iCloud will no longer sync Safari bookmarks on some older versions of iOS

As we reported on Monday, Apple has published a new support document confirming that iCloud backup will stop working on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8 or older versions of the operating system. Now we’ve also learned that there will be restrictions on syncing Safari bookmarks as well.

Safari sync to stop working on some iOS versions

According to another support article published on Apple’s website, devices running versions prior to iOS 11 will no longer sync Safari bookmarks via iCloud. Users with affected devices won’t lose their current bookmarks, but new bookmarks won’t sync with other devices and vice versa. The change will also affect Macs running versions prior to macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

Apple says users will have to update their devices to iOS 11 or later or macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or later to keep syncing their Safari bookmarks via iCloud. For those who don’t have a compatible device, the company will make Safari bookmarks available on iCloud.com.

Moving forward, iCloud Bookmarks can keep your Safari bookmarks up to date across all your devices — just make sure that all of your devices are updated to iOS 11 or later and your Mac is updated to macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or later. You can also sync bookmarks to a Windows PC using iCloud for Windows and the iCloud Bookmarks browser extension.

iOS 11 was the first version of Apple’s operating system to run exclusively on 64-bit devices, which made it incompatible with devices such as the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPad 4 – which are stuck on iOS 10. When it comes to macOS, Macs released in 2012 and later can be upgraded to macOS Sierra at least to keep Safari bookmark synchronization working.

The news comes after Apple also announced that iCloud backup will stop working on devices running versions between iOS 5 and iOS 8. According to Apple, current backups on unsupported devices will also be deleted from the cloud. Both changes will come into effect on December 18, 2024.

Apple has a webpage with the minimum system requirements for each of its online services, which you can check out here.

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