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Very Hot Topic (More than 15 Replies) iPhone and iPad synchronization issue (Read 12821 times)
Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #13 - Jan 3rd, 2023 at 8:11pm
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We figured out how to better eliminate some cruft in the Changes data which is picked up by iCloud.

However, and maybe some of you have experienced this, if you throw too much bookmarks crap at iCloud in one day, it apparently shuts down, refusing to sync anything, for some hours.  We've thrown a lot of crap at it today and, as usual, it is now ignoring our changes.  We shall see what has synced later tonight or tomorrow morning, and then try some further testing.
  
Jerry Krinock
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #12 - Jan 1st, 2023 at 10:51am
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During the last two days we've found that, in our problematic iCloud account, using the HTML into Safari does work better, although of course you need to manually reorganize the Imported <date> folder that it creates.  The holy grail we're on is to figure out why it works better and how we can emulate the behavior.  I just hope it's not some crazy call that Apple has made impossible to reverse engineer.
  
Jerry Krinock
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Paul B
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #11 - Jan 1st, 2023 at 10:27am
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Hi Billy,

Thanks for your advice. I have to admit, I didn't start from scratch in BookMacster when switching from Firefox to Vivaldi, and just overwrote my old bookmarks, so this may have something to do with my issues.

I'll also take a look on my iPad and desktop Safari, to make sure I haven't left anything behind, especially in the Reading List, as per Jerry's suggestion.

I wonder if it might be worth importing bookmarks from an html file into Safari, and then syncing to my iPad, just to see if this pathway works?
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #10 - Dec 31st, 2022 at 2:56pm
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You're not alone like this.   I have been able to reproduce something similar, on a iCloud particular iCloud account which has been problematic for the last few years.  We have some paths to investigate.

Regarding your suggestion to do a good cleanup, I would add that it is easy to miss emptying the Reading List.
  
Jerry Krinock
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Billy
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #9 - Dec 30th, 2022 at 6:19pm
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Hi Paul,

I can not say I'm happy, but I feel a little less alone.
Can you confirm you did a "good" cleanup before reinjecting bookmarks from BookMacster? I did have a problem as my cleanup was incomplete, but I didn't notice it until I switched off and reenable after sometimes the safari sync on my mobile devices.
When I have done this, some "fantom" bookmarks did reappears, and I did delete all of them from my mobile devices (was a little long ...)

Regards
  
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Paul B
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #8 - Dec 30th, 2022 at 12:26am
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Hi, I've also just started having this issue - my first four subfolders disappear from Other Bookmarks, when I sync from macOS 13.1 to my iPad Air via iCloud. Their contents then get redistributed to the Other Bookmarks root folder on the iPad.

This problems began for me, when I started using Vivaldi as my default browser. Before my config in BookMacster 3 was:
Import from Firefox -> Export to Vivaldi & Safari

I encountered no sync issues with this setup.

After switching to Vivaldi, my config was:
Import from Vivaldi -> Export to Firefox & Safari

The first 4 folders in Other Bookmarks that don't sync properly to my iPad are:

1. Accounts
2. Bookmarks
3. Computer Guides
4. Computer Stuff

I also get BookMacster to sort the bookmarks into alphabetical order, when they're imported into the program from Vivaldi.

I've had a little bit of success with the empty folder trick, first discovered by Billy. Unfortunately, even if I create four dummy folders at the beginning of Other Bookmarks, my Accounts folder still doesn't sync properly to my iPad (and its bookmarks & folders get scattered in amongst the other folders on Safari for iPad).

So far, I've tried deleting all my bookmarks in BookMacster and reimporting them afresh from Vivaldi. At the same time clearing all my bookmarks in Safari, and starting sync from scratch again.

I also have the BookMacster extension installed in Vivaldi and Firefox. I wish you the best of luck in tracking down the cause of this issue.
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #7 - Dec 29th, 2022 at 4:15pm
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One of my test iCloud accounts is misbehaving.  I am going to wait a day (because I've found that iCloud can take up to 24 hours to sync on this account) and then I shall try your empty-folders trick to see what we can learn.
  
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Billy
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #6 - Dec 27th, 2022 at 8:29pm
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Yes, you did correctly understand : with two empty folders, sync is ok for other folders.
These two empty folders are not shown on mobile devices (ipad, iphone) but are visible on safari for mac, chrome...
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #5 - Dec 27th, 2022 at 7:10pm
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Hello again, Billy.

I see that you do not have a "Bookmarks Menu" in Safari, which is good, because the Safari "Bookmarks Menu" is a legacy artifact which I suppose might cause problems.

What about my other question:  Do I understand correctly that your workaround of maintaining two empty folders at the top actually works except for the ugliness of the two empty folders?
  
