Help! Make it stop, make it stop syncing...

I have had an iPad Mini, model PD528LL/A, current iOS v.9.3.4. I've been using it for ~2.5 yrs. My wife won it at work a year or more before I started using it. It sat in the box until I 'appropriated' it for my use.

There was an iOS update a few months or so after I began to use it. I don't remember the version, (brain injury damaged MY memory), but I do recall there was a 'point 01' release very shortly afterwards, with a 'point 02' within weeks after that. (THAT even beats anything M$ ever pulled with Windows!)

I am a definitive power user in the PC world; former IT consultant & PC manufacturer, former & current solution & software creator/implementor/instructor. I squeeze all there is out of S/W & H/W. I am now focused on automization of the OS & apps; so the computer can truly begin to work for us, instead of being an electronic slide rule or T-square & triangle. The point being I do a lot more with & expect a lot more from computers than an average user. I also watch problems, look for patterns, etc.

I have NO other Apple products, nor do I need to sync my Safari data with my multiple PC's.

As I learned the idiosyncracies of iOS and began to design and organize a bookmarking system in Safari, I began to see an occasional 'Syncing Bookmarks' message. Over time, it became more frequent, until it became a hindrance. I then found some web info re: optimization of iOS settings and turned off the iCloud syncing for Safari. It seemed to solve the problem. For a while.

I don't believe it was the 'trifecta' iOS update which caused the issue, I think it was the next one. Suddenly 'syncing bookmarks' returned. Again it didn't immediately become a hindrance, though the number of bookmarks had increased, and the organizational structure was much more complex. (I think I had started using various Unicode characters & pictographs as coding and eye sight delimiters in the folder and file names by then. (It is something I've been working on in the PC world for some time, and began to integrate it into iOS within a year after using the iPad, (one of the motivators for using it's 'appropriation'.

THen it began to be annoying. I once again researched the problem, and went to shut off iCloud syncing for Safari, only to find it WAS turned off. I researched further to see if there were multiple controls, but found nothing. I found a few other people with similar/same issue, but nothing particular in the way of 'do this to fix the problem'.

I endured the problem. I recall thinking perhaps the NEXT update would resolve the problem, (by then the advertising world's 'polish' had worn off 'The Apple', and I had started documenting flaws, poor design and outright idiocy in both iOS and the iPad.)

THe next update came & went, no change, at first. I did experience instant rage at the clearing of the several hundred text replacement macros I had created. Both a new rage at their arrogant deletion, and a rekindling of the rage from finding no apparent way to archive or backup th same. I had them backed up, but restoring would take hours, as they would each have to be re-entered, (high marks for stooopid on that). Fortunately, I remembered reading a complete reboot SHOULD restore them. It did, before my brain exploded.

A month or so ago, I was telling a Apple OS developer I met online recently about the 'zombie syncing' problem, and he was astounded and none of his immediate suggestions changed things. (By this time, the syncing was beyond annoying, and I had begun to look for a way to recode the delay time for syncing to engage after an idle state occurs, (something commonly done in the Windows world), since I was typically not getting a chance to do more than create multiple new bookmarks or edit existing bookmarks as fast as could. A delay of as little as 10 seconds between entries/edits would mean I would get the 'syncing bookmarks' message when I clicked 'Edit' or 'Add Bookmark'. An extremely frustrating situation, (as frustrating as Safari/iPad/iOS's behavior when attempting to edit text in an online field. A problem even at Apple.com, so it can't be the HTML coders' at fault, but I digress.)

EVen being able to delay initiation of syncing for a minute would be a saviour, but I've discovered nothing, yet. It was how I met the Apple developer.

A few hours later, I received a msg from said developer. They had found a suggestion to turn ON syncing, wait 2-5 minutes, THEN turn it off. Make sure I was connected to the web, (at the time, I was at our NY apt, which is in cell phone & Internet connection ****. Use the cell, it killed the Internet. Go to the kitchen with the cell, drop the call. Close the door to the bathroom, drop the call OR loose the 'net, depending on your choice of bathroom 'entertainment'. The crazy thing is, the two services have NO connection, what so ever.)

The theory was I didn't have a solid connection to the 'net when I had turned off syncing, so the message never got to 'the cloud'. Highly dubious, but the advice was free.

When I turned the syncing on, for the first time, I got an on screen response. I had never seen ANY reaction to moving the slider before. I turned it off and waited until I was 'bookmarking' again.

To my surprise, it was not nearly as intrusive. I mean, for a good solid 8, perhaps 10 hours, I did not want to throw the iPad out the living room window, (I should add, the only window does not open.)

Then it was back. Right back to grabbing any available 5-10 second pause in actively creating or editing the bookmarks or folders. Oh, something else I should add. I tried keeping 'Edit' mode open in the bookmark structure to foil it.

As soon as I made a change, I lost my advantage, and it was back. So, I could hold it off, as long as I didn't create or edit bookmarks.

I repeated the On, then Off routine when I could leave it on for a few hours, so maybe it would get sated, but when I turned it Off, again, it went immediately back to being voracious.

1. I cannot believe the programmers at Apple would put so short of a delay it is virtually non-existant in the sync routine. It truly baffles me. THAT is programming 101 material, 95, even.

2. Why does Apple not provide some sort of control for this and other functions, other than use it, OUR way. (I beginning to suspect where Peter Norton learned the attitude displayed by his arrogant & overbearing software.)

3. Any ideas? I'm looking for 'higher level' ideas, it is why I took the time to explain, in detail, what is going on, with history. Hopefully, the people who take the time to read this will be of that vein.

4. One last thing. I tried the On, then Off routine one more time, closing Safari and re-booting while sync was on. THIS time when I turned it off, I got a message asking what I wanted to do with data that was synced, keep it on my iPad, or delete it. This message was confusing to me. It didn't say 'synced data', as in the stuff on the cloud, but data that was synced, to me meaning my bookmarks, etc, which was copied to the cloud. I cancelled, since I wasn't sure I wouldn't delete my bookmarks locally, and need to restore them. I have had things like this happen before.

SO, was the msg referring to the data ON the cloud, or the data the cloud copy was made from?

ANy help, or comments will be greatly appreciated, even if it is: "Me, too!"

Thanks, in advance

,

GeoD