While it does not frequently happen, the Safari browser on your Apple devices can sometime go out of sync. If you happen to use sync often such as in your work you probably get frustrated when you do not see the sites on your Apple device that you have from another browser and vice versa.
Fortunately, there is a way for you to force Safari to sync. Safari will be forced to sync all of its data across all of your Apple devices so that they are all up to date. Doing so is as easy as clicking an option in Safari, and the following guide should help you get that done.
Force Syncing Safari History on Your Apple Devices
In order to accomplish this task, you are going to use Safari on your Mac. Basically what you will do is “unhide” a hidden menu in the browser that triggers the force sync feature. Here’s the entire procedure for you.
1. Close Safari on your Mac if it is open already. The procedure will not work if Safari is running.
2. Launch Terminal by clicking on Launchpad in your dock and searching for and clicking on Terminal.
3. When Terminal launches, type in the following command and press Enter. It should enable a hidden menu in Safari on your Mac.
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1
4. You will not get a confirmation message or anything like that; it will just be enabled.
5. Now launch Safari on your Mac by clicking on its icon in the dock, or search for it using Launchpad and click on it.
6. When Safari launches, you will notice an extra option called “Debug” at the end of the usual menu. That is the option that you just unlocked using the Terminal app.
7. Click on that newly unlocked “Debug” menu, and choose the option that says “Sync iCloud History.”
8. When Safari is done syncing the history, you might want to disable the once-hidden Debug menu in the hope that you will never again face an out-of-sync situation.
To do that, first close Safari on your Mac, otherwise the steps below will not work. Once that is done, launch Terminal by clicking on Launchpad in your dock and searching for and clicking on Terminal.
Type in the following command and press Enter. It should disable the Debug menu.
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 0
9. When the above command has been executed, open Safari and you will no longer see the Debug menu.
Conclusion
The browsing history running out of sync may sometimes affect your work. The above guide should help fix that to prevent it from happening again on your devices.
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Mahesh Makvana
Mahesh Makvana is a freelance tech writer who’s written thousands of posts about various tech topics on various sites. He specializes in writing about Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android tech posts. He’s been into the field for last eight years and hasn’t spent a single day without tinkering around his devices.
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