iOS 18 Safari tabs not syncing via iCloud

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.

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.

same problem

It seems like it's kind of starting to work a little bit for me now. I saw some recent tabs from my iPhone this morning on my Mac, but I had to toggle iCloud sync to get tabs from my Mac back on my phone.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Same issue here, works fine on iPhone but won’t show up on iPad at all. Tried resync on iCloud (turn off and on), tried force reset devices, restart Safari, turn on and off iCloud tabs etc.

Safari stopped updating after 17 or 18 didn't it? all my browser issues resolved with chrome. (some nice fella shared the details online but I can't find it...)