Try these quick tips if the Safari extensions you installed aren’t syncing across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
However, if the extensions you install on one device don’t appear on the other after a couple of minutes, then the following solutions will help.
Turn on Share Across Devices
Like Focus modes, you can choose a uniform extensions experience across all your devices or use different extensions on each. If you want the former, follow these steps to ensure perfect sync.
On iPhone or iPad
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Apps at the bottom of the screen.
- Select Safari.
- Tap Extensions.
- Turn on Share Across Devices.
On Mac
- Open Safari.
- Click Safari > Safari Extensions from the top menu bar.
- Check “Share across devices.”
Turn off VPN
Extensions sync between your devices as long as they are connected to the Internetse issues with iCloud and Apple data sync. So, if a VPN is active on your device or Wi-Fi router, turn it off temporarily until the extensions sync
Not all extensions are designed to sync
This point is important.
Most extensions you create yourself using Apple Intelligence will sync across all your iOS and macOS devices. However, some iOS- and macOS-exclusive extensions you create or download from the iPhone or Mac App Store will not show up on unsupported devices.
Secondly, some apps may only have Safari extension support on iPhone and not the Mac, and vice versa. For example, if you have the ChatGPT app on iPhone, you can use its extension in Safari there. But there is no official ChatGPT extension for Safari on Mac, even if you install its app.
So, if a particular extension is not appearing even after you have followed the tips in this article, then chances are that particular extension is unsupported for that platform.
Check the Apple Account on all devices
Go to Settings and System Settings on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac and make sure you’re using the same Apple Account on all.
Turn on Safari iCloud sync
Quickly check your iCloud settings to make sure Safari sync is enabled.
On iPhone and iPad
- Open Settings.
- Tap your Apple Account name at the top.
- Tap iCloud.
- Tap See All.
- Make sure the switch next to Safari is green.
On Mac
- Head to System Settings > Apple Account > iCloud > See All.
- Make sure the switch next to Safari is enabled.
Restart all devices
Safari may not sync because of temporary glitches. Restarting your device should fix that.
Update the software
If your iPhone, iPad, and Mac aren’t running the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS, update them in Settings.
Delete and reinstall the extension
If you know a particular extension is supported on both iOS and macOS, but they don’t sync, delete it from the device where it shows. Then restart all your devices and reinstall the extension.
If the extension in question is the one you built, just skip the above suggestion and consider building it separately on the device where it hasn’t synced.
Sign out of iCloud and sign back in
Lastly, if nothing helps, you can always sign out of your Apple Account and sign back in to force-fix all stuck syncing issues. If that’s too much, the obvious way is to manually install the extension on the device where it hasn’t synced.
If the Mac extension is missing from your iPhone or iPad, resetting network settings (and if that doesn’t help, resetting all settings) should do the trick.
Also, check out: How to allow or block a Safari extension on a specific website
