All we can do is vote with our feet and ‘come back’ when it’s finally fixed
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I appreciate that Sampson tested sync thoroughly and found bookmark sync worked. Unfortunately, it does not work when I follow the steps outlined in the post. In fact, it has NEVER worked since I restarted the sync chain. The only way to get iOS bookmarks to be the same as my desktop bookmarks is to delete then restart the sync chain. That is not sync’ing as anyone should define it.
It would be good to hear that Brave takes this seriously as, given the size and duration of this topic, it does not appear that it does.
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I just recently moved from Dissenter (which seemed to be part of Gab social but is no longer available to download) to Brave. I have a Microsoft Surface on Windows 10 and brand new iPad Pro and iPhone 13Pro. I am unable to get a sync even started! I set everything up on the Windows machine, imported all my bookmarks and created the syce code. I tried both the 24 word code as well as the QR code. I am unable to get the sync started on my iPhone. Can try my iPad but it is identical to my iPhone… so…?
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I’ve adopted and switched to Brave twice now, and made this account specifically to complain about this issue. The first time I moved back to Chrome because I got an iPhone and realized Brave completely neglected to implement History and Bookmark Sync on iOS at the time. I came back when I did a bit of research and realized this had been implemented a while back. Today I’m uninstalling again. We live in our web browsers and we all have multiple devices, not having sync is a deal breaker for a modern browser.
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I think the best place to report this is on the issue on GitHub, where the developers keep track on things to do. Although I notice that even there, the developers don’t bother to answer. See github
They do read on here. One even replied.
This is the main support board rather than Github though.
@ukheather yeah, it’s frustrating. I’ve tried tagging people like @sampson before. I wish I knew who had better connections or was one of the developers working on the iOS setup. That said, I did get a response from @michal yesterday saying they are at least working on the issue of why passwords won’t sync.
I think what’s most frustrating though is where they don’t always let us know if they recognize things as an issue, if working on it, or even if they can tell us how long they expect it to take for results.
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Mini update!
I can confirm I spoke to Jimmy (Brave staff) today and was told that they are adding debugging on the iOS app. No idea when it will be released, but it is being worked on!
In the hopes they can see why we are having these issues, so I don’t think they have worked out why as yet so we will have a bit more of a wait!
Guessing they haven’t worked on fixing it yet at all as they must be trying to work out why it is happening but the debugging should help at least so update your app when the update is pushed out. Won’t fix the issue but should help gather debugging info which we can give to them.
Hopefully we can give our debugging info to them once the update is out and get this fixed.
I have to remove and re-add my devices every time I want to sync new bookmarks. Takes ages and I hate it.
I switched to Brave ages ago, but I can’t lie I was temped to move away due to this sync issue going on since about September/October, but I stuck with them as I love the app. I just hate this bug so much.
Hopefully it won’t take too much longer but at least debugging is a step closer!
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iOS version 1.34.1 is out now
Absolutely spot on! The Sync between Mac and iOS is not happening too. The QR scan does not work and the phrase copy paste gives a weird error like “not enough number of characters!!”
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I’ve been tracking this issue myself but haven’t responded yet. However, I’ve been having exactly the same problem described by the OP. I’m replying now to provide additional support and because I may have found some new information to assist with troubleshooting.
First, I’m using Brave Version 1.34.81 Chromium: 97.0.4692.99 (Official Build) (x86_64) on MacOS 12.1. I’m syncing (or trying to sync) with Brave 1.34 (22.1.10.19) on iOS 15.2.1 running on an iPhone 13 Pro and an iPad Pro 12.9 inch, 5th gen.
As I said above, I’ve been having exactly the same issues described in the original post above. I can set up a sync chain, and it appears to work … once? Twice? For a day? And then, without any apparent change in my setup, the i-Devices stop syncing. They say they’re still part of the chain, and they still appear in the chain on my desktop, but bookmarks I save on my devices don’t sync with the chain, and they don’t receive any changes I make on the desktop. This has been happening every time, reliably and repeatedly, for a couple of months.
Every time except for the latest.
Last week, on a hunch after reading something in the first reply from @sampson, I tried setting up the sync chain from my iPhone instead of my desktop. So far the iPhone and my desktop remain in sync, 7 days later. My iPad stopped syncing after a day, but the phone is syncing both ways and remains in sync with my desktop. If my luck holds, then it seems relevant that the i-Device starting a chain would remain in sync. And for anyone who only has a desktop and an iPhone, this might be a good workaround for their issue until a fix can be released.
The problem still remains. But, fingers crossed, there may be a little bit of relief. If anything changes here, I’ll update the thread again.
Well, I’m still waiting to see if it disconnects, but I did update on my iPhone and then I set the sync up with my desktop. Everything is synced at that point and it’s still connected now. I’m guessing that they really did fix it like they said with that update. The exception is that it still did not give me the option to sync passwords with the iPhone. So I’m not sure why they only let you sync your favorites and bookmarks but it is what it is for now. I really would like to see them figure out why they don’t want to let passwords be synced over to iOS/iPhone.
