All Devices iOS 13.4 passwords don’t sync via iCloud Keychain until device restarted

[Morac]

Today I added a new app password using iCloud Keychain on my iPhone 7 Plus and went to use iPad Pro 11 and it wasn’t there. I then deleted a few on my iPad but that didn’t sync to my iPhone. I restarted both devices and the passwords synced, but additional changes I made did not sync until I started again. I then got my iPad Air 2 and had the same problem. Changes made on one of the devices wouldn’t sync to unless I restarted the device I changed it on. Frequently changes would partially sync. For example deleting 3 passwords on my Pro 11 and restarting it, synced the deletes to my iPhone, but not the Air 2 (only 2 passwords were deleted). Full syncing required multiple restarts of multiple devices.

This was working fine under iOS/iPadOS 13.3.1, but not under 13.4. I tried turning off iCloud Keychain on all my devices and turning it back on, but that made no difference.

Anyone else seeing this or know how to fix it?

 

[Morac]

I had it sync once on its own. I had checked the iCloud status page and there was nothing there, but maybe it was a server issue. I’m still not sure.

 

[10smom]

I am having similar issues. I can no longer setup password using suggested passwords for keychain or 1pass. Nothing is syncing. I am having to constantly reset passwords now everytime I log into most apps and websites and I have to do manually because I cannot use suggested passwords. Any fix?

 

[Morac]

I’ve found syncing takes much longer than usual. It will sync eventually, but it no longer syncs within a minute.

If it isn’t syncing after days, you may need to turn off iCloud keychain on all your devices, which will delete the chain and then turn it back on on one. If you do that, make sure not to delete the passwords off the last device you turn keychain off on.

 

[ninecows]

Mine are not syncing either. Issue has been there for at least a couple of months, but as I don’t use my iMac a lot I don’t know when it started.
I have like 300 passwords on my iphone 6S running 13.6.1. My old iMac running Sierra High wasn’t in sync with that. I thought it was just because it wasn’t running the latest Mac OS. Now on my new iMac it won’t fetch the passwords from iCloud.
How can I troubleshoot which device is causing the issue? It could be either my Mac and my iPhone or both of them.
I have tried the usual stuff:
Disabled/enable iCloud keychain on both
Log out/in of iCloud on both

nothing seems to work

 

[ninecows]

I tried to log in on iCloud on a third device. An old iPad running iOS 12.4.7

I enabled iCloud Keychain and initially I could see the 5 passwords I typed into my new Mac, but not the most recent I added this morning.
Disabled/enabled iCloud Keychain again and now there’s no passwords on the iPad.

Funny thing though: while trying to log in and enable iCloud Keychain on my new iMac it asked for the password I use for unlocking my iPhone. Typed it in, but that caused the whole settings/system window to freeze. Actually had to force restart my Mac!

so 3 h later when trying to log in and activate iCloud Keychain on that old iPad I’m asked to type in the password for my user account on my iMac. I type it in and now it’s the settings on the iPad that freezes. Restart the settings and iCloud seems to be running.

So it does seem like iCloud is in general working across devices, but not the Keychain and the system would crash trying to enable it when I have to type in the password for another device. It will turn green as “activated”, but won’t work

 

[Morac]

There might be “garbage” in the chain or too much data that’s causing it to freeze. I actually had undeleteable data.

If you turn off iCloud Keychain on all your devices, it will delete the cloud data. Make sure to keep the data on one of your devices or you will lose it.

If iCloud Keychain won't turn on or sync - Apple Support

If you need help with iCloud Keychain, learn what to do.

support.apple.com

 

[ninecows]

There might be “garbage” in the chain or too much data that’s causing it to freeze. I actually had undeleteable data.

If you turn off iCloud Keychain on all your devices, it will delete the cloud data. Make sure to keep the data on one of your devices or you will lose it.

If iCloud Keychain won't turn on or sync - Apple Support

If you need help with iCloud Keychain, learn what to do.

support.apple.com

Thanks. I have been through these steps. It mostly suggests to have all your devices updated with latest macOS/iOS. Not so helpful Apple ;-)

Anyway: iMac and iPad are in sync it seems, but my iPhone won’t sync. That’s a bit unfortunate since it has the majority of the passwords... deleted old, obsolete once so now I’m down to “just” 180 that won’t sync.

 

[ninecows]

Ended up doing a complete reset og my iPhone. First taking screenshots of every page in the password list in settings so I could at least remember login names for each site. Luckily the passwords was somehow saved in either the iCloud backup or just iCloud Keychain. Everything suddenly synced.

If I didn’t had that extra device I couldn’t have figured out what device was not syncing.