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Billy
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #4 - Dec 27th, 2022 at 1:48pm
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Hello,

sorry for the delay, I was on vacation.

Here is bookmacster view without the 2 dummies folder I have deleted after successful sync.

And here is safari view


To clean up iCloud, I did disable and after 5min enable safari sync in the parameters on my mobiles devices. A lot of lost items did reappears on the mobiles devices but not on the mac. Then I did a whole cleanup on every devices, wait sometimes, and then export bookmarks from Bookmacster.
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #3 - Dec 21st, 2022 at 1:14am
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This stuff gets pretty complicated.

I know that, on the Mac, Safari identifies its system folders, or what we call hard folders by a special identifier.  I have never seen it assign any significance to the index or position of folders, even though that is technically feasible.

Do I understand correctly that your workaround of maintaining two empty folders at the top actually works except for the ugliness of the two empty folders?

The bookmarks structure that you showed in your original post, is that in BookMacster?  Do you have a "Bookmarks Menu" in Safari?

Finally, another "throwaway" possibiity: Maybe you did not wait long enough when you cleaned out Safari.  I have recently seen Safari take almost 24 hours to sync from my Mac to my iPod Touch and iPad.
  
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Billy
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #2 - Dec 20th, 2022 at 8:18pm
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Hi,

Bookmacster is only installed on Mac1, you did not notice it because my message was long Smiley

To clean my icloud bookmarks, I did remove all from every device including the Mac1, then after sometimes I did "export to safari" from Bookmacster.

The problem is not fixed as sometimes it reappears (today with my upgrade to safari 16.2 for example). Maybe iCloud is "ignoring" the first two folder because they are hidden or system, but I can confirm that I need these 2 folders to have something working from iCloud point of view 
  
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Jerry Krinock
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Re: iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Reply #1 - Dec 20th, 2022 at 3:28pm
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Hello, Billy.

I don't know of any changes in Monterey, Safari 16, or BookMacster 3 which would have directly caused this, but stuff like this happens sometime with iCloud, and upgrades are generally one of those times.

First of all, you did not mention where you had BookMacster installed.  For the configuration you describe, you should install BookMacster to do syncing on only one Mac.  Having BookMacster sync on more than one Mac in this configuration would create a sync loop, which is probably the cause of the problem.

The issue you describe implies that iCloud has no records of Folder 1 or Folder 5.  This is a typical type of iCloud corruption.

Quote:
after cleaning the iCloud sync
Do you mean that you removed all items from iCloud and  then exported from BookMacster as described here?  If not, this is the fix you should try, and is as far as I know the only fix for all problems of this type.

Quote:
I did succeed to recover something correct on the mobile devices
Are you saying that the problem appears to be fixed?
  
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Billy
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iPhone and iPad synchronization issue
Dec 20th, 2022 at 9:26am
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Hello,

I'm currently using BookMacster 3.0.8 and I'm facing a strange issue, here is my setup with french localization:
  • Mac1 with BookMacster 3.0.8 (Monterey with Safari 16)
    • Safari with iCloud sync
    • Chrome User 1 with Google sync
    • Chrome User 2 with Google sync
    • Firefox
  • Mac2 (Monterey with Safari 16)
    • Safari with Icloud sync
    • Chrome User 1 with Google sync
  • iPhone (iOs 16)
    • Safari with iCloud Sync
  • iPad (iPadOs 16)
    • Safari with iCloud Sync


I have 1000 bookmarks with about 100 folders something like
  • Bookmarks
    • Item1
    • ...
    • Item10
  • Other Bookmarks
    • Folder1
      • Folder2
        • Item11
        • ...
        • Item20
      • Folder3
        • Item21
        • ...
        • Item30
      • Folder4
        • Item31
        • ...
        • Item40
    • Folder5
      • Folder6
        • Item51
        • ...
        • Item60
      • Folder7
        • Item61
        • ...
        • Item70
      • Folder8
        • Item71
        • ...
        • Item80
      • ...
      • Folder99
        • Item991
        • ...
        • Item1000



    Everything was working good for a long time with version 2.x, and the problem seems to arrive with upgrade to Monterey/Safari 16/BookMacster3

    From the Mac point of view, the sync is always good. But on mobile devices there is "something" wrong : "Folder1" and "Folder5" the first two subfolders from "Other Bookmarks" are disappearing from the tree. The subfolders and subitems are landed at at the "Other Bookmarks". "Folder8" to "Folder99" are working without issue.
    To temporaly fix this, I'm creating 2 dummies empty folder at the top of the other Bookmarks, and after cleaning the iCloud sync, I did succeed to recover something correct on the mobile devices. I can even delete these 2 dummies folder (from Mac as they are not visible) without problem.

    Did someone else have these problem? Is there an option I should check?
      
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