Icloud Safari tabs not syncing

[maverick28]

This sort of thing is very irritating but it makes me less likely to upgrade to new devices. Knowing that all my Apple devices need to be bought around the same time if I want them to work together means I’m more likely to just stick with the old devices as I can’t afford or justify buying all my idevices at once. There is absolutely no reasonable reason why iCloud tabs suddenly can’t sync to older operating systems after updating Safari or iOS on another device.

I fervently second you on this one. I didn't keep attention to iCloud syncing at all, till I bought iPhone SE 1 week ago which I upgraded to iOS 12 because iOS 11 was glitchy as hell. Now I run 3 OS X as evident from my signature, Mavericks included - my primary OS along with Lion - and although I enabled Safari in iCloud on Mavericks and on all of my devices I see nothing but the placeholder fill text. Trying to find a solution for another "broken" iCloud feature I came across this article https://support.apple.com/en-jo/HT204230 to confirm my supposition that they upped their minimal iCloud requirements and I was right: the table's row "iCloud tabs" now lists "macOS Sierra" and iOS 11 as a bare minimum for the feature to work. The article last updated on January 24, and this is highly annoying because several very robust and productive versions of OS X are overboard and even Notes requires El Capitan (those who own OS-unsupported Macs, I salute you!). Normally as soon as a OS introduced some iCloud integrated feature it used to be maintained as a minimal requirement, like iCloud Mail, Notes, Safari, documents for Lion etc. Not anymore: syncing Notes between newer iOS and Mavericks and Lion not possible, likewise FaceTime doesn't work with Lion and Mountain Lion - you have to run Mavericks but it's not clear how much time will pass before they make it obsolete for FaceTime too. The newer features are the sooner Apple will to drop the OS they were first baked into.
I also suspect that this iCloud tabs integration is being maintained for as long as OS gets security updates. As such, Mavericks was cut back in 2016, El Capitan in 2018 and Sierra's end is not far off- this year.
Using Apple is as frustrating as joyful and I'm not sure the latter will keep me on their side.

 

[dysamoria]

I still have this problem between up-to-date iOS devices (prior to iOS 13 coming out)... and, of course, Mac OS X (High Sierra on two machines). I haven't had universal clipboard functioning for over a year.

iCloud doesn't "just work".

 

[Populus]

I have Catalina on my Mac mini and iOS 12 on my iPhone. Of course, it doesn't *just work*. I already reported it, but I think it's a plan from Apple to force people to upgrade all their devices to la latest version available.

 

[C DM]

I have Catalina on my Mac mini and iOS 12 on my iPhone. Of course, it doesn't *just work*. I already reported it, but I think it's a plan from Apple to force people to upgrade all their devices to la latest version available.

It can't simply be a bug of some sort?

 

[Populus]

It can't simply be a bug of some sort?

Yes, of course it can be. A bug that already was affecting people on previous OS versions (like the cloud tab syncing).

Honestly I hope they fix it once and for all.

 

[dysamoria]

Yes, of course it can be. A bug that already was affecting people on previous OS versions (like the cloud tab syncing).

Honestly I hope they fix it once and for all.

It is a well known fact that people seek upgrades because they hope bugs will be fixed. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me repeatedly, for years and years... shame on our society for not regulating the tech industry.

 

[C DM]

It is a well known fact that people seek upgrades because they hope bugs will be fixed. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me repeatedly, for years and years... shame on our society for not regulating the tech industry.

To be fair many people update for many other reasons (and often enough no particular reason, short of an update simply being available).

 

[PhilBoogie]

Running Catalina and iOS13....tabs sync. Running iOS12 and older Macs...those tabs sync between those devices, but not with the iOS13 and Catalina Macs. Apparently the synching of tabs wasn't encrypted before...now it is, and only syncs when running the latest sw.

It's becoming annoying that new devices can't fully work with older devices. I too won't be upgrading my Macs when I get a new iPhone. One would assume most won't and prefer to spread out the costs, and therefore 'everyone' will experience issues like this tab synching one.

 

[maverick28]

To be fair many people update for many other reasons (and often enough no particular reason, short of an update simply being available).

Correct. However, some of us (many, to be fair, judging from how massive these forums have become) are waiting for something specific to be added or fixed. Apple is notorious for the neglectful attitude towards fixing bugs some of them wandering from one release of "the most advanced" to another unattended to be taken care only on the eve of dropping support for the machine or even in the aftermath.
It's been my thought for a long that they not only put off fixes but introduce bugs on purpose to keep people in the state of awareness and urgency to forge their feel of wanting to upgrade. This is justified if the wait is not long but not otherwise. I still don't understand why iCloud tabs couldn't work as well as bookmarks. I can't fathom the rationale behind disconnecting iTunes Store for anything older than (presumably) Sierra while keeping App Store in tact.

