Apple Ending Support for Safari Bookmark Syncing on iOS 10 and Earlier

In a support document published this week, Apple said it will be dropping support for Safari bookmark syncing on iPhones and iPads running iOS 10 or earlier, and on Macs running macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or earlier, starting December 18. Apple said it made this decision in accordance with its minimum software requirements for iCloud.

iCloud General Feature
Apple said Safari bookmarks on devices running those older iOS and macOS versions will no longer be synced to other devices or uploaded to iCloud.com:

You won't lose any bookmarks already on your devices and you'll still be able to create new bookmarks on those devices. However, new bookmarks won't sync across devices with iOS 10 or earlier and macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or earlier. They also won't be recoverable on iCloud.com.

Apple said users will need to update their devices to iOS 11 or macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or newer to continue syncing their Safari bookmarks with the newer iCloud Bookmarks system, with steps for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC users outlined in Apple's support document. If you cannot or do not want to update your device, you can copy or export your bookmarks, with the support document outlining steps for that option as well.

If your devices are already running iOS 11 or later or macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or later, no action is required, according to Apple.

As we previously reported, Apple also announced that iCloud device backups for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch will require iOS 9 or later starting December 18. As outlined in another support document, users will need to update their devices to iOS 9 or later or manually back up the device to a Mac or PC. After the deadline, Apple said any data backed up to iCloud from devices that have not been updated to iOS 9 will be deleted.

Tags: iCloud, Safari

Popular Stories

streaming black friday 2025

Black Friday Streaming Deals Include Big Savings on Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV, and More

Monday November 24, 2025 8:03 am PST by
We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Have Two Key Upgrades

Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features. Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...
General Black Friday Deals 25 Red

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now on AirPods, iPads, Accessories, and More

Friday November 21, 2025 8:48 am PST by
We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These New Features to Your iPhone

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by
iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date. Keep reading...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like a Huge Upgrade

Friday November 21, 2025 9:10 am PST by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone to Debut These Three Breakthrough Features

Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:09 am PST by
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include three standout features that could set it apart from the competition. The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
apple news banner

Apple News Loses CNN

Monday November 24, 2025 7:56 am PST by
American multinational news company CNN has abruptly pulled its content from Apple News, Semafor reports. CNN quietly removed its stories from Apple News over the weekend and there is no longer a feed from the network to subscribe to in the app. This effectively ends its distribution agreement with Apple while the two sides negotiate new terms. Discussions are apparently ongoing and CNN's...
amazon black friday

Amazon Kicks Off Black Friday Sale With Major Discounts on Apple Accessories, TVs, and More

Sunday November 23, 2025 7:12 am PST by
Black Friday deals have begun, and Amazon is one of the best places you can find steep discounts on numerous products this week. We've already collected all of the best Apple-related deals you'll find at Amazon (and other retailers) in our Apple Black Friday Deals post, so below you'll find other discounts on devices like Anker accessories, Beats headphones, video games, TVs, and more. Note:...
Apple Shopping Event 2025

Apple Announces 2025 Black Friday Event, Here's What You Can Get

Thursday November 20, 2025 6:28 am PST by
Apple's annual four-day Black Friday through Cyber Monday shopping event is returning on Friday, November 28 through Monday, December 1 in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand, and others. During the shopping event, customers can get an Apple gift card with...

Top Rated Comments

ArtOfWarfare Avatar
13 months ago
macOS versions are... kind of a mess.

They have their own totally unforced error from when they decided the next version after (10.)15 was 11, making it hard to realize that (10.)12 is over 8 years old now, when it only feels 3 years old.

It's interesting that Apple supports their hardware for long, but "major" releases of macOS only get support for 2-3 years. I wouldn't feel comfortable as a business using an OS with so little API stability. Although Windows seems to throw everything out with each major release, at least the major releases get free support for 10-11 years (and longer paid). RedHat probably has the best API stability of any OS, and they similarly offer free support for ~10 years and another 3-5 years beyond that for paid.

And updates from everyone just strike me as taking an absurdly long time to install. What the heck is going on during that? Are they building the entire OS from source code? I've gotten used to updating the base image for linux in a docker container where it takes well under 5 minutes... IDK why it should take significantly longer to do any other OS update. Probably because everyone insists on including a ton of applications and stuff that really should be installed separately and not be part of the OS. Let me start using my computer after 5 minutes and it's okay to spend the next 50 minutes installing all the bizarre apps (Freeform? Has anyone ever touched this?) in the background.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scrapesleon Avatar
13 months ago
Apple trying to force people to upgrade all in the name of more money
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
13 months ago

Is there someone still using macOS 10.12.5 when macOS 10.12.6 was already released 7 years ago? macOS 15.1 is already released and will be updated to macOS 15.2 next month...

iOS 10 is the last update for iPhone 5 and 5c and iPad 4 but there could be others like me that stay on older versions for the performance...
Yeah, it's not a big deal.

The oldest supported iPhone is iPhone 5, which I bought 12 years ago now.
I mean, if you have one, it was a good phone, but maybe it's time to upgrade (or maybe you don't even care about bookmarks syncing). If you don't have money, the used market is also there for you.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adrianlondon Avatar
13 months ago
Thanks for the warning.

I've just booted up my first-gen iPad mini (iOS 9) so it can sync everything possible before it gets cut off. I'm surprised it's lasted so well, to be fair.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Slix Avatar
13 months ago
It's been a while since I checked, but I thought my devices on iOS 9 and macOS 10.11 were already not syncing bookmarks in Safari? Maybe I'm mistaken, but either way, I guess they won't soon.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
orbital~debris Avatar
13 months ago
I hope this is being done to improve reliability of the syncing. It's truly one of the only places in the entire iCloud infrastructure that I can 'feel' a creaky system behind it: for example, Safari will often show a warning about being unable to deal with changes to bookmarks because syncing is in progress…
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)