And it got dropped from Sync again after the calendar day rolled over. So I guess it didn’t get patched/fixed in this last update. Hopefully @sampson and whoever else is working on it can get it taken care of. @sriram is this possibly something you are knowledgeable on?
The latest update didn’t fix the issue as they haven’t worked out the cause yet.
The update they are working on is to add debugging. Not a fix, just so we can pass info on.
There is no fix yet and they haven’t found the cause yet.
The latest update is just a general update and not for the sync.
It is still happening in the latest version as expected.
Once they release the version with debugging, hopefully they can work out a fix.
Been many months for me and sync is utterly useless on iOS.
I really hope it gets fixed soon.
Still with Brave but I can’t take much more of this.
Yep, me too. I’m about to give up on Brave altogether. Great concept, obviously lacking in execution.
Bookmark sync works for a day or two, maybe a few, then fails. iPhone 13 pro and ipad mini 6 with macos on imac 27 (and older android tablet and wintel 10 too for that matter). Same exact symptoms as described by UKHeather. It’s been like this for months. I gave up reconfiguring sync. It doesn’t work, it’s broken. It functions for a day, maybe a few, then ceases.
I really want to like this browser and I really want to use this browser, but I also need a consistent and reliable bookmark sync. I’ve gone back to using safari, firefox and chrome; at least they sync.
Too bad. Brave doesn’t meet my needs for basic functionality. Brave promises a secure and reliable sync but they fail delivering on their promise (and haven’t for several months to a couple years or more). Sync is one of the reasons I chose Brave, sync and privacy; and it’s yet another disappointment in browser space.
Rife with vapid functionality claims. Developers seem oblivious or just don’t care. There are numerous internet discussions about sync and other broken functionality with Brave.
Given that they cannot be trusted with their claims on sync, are they really trustworthy with their claims about privacy, bat and cryptocurrency? From the forums, it seems some bat went missing too.
@KewtyKat The issue is that they were able to do a basic clone for PC and Android. When it comes to iPhone and all, it’s a bit of a different nightmare. If I remember right, they had to sway a bit from Chromium and instead use Webkit. The difference is the former is based on Google Chrome and the other is using the same engine as Safari.
It is important to note that this isn’t because Brave or Google desired to make it this way. It’s done because Apple has mandated it to be that way.
- 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript.
If they would have been able to just do a slight modification, things would run smoothly. But Apple kind of had to throw a wrench in things and make things difficult. We still don’t know if it’s Apple interfering with the sync (because many of us can sync but then it seems to stop during the day change or so), if it’s just a coding issue, or what?
Looking at Brave FAQ and all though, it seems it’s the browser difference which is throwing it off. Like here:
Sync v2 was rebuilt to be more directly compatible with the Chromium sync system (Chromium is the same open source base of Google’s Chrome and Brave). Brave built a sync server that more directly followed Chromium’s sync protocol, but defaulting instead to use encrypted data records. Sync v2 more easily supports more sync data types, while still keeping the client side data encrypted, so only you can see your data.
So if made for Chromium and all, but we don’t use Chromium…
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@Saoiray
So Brave cannot sync because WebKit. Well, okay then. I guess I return to using any one of five other browsers already installed that sync just fine between differing devices running on ios, ipad, macos, android; linux, bsd, and wintel. No Brave, No Problem (other than being misled).
I will check Brave again periodically. I will probably continue using it for ancillary browsing. Until I lose interest, or find that someone actually got Brave’s sync algorithm working.
Somewhat disappointing, I truly thought Brave would be my primary browser.
I really don’t have the time, inclination nor desire to keep futzing with Brave QRs and sync strings. I prefer a browser that consistently and reliably syncs my bookmarks in an efficient and efficacious manner.
A larger and more loyal userbase might be enjoyed if Brave delivers on their stated functionality, and provides a stable and reliable user experience. Otherwise, it’s just another pipedream hack with a lot of vapor.
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@KewtyKat I didn’t say they can’t sync. I just said I do believe it’s one of the contributing factors in comparison to the other platforms. They have told us they are working on it but they don’t have an ETA for when things will be finished. The next update for iPhone and all should have a debugging option. They are then going to ask us to send those debugging logs to them and see if they can find out what is causing the issue.
Webkit is just a rendering engine. It displays a web page on your screen, that’s all. It wouldn’t have any impact on syncing, because that’s not what it’s used for. And note that Chrome, itself, also has to use Webkit, and it doesn’t have the same reported issues with syncing. So it really has nothing to do with Apple’s requirements to use Webkit.
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And to update, my iPhone fell out of sync after updating the app. It kept sync for a week before the update, which is a record, and I’m starting a new chain from my iPhone again. Even if it’s not a permanent fix, resetting sync once a week is far better than once a day.