HOW TO FIX ICLOUD BOOKMARK SYNC GLITCHES

Has iCloud and/or Safari just borked your bookmarks? This happened to me yesterday. Here’s how I fixed it…

• On your iDevice(s):
  1. Quit Safari if it’s running.
  2. Go to Settings and locate the iCloud settings (location varies by iOS version).
  3. Turn off Safari syncing, and select Delete From My iDevice.
  4. Go to the Safari settings, tap Clear History and Website Data and then Clear History and Data.
  5. Optional: restart your iDevice. I did this, but it’s probably not entirely necessary.
• On your Mac:
  1. Close Safari if it’s open.
  2. Open Time Machine (if you have it enabled) and locate the file Bookmarks.plist in Home > Library > Safari.
  3. Right-click (or control-click) on this file and select Restore Bookmarks.plist to….
  4. When Time Machine presents you with a save dialog, save the file to your desktop or Downloads folder.
  5. In Finder, open the Home > Library > Safari folder and copy the restored file to it, replacing the file that’s there.
  6. Open Safari and check that your bookmarks have been restored.
  7. Wait a couple of minutes for the bookmarks to be uploaded to iCloud.
• On your iDevice(s):
  1. Go to Settings and locate the iCloud settings (location varies by iOS version).
  2. Turn on Safari syncing.
  3. Open Safari and check that your bookmarks have sync’d correctly.

The crucial thing is to avoid at all costs selecting Merge when you re-enable bookmark syncing on the iDevice(s). This is what causes problems—and I re-ran the scenario several times to confirm this. Apple, please add an Overwrite Data on the Device option here. The choices should not be solely Merge and Cancel.