Brave sync on iOS is completely broken and has been for many months! - plus other bugs with sync on iOS too. (iOS) If you have iOS please read!

@jeffdottm Yet Google syncs to their own servers and maintains it within the account. All a person has to do it sign into their account and they immediately can access contacts, passwords, emails, etc.

Brave doesn’t quite work in the same with with their sync engine. I know it gets hosted somewhere but it doesn’t save to an account where it’s a matter of signing in. Instead it’s having to do the sync codes and stuff. Hence why Google Chrome on Mac and all have no issues while Brave seems to be struggling with it. And Google is able to sync passwords whereas Brave on iPhone is not capable of doing so at this time…even though they can sync passwords between Android and Windows.

Though there’s also the kicker of why it works flawlessly with Android and Windows but not on iPhone and all? The only difference I know of between the two is primarily webkit vs chromium when looking at the browsers themselves. Obviously all three use different operating systems as well, but still…

And as always, I’m not into coding or anything. I’ll be the last person to even pretend to be an expert on that stuff. I am strictly a high end user who will figure out how to use just about any program you put in front of me. That said, I wouldn’t be able to tell you how it all works and all, lol. I just figure it out and run with it. (^_^)

@jeffdottm And yeah, to update, my phone has been falling out of sync within 24 hours. Though I do have to test one little aspect of that. I had just opened up the sync menu on my iPhone and it started to show it was synced but then it closed the menu. When I hit Settings and returned to Sync, it showed as if I wasn’t synced. So not sure if I had been disconnected from sync prior or if “trying to check” caused it to disconnect.

Another update from a dev

I spoke to my dev contact again and they said that one dev can replicate the issue but can’t find the cause and the dev I am talking to can’t replicate it so it is hit and miss.

They think they are closing in now on the cause!
So hopefully it won’t be too much longer. I still reckon at least a few weeks though as a guess.

It is very encouraging that UKHeather obtained traction with Brave developers on this issue. Thank you for your efforts and tenacity ukheather.

This problem has existed for months, upwards to a couple years or more, and largely ignored by developers until now. Irrespective of the numerous complaints about it on Brave forums and elsewhere.

Blaming WebKit and Apple is ridiculous. I’ve not experienced sync issues with other applications, including several browsers. They sync without problem across several different hardware devices and operating systems, including half a dozen apple devices. Some of those successful sync algorithms are peer to peer, some are server based.

This feature was obviously tested in a cursory and anecdotal manner. Previous complaints about failed sync were also treated as anecdote, with developers ignoring the fact that sync stops within a matter of days.

Hopefully sync defects are fixed sometime soon. I won’t be using Brave much though, unless sync is fixed. It’s just not meeting my needs for a web browser. Other privacy centric browsers sync nearly instantaneously across multiple platforms. For me, personally, considering the history of this issue and others, I am uninstalling Brave on most of my devices.

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@KewtyKat I’m curious what other browsers you like or plan to use instead. I stick with Brave because it’s the one browser (that isn’t Chrome) that supports all of the web sites I visit. Opera is surprisingly good, but it doesn’t even pretend to have a sync feature. Edge seems like it’s a trade-off between sending all of my information to Google and sending all of my information to Microsoft. Safari and Firefox were my favorites for a very long time, but the lack of web standards support is an absolute blocker for me with the web sites I regularly use. (They also have less privacy protection and ad-blocking built in, but I can get around those with various extensions.) So, honestly, Brave just meets all of my needs … except this one. I guess it’s neck and neck with Opera for me, so whoever solves iOS syncing first will win me as a customer.

An interesting question that unfortunately I too have found no other browser to use.

Here is the practical solution I am trying….

I treat “sync” as a way to manually update my bookmarks across my iOS devices as needed when it has failed to maintain the chain.

The QR code makes it relatively quick across my 3 devices and as I am not creating a lot of new bookmarks at this point, it’s only somewhat aggravating…., but we shall see.

Opera’s sync works perfectly iOS
its just a shame the only sync they have is sending pages [or notes] to ‘Flow’

Not the 1st time they claimed to have fixed it, only for it to not be fixed (e.g. fixed for Windows but not for iOS, fixed for bookmarks but not for history, etc.). Or to be rebroken again.

Perhaps it’s wiser for them just not to update us as that would just be giving us false hope and fake promises.

@sampson Haven’t seen updates or questions from you in a few weeks so figured I’d tag and share here. Still an issue. I have my Samsung galaxy S9 running Android 10, PC running Windows 10 Pro, and then a iPhone Pro Max running 15.2.1 that I’m actually about to update to 15.3

I have made multiple attempts by rotating sync codes on Windows and Android. The results are the same each time. They connect and the iPhone shows up on the sync list.

From here I instantly see clear communication between devices when I create new bookmarks and all prior bookmarks are shared.

And my history from my desktop will appear on my iPhone but my desktop cannot see my iPhones device history. I’ve been tested with my android and the websites that I visited with it did appear on the Brave history, though it did take a few minutes.

So it seems communication is one-sided, with nothing going from the iPhone to the other devices.

Than typically within 24 hours my iPhone will disconnect and no longer be able to receive anything from the sync, though my desktop will still show the iPhone is connected even though my iPhone shows it isn’t.

Below is just screenshot and picture of my iPhone and desktop now when I just added my iPhone again. I’ll try to add new pictures later when the sync vanishes so you can see how that’s mixed up.


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No worries!
Thank for you that, really appreciate it.

I am trying my hardest to relay any information I get from the devs to everyone on here too.
Quite nice that one of the devs keeps me updated.
Hopefully we will get this sorted soon.

I will keep posting any information I get from the devs I am in contact with on here.

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Just adding my details here, perhaps it will help locate the problem:

Trying to sync between

  • iPhone X running 15.2.1, (Brave 1.34.1)
  • ipad pro 10.5 inch running 15.2.1, (Brave 1.34.1)
  • iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) running 11.6.1, (Brave 1.34.81)
  • MacBook Air (M1, 2020) running 11.6.0, (Brave 1.34.81)

I am syncing only Bookmarks.

I did a big cleanup from the iMac the other day, and moved all bookmarks to a different folder structure.

For the first day, the sync chain worked for all devices. Well, at least I thought it did, now I’m doubting that it worked on the iOS devices as there are old bookmarks and folders that should have been deleted, and other should be present (the definition of “not sync’d” I guess).

Now, the sync on the ios devices is broken. It is working properly between the MacOS devices.

I tried to remove and re-add the iPhone to the Sync Chain today. That action failed using both the QR code and the code words multiple times.

With the QR code, I get the “The Sync Agent is currently offline…” error. With the code words, it appears to work (the dialog box closes with no message), but the device does not get added to the sync chain. No other devices are visible on the iPhone sync manager screen.

I have not EVER done a complete sync, always just this Bookmarks-only sync, and always 100% Apple products, no Windows devices.

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And this is a new record. 2 days later and sync chain hasn’t dropped. I’m afraid I’m going to jinx myself here, but wanted to update on that. As before it seemed to drop the sync at around midnight each time. Not sure if something has changed, if I’m just lucky now, or what?

I think anyone that isn’t having issues after having the same issues, it is probably just temporary as I am still having the same issues.

I test everyday and am in contact with 2 devs.
They have NOT fixed this yet.

If you have no issues for a short time, it will be just a short time as it is still happening.
I have had the same issues constantly for about 4 months.

Remember that this issue has not been fixed yet!
They are still working on it.

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Agreed, @ukheather. I stopped trying after the last sync experiment stopped working. Now I’m just waiting and hoping.

I have the same issue. I made sure to install the most recent update from brave on both my iPad and iPhone and both kick me out of the sync when I click on “sync” in settings. Makes the app not even worth having on IOS.

@Leking just out of curiosity, which iOS version are you using? It could be strictly coincidence but since I updated my iPhone to 15.3 I haven’t had sync disconnected. It might still happen yet, but it is weird to me how it was constantly losing sync but then I updated the OS and then it hasn’t happened.

I’m asking you and putting here for others just to see if it’s a complete fluke or if it truly does play a part. Assuming Brave hasn’t done anything on the back end that we can’t see.

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Right now I have 15.2.1, I just checked and have an update available for 15.3 so I installed it. After the update to the new IOS it seems to be working correctly. Thanks for the tip!

It would be interesting if the issue is resolved from that. But we’ll have to keep an eye out. If things work as they often do in my life, once we think it’s solved and take a sigh of relief…it’ll have issues again, lol.

Absolutely still have the issue. New to Brave. Immediate fail.

Same for me. I can’t use QR code or pass code from desktop to mobile devices. I’m looking at Safari and other options now. I’m also letting my experience be known to others. Please make this a priority Brave team.