We have since identified and fixed some issues with our apps, when using iCloud in macOS 10.11 or 10.12.

Anyone in such a situation, please update to BookMacster, Synkmark or Smarky version 2.5.1 or later, as explained in this new topic.

Hello, Jim.

Thank you for the detailed and careful report.

Since macOS 10.13.2 was released Wednesday, I suspect that the trouble was triggered by your upgrading to 10.13.2 Friday or earlier Saturday?  I don't know what factor in there could do that, since of course I've been running the 10.13.2 betas and haven't seen any changes in Safari syncing.  But when I upgraded to the 10.13.2 production release this morning, I found that Safari bookmarks syncing just didn't work at all – nothing I did in Safari's Edit Bookmarks showed up in my iPad, until I restarted the Mac again, then all of a sudden it started working.

Now, I was just testing with a dozen bookmarks + folders, so it was easy to manually delete the few disconnected items which resulted from the initial failure to sync.  But, in general, the only sure way is to clear out everything.  iCloud seems to operate only on transactions, with no recourse to ever resync from a single truth.  So, like a checkbook, if any single transaction is ever missed, it will never balance.  For example, imagine one device inserting a new bookmark or subfolder into a folder which another device does not have, or, more commonly,, has a different unique identifier for, so that the folder is not found.  Where will the new bookmark go?  You'll get a mishmash, as you described.

Unfortunately, it is conceivable that, despite our extensive testing and the fact that it works perfectly on our test account, Synkmark is doing something wrong.  So you should keep syncing in Synkmark off, and do not manually export from Synkmark, until you're convinced that changes made in Safari's Edit Bookmarks are getting properly pushed to iCloud and your other devices.  To do that, before clearing out, in Safari, File > Export Bookmarks (to a html file), and then after clearing out, in Safari, File > Import Bookmarks (from that same html file).

I haven't done much testing with macOS 10.12.  I wonder if that's a factor in your case.

Let me know how the third clear-out goes.

We worked on this issue via email, and it appears to be resolved now.

The cause was probably that both iCloud and Dropbox were being used to sync bookmarks between two Macs, resulting in a Sync Loop.  Not having seen one in a while, I'd forgotten about Sync Loops!

Steven H wrote on Nov 20^th, 2017 at 2:13am:
Interesting – you've been upgraded to Apple's new improved bookmarks syncing.

Steven H wrote on Nov 20^th, 2017 at 2:13am:
Probably true, although I'm not sure it's impossible for BookMacster to be at fault, particularly if the BookMacster version is earlier than 2.4.12.  iCloud works in strange ways.  You are on BookMacster 2.4.12 or later?

Steven H wrote on Nov 20^th, 2017 at 2:13am:
I've trashed iCloud bookmarks dozens of times while during the last couple months, but always found deleting all bookmarks and starting over from scratch to fix everything.  If the misbehavior indeed happens when you switch on iCloud syncing on a iOS device, this implies that the iOS device still has bookmarks in it.  Are you sure you are deleting all bookmarks in iOS devices too?

Steven H wrote on Nov 20^th, 2017 at 2:13am:
OK.

If you are using BookMacster 2.4.12, I'd like to see if I can reproduce the problem, using your data, on one of my iCloud test accounts.  It is possible that something in your bookmarks is triggering some rare bug in BookMacster or iCloud.  To send me your data,

• Run BookMacster
• Click in the menu: Help ▸ Trouble Zipper
• For Question X (Extra Extension Tests), answer "No"
• For Question B (Bookmarks), answer "Include Bookmarks"
• In the list which appears, choose "Safari".
• For Question L (Sync Logs), answer "Include Sync Logs"
• For Question D (Documents), answer "Include Documents"
• "Dropbox" me the resulting .zip, as instructed.

Hello, Steven.

Thank you for contacting us.  In my experience, after deleting all bookmarks and starting over, things are good.  Ensure that you are using the latest version of BookMacster, 2.4.12.  If not, upgrade, delete all bookmarks and start over again.

If you already had 2.4.12, please run this little test:

• Run the Terminal application (which is in /Applications/Utilities).  A window will open.
• Copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window.  (It is all on one line.)

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print Sync:CloudKitMigrationState" ~/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

• Hit ‘return’.  I expect that a number: 0, 1, 2 or 3, or possibly a “not found” message will appear on the next line.  What do you get?

(3 means that Apple has migrated your iCloud account to their new protocol.  0 means that your iCloud account is still on the old protocol.  BookMacster should detect this and act appropriately in either case.)