 

[C DM]

Correct. However, some of us (many, to be fair, judging from how massive these forums have become) are waiting for something specific to be added or fixed. Apple is notorious for the neglectful attitude towards fixing bugs some of them wandering from one release of "the most advanced" to another unattended to be taken care only on the eve of dropping support for the machine or even in the aftermath.
It's been my thought for a long that they not only put off fixes but introduce bugs on purpose to keep people in the state of awareness and urgency to forge their feel of wanting to upgrade. This is justified if the wait is not long but not otherwise. I still don't understand why iCloud tabs couldn't work as well as bookmarks. I can't fathom the rationale behind disconnecting iTunes Store for anything older than (presumably) Sierra while keeping App Store in tact.

Six Reasons Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy - TidBITS

By most accounts, the release of iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina have been troubled, with numerous significant bugs making it past Apple’s internal testing and the public beta phase. Former Apple engineer David Shayer explains the underlying reasons these releases have had so many problems.

tidbits.com

 

[maverick28]

Ok, so iOS 12.4 and macOS High Sierra: the tabs are not syncing, plain and simple. According to their status page there was an issue yesterday with that for "some users", of course, which, as of now, is marked as resolved. I don't know if that's the leftovers of this outage but I don't see the tabs syncing.

 

[PhilBoogie]

It broke with the latest release of iOS:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250672750?answerId=251966708022&page=1

 

[maverick28]

Are you saying a bug in the latest release broke it or iOS 12 being rendered incompatible after the latest release (Apple forcing an update on the users)?

If the latter then, God, Apple is an expert at making people hate them.

 

[PhilBoogie]

Are you saying a bug in the latest release broke it or iOS 12 being rendered incompatible after the latest release (Apple forcing an update on the users)?

If the latter then, God, Apple is an expert at making people hate them.

No, Safari tabs not syncing anymore broke because they encrypted the URL's in their latest OS's and haven't made it backward compatible.

 

[maverick28]

Outstanding.

 

[dysamoria]

No, Safari tabs not syncing anymore broke because they encrypted the URL's in their latest OS's and haven't made it backward compatible.

J F C !

F F S !

M F !

 

[maverick28]

Turnes out they're syncing. However, because of the recent regular changes, you need to run the combinations of no less than Mojave 10.14.3 and iOS 13/iPad OS OR less than Mojave 10.14.3 and iOS 13 (no iPad OS). If you run High Sierra 10.13.6 (or Sierra 10.12.6) and iOS 13 OR Mojave 10.14.3 and newer and iOS 12 the tabs won't sync but they will if you run High Sierra 10.13.6 (or Mojave 10.14.2 and below) and iOS 12.

If iCloud tabs are not syncing (Apple support article)

So simple! Just works! (irony)

 

[dysamoria]

Turnes out they're syncing. However, because of the recent regular changes, you need to run the combinations of no less than Mojave 10.14.3 and iOS 13/iPad OS OR less than Mojave 10.14.3 and iOS 13 (no iPad OS). If you run High Sierra 10.13.6 (or Sierra 10.12.6) and iOS 13 OR Mojave 10.14.3 and newer and iOS 12 the tabs won't sync but they will if you run High Sierra 10.13.6 (or Mojave 10.14.2 and below) and iOS 12.

If iCloud tabs are not syncing (Apple support article)

So simple! Just works! (irony) View attachment 899398

Too many numbers. I have iOS 12 on my iPhone 6s and 1st generation iPad Pro. I have been holding off on iOS 13 because of all the issues being reported. I am STUCK at a maximum of High Sierra on my newest Macs. Synching wont work with iOS 13.x and High Sierra? Meaning, I'm ****ed by iOS 13.x? Yet another reason I should not "upgrade"? All I want is dark mode, FFS.
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What about the iOS 14 leak? Any hope this issue will be "healed" in the next major revision?

This whole ecosystem thing basically demands that we always keep everything on the bleeding edge and buy new devices before the existing ones are useless. Utter ****.

 

[maverick28]

Synching wont work with iOS 13.x and High Sierra?

Yes, it won't. Utter trash but it's Apple's trash.

 

[dysamoria]

Yes, it won't. Utter trash but it's Apple's trash.

Thank you for that clear answer. I’m pissed, but now that’s something else I am aware of to keep me from updating.