select "Restore Backup" and select the back-up set with your name on it.

16. Your iPhone will go through the normal steps and after about 3 minutes will restart and everything will be the same except now your Safari bookmarks are clean.

17. You can now turn on iCloud Safari Bookmark Sync and everything should work fine.

18. You can delete the very large Backup file you dragged to your desktop in step 7 once everything is working OK.

Good Luck.

@richard247 and everybody here, thanks for your effort and fantastic help - I was able to solve my iPad Mini bookmark problem with your step by step guide.

Having said that, it's a shame Apple doesn't use its profits to avoid having us customers hacking backup files to fix bugs like this. That was exactly the reason I left the Windows camp a few years ago...

@richard247. This has been bugging me for months and months. Appreciate the clear and concise instructions. Bookmarks now restored to non-frustration level.

Thanks to everyone being very helpful on this. However, I got stuck at a certain point in richard247's otherwise extremely clear directions, perhaps because of something odd in the version of ibackupbot I downloaded? When I got to steps 12 & 13, first of all, I wasn't sure which of the things in the left column were "the folder with the same name of my iphone. I assume it's the folder under "backups," but my iphone name also appears under "devices." More importantly, under "File" in ibackupbot there is no "import" option. All I see is Refresh, Open, Duplicate, Duplicate, Delete, and Restore. So I can't figure out how to do snything with the Library_Safari_Bookmarks.db.info file. Can anyone help? I must be missing something obvious here...

Glenntwo:

I just checked - I am using version iBackupBot 3.6.4. On the left hand side there is a dropdown folder that is automatically open to show all the iTunes Backups. It lists a folder with the name of your iDevice and the date of your last backup in parentheses. Just click on the folder with the name which matches your iPhone that you seek to fix. Make sure you are clicked on the iBackupBot application so that the top menu bar is the one for this application. When you click on file you should see the following options: Reload / Open / Export / Import / Restore / Check All / Check None. I assume you are doing this on a MAC vs. PC, correct? Good luck. -Rich

I have the same problem, since my iphone5 update to version 6.1.3, the battery is drained and heated. On average, the battery lasts me 6 hours

The location of the phone is working in the background, so the phone being standby, the battery is drained and heated terribly

*****************FIX****************:

Disable the location in the app's in which it has been used the last 24 hours (Setup\Privacy\location), to the bottom of the same screen, at the option of system services, also disable the "location"

In my case, this worked; now, with 12 hours of standby and 3 hours of use, I have 70% battery!!!!.

I pass another link with other solutions, I hope they serve:

http://bkbeachlabs.com/blog/ios-6-1-2-battery-issue-solved/

P.D. excuse myEnglish

Under the current version, clicking on the file containing the backup doesn't give you the ability to import. You can manually navigate to the Safari folder, but importing to there (or even renaming the .db file bookmark.db and uploading) results in a corrupted file that can't be restored to the phone.

Anyone know how to use the .info file under the current version of iBackupBot without messing things up?

HI Adam,

I had the same result as you using the free version of iBackupBot. This is what I did to fix my phone - if you have another apple device it may work for you. Because I have another iPhone for work, I was able to restore the bookmark file from that phone into my personal phone that was corrupted. In iBackupBot, when clicking on my corrupted phone, on the right panel at bottom I saw this message:

This device can be restore from below backups (click to restore):

iPad

iPhone Work

etc

I then selected my work phone as the one to restore from, and then selected only the Safari data files to restore.

It took about only 20 seconds, then my corrupted phone rebooted and synced and all seems well. Hope this helps

Thank you for replyig! I can't remember if that's what I did, but I did something back in May to get the phone working again.

I stumbled on this by accident. You now have to click on the box with the arrow, it drops down third row shows a bookmark icon click that and it takes you the save page. Didn't have to restart or clear anything. They just moved it to a different place. ;-((. kind of dumb if you ask me.

Restoring Safari Data is the easiest way to correct this problem. Like others, my reading list would not sync and my device jus kept saying "waiting"

The free version of iBckupBot does not allow you to import, I was not going to spend 34 dollars for a one time use.

I have other iDeices in my household, and I simply used iBackupBot to restore from another device. I unchecked everything but the safari files.

First, on your iPhone go to Settings/icloud and turn off ssafari. I chose to delete from iPhone.

In iBackupBot on the left, I clicked on my iphone under Devices

On the right under This device can be restore from below backups (click to restore): I clicked on my wifes iPhone 4

A new window will pop up.

Leave the defaults checked under Restore options

Under Please select contents that you want to restore, check PARTICULAR Restore

Uncheck both System files and User app files

Expand System files and then check ONLY Safari data files

Then press OK

Your phone will reboot and restore with this new safari data file.

Go back to settings/icloud and turn on safari.

This corrected the waiting sync problem with my reading list and was much simpler than playing around with the backups